Georgia General Assembly · Full text

HB 984: Crimes and offenses; court order to locate an alleged victim of child or elder abuse; provide

Comm Sub version, the latest LegiScan holds · Last action March 6, 2026 · Introduced

The text as LegiScan holds it, read from the PDF the legislature publishes with its margin line numbers, running heads, and page footers removed. Line breaks are joined into paragraphs here; no word is changed.

Underlined words are what the bill adds to current law and struck-through words are what it removes, as the printed bill shows them.

Copy for LLM, View as markdown, and Send to AI use the Markdown version: this text, then the summaries under a heading that names them as ours. View raw is the text alone.

Back to the summary

The House Committee on Judiciary, Non Civil offers the following substitute to HB 984:

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

To amend Chapter 5 of Title 16 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to crimes against the person, so as to provide for a court order to locate an alleged victim of child or elder abuse; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF GEORGIA:

SECTION 1.

Chapter 5 of Title 16 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to crimes against the person, is amended by adding a new subsection to Code Section 16-5-70, relating to cruelty to children, to read as follows:

"(f) Where there is an open investigation relating to an alleged offense in violation of this Code section, and the child is moved from a known address to an unknown location, the superior court for the county of the known address may grant an order to locate the parent or guardian of record upon a showing by a law enforcement official an inquiry regarding the welfare and safety of the child is necessary to complete such investigation."

SECTION 2.

Said chapter is further amended by adding a new subsection to Code Section 16-5-102, relating to exploitation and intimidation of disabled adults, elder persons, and residents, and obstruction of investigation, to read as follows:

"(d) Where there is an open investigation relating to an alleged offense in violation of this Code section, and the disabled adult, elder person, or resident is moved from a known address to an unknown location, the superior court for the county of the known address may grant an order to locate the guardian of record upon a showing by a law enforcement official an inquiry regarding the welfare and safety of the disabled adult, elder person, or resident is necessary to complete such investigation."

SECTION 3.

All laws and parts of laws in conflict with this Act are repealed.