---
title: O.C.G.A. § 14-3-125. Filing duty of Secretary of State; effect of filing or refusing to do so.
collection: code
id: 14-3-125
cite_as: O.C.G.A. § 14-3-125 (2025)
canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/14-3-125
md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/14-3-125.md
text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/14-3-125/text
source_url: https://www.legis.ga.gov/api/document/docs/default-source/joint-features-document-library/t14-(v12)-pdf.pdf?sfvrsn=82868bd8_0#page=44
date: 2025
status: active
corpus_version: 2025-supplement-89aa39ab3c68
license: CC0-1.0
publisher: Georgia Commons, an independent project of Georgia Civic Data. Not the State of Georgia. Not legal advice.
up: https://georgiacommons.org/code/14-3.md
previous: https://georgiacommons.org/code/14-3-124.md
next: https://georgiacommons.org/code/14-3-126.md
index: https://georgiacommons.org/code/index.md
version: the only printed version
in_force: true
current_through: Including Acts of the 2025 Regular Session of the General Assembly
heading_path: CORPORATIONS, PARTNERSHIPS, AND ASSOCIATIONS / NONPROFIT CORPORATIONS / GENERAL PROVISIONS / DOCUMENTS
---

# O.C.G.A. § 14-3-125. Filing duty of Secretary of State; effect of filing or refusing to do so.

(a) If a document delivered to the office of the Secretary of State for filing satisfies the requirements of Code Section 14-3-120, the Secretary of State shall file it.

(b) The Secretary of State files a document by stamping or otherwise endorsing the Secretary of State’s official title and the date and time of receipt on the document. After a document is filed, the Secretary of State shall deliver a copy of the document to the domestic corporation or foreign corporation to which the document relates or the person making the filing or the person’s representative.

(c) If the Secretary of State refuses to file a document, the Secretary of State shall return the document to the domestic corporation or foreign corporation to which the document relates or the person making the filing or the person’s representative within ten days after the document was delivered, together with a brief written explanation of the reason for his or her refusal.

(d) The Secretary of State’s duty to file documents under this Code section is ministerial. Filing or refusing to file a document does not:

(1) Affect the validity or invalidity of the document in whole or in part;

(2) Relate to the correctness or incorrectness of information contained in the document; or

(3) Create a presumption that the document is valid or invalid or that information contained in the document is correct or incorrect.

## History

Code 1981, § 14-3-125, enacted by Ga. L. 1991, p. 465, § 1; Ga. L. 2004, p. 508, §§ 66, 68; Ga. L. 2023, p. 419, § 1-1/SB 148, effective July 1, 2023.

## Amendments

The 2023 amendment, effective July 1, 2023, rewrote subsections (b) and (c), which read: “(b) The Secretary of State files a document by stamping or otherwise endorsing his or her official title and the date and time of receipt on both the original and the document copy. After filing a document, except as provided in Code Sections 14-3-503 and 14-3-1510, the Secretary of State shall deliver the document copy to the domestic or foreign corporation or its representative.

“(c) If the Secretary of State refuses to file a document, he or she shall return it to the domestic or foreign corporation or its representative within ten days after the document was delivered, together with a brief, written explanation of the reason for his or her refusal.”