---
title: O.C.G.A. § 15-2-8. Powers of court generally.
collection: code
id: 15-2-8
cite_as: O.C.G.A. § 15-2-8 (2025)
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date: 2025
status: active
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heading_path: COURTS / SUPREME COURT / GENERAL PROVISIONS
---

# O.C.G.A. § 15-2-8. Powers of court generally.

The Supreme Court has authority:

(1) To exercise appellate jurisdiction, and in no appellate case to hear facts or examine witnesses;

(2) To hear and determine all cases, civil and criminal, that may come before it; to grant judgments of affirmance or reversal, or any other order, direction, or decree required therein; and, if necessary, to make a final disposition of a case in the manner prescribed elsewhere in this Code;

(3) To grant any writ necessary to carry out any purpose of its organization or to compel any inferior tribunal or officers thereof to obey its order;

(4) To appoint its own officers and to commission any person to execute any specific order it may make;

(5) To establish, amend, and alter its own rules of practice and to regulate the admission of attorneys to the practice of law;

(6) To punish for contempt by the infliction of a fine as high as $500.00 or imprisonment not exceeding ten days, or both; and

(7) To exercise such other powers, not contrary to the Constitution of this state, as given to it by law. This paragraph shall not be interpreted to abrogate the inherent power of the court.

## History

Laws 1845, Cobb’s 1851 Digest, pp. 450, 452; Code 1863, §§ 211, 4180; Code 1868, §§ 205, 4219; Code 1873, §§ 218, 4284; Code 1882, §§ 218, 4284; Civil Code 1895, § 5498; Penal Code 1895, § 1068; Civil Code 1910, § 6103; Penal Code 1910, § 1095; Code 1933, § 24-3901; Ga. L. 1986, p. 279, § 1; Ga. L. 2003, p. 334, § 1.

## Cross References

Exercise by Supreme Court of appellate jurisdiction generally, § 5-6-1 et seq. Review of death sentences by Supreme Court, § 17-10-35 et seq. Power of Justices of Supreme Court to appoint hearing examiners to hold hearings regarding continued involuntary hospitalization or habilitation of the mentally ill, §§ 37-3-84, 37-7-84.

## Law Reviews

For article, ‘‘Jury Trials in Contempt Cases,’’ see 20 Ga. B. J. 297 (1957).

For note on the 2003 amendment to this Code section, see 20 Ga. St. U.L. Rev. 175 (2003).

For comment on Sams v. Olah, 225 Ga. 497, 169 S.E.2d 790 (1969), as to the constitutionality of the State Bar Act (see now O.C.G.A. § 15-19-30 et seq.), see 21 Mercer L. Rev. 355 (1969). For comment, ‘‘Encroachment, Loss of Five Yards: Government Attorneys and the No-Contact Rule’s Place in Civil False Claims Act Investigations,’’ see 68 Mercer L. Rev. 877 (2017).