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Official Code of Georgia Annotated

Title 31. HEALTH · Chapter 10. VITAL RECORDS

31-10-31. Penalty.

Active

Current through: Including Acts of the 2025 Session of the General Assembly of Georgia.

  1. (a)

    A fine of not more than $10,000.00 or imprisonment of not more than five years, or both, shall be imposed on:#

    1. (1)

      Any person who willfully and knowingly makes any false statement in a certificate, record, or report required by this chapter, or in an application for an amendment thereof, or in an application for a certified copy of a vital record or who willfully and knowingly supplies false information intending that such information be used in the preparation of any such report, record, or certificate, or amendment thereof;#

    2. (2)

      Any person who without lawful authority and with the intent to deceive makes, counterfeits, alters, amends, or mutilates any certificate, record, or report required by this chapter or a certified copy of such certificate, record, or report;#

    3. (3)

      Any person who willfully and knowingly obtains, possesses, uses, sells, furnishes, or attempts to obtain, possess, use, sell, or furnish to another, for any purpose of deception, any certificate, record, or report required by this chapter or certified copy thereof so made, counterfeited, altered, amended, or mutilated or which is false in whole or in part or which relates to the birth of another person, whether living or deceased;#

    4. (4)

      Any employee of the State Office of Vital Records, or appointed local registrar or local custodian or special abstracting agent who willfully and knowingly furnishes or processes a birth certificate, or certified copy of a birth certificate, with the knowledge or intention that it be used for the purposes of deception; or#

    5. (5)

      Any person who without lawful authority possesses any certificate, record, or report required by this chapter or a copy or certified copy of such certificate, record, or report knowing same to have been stolen or otherwise unlawfully obtained.#

  2. (b)

    A fine not more than $1,000.00 or imprisonment of not more than one year, or both, shall be imposed on:#

    1. (1)

      Any person who willfully and knowingly refuses to provide information required by this chapter or regulations adopted hereunder;#

    2. (2)

      Any person who willfully and knowingly transports or accepts for transportation, interment, or other disposition a dead body without an accompanying permit as provided in this chapter;#

    3. (3)

      Any person who willfully and knowingly neglects or violates any of the provisions of this chapter or refuses to perform any of the duties imposed upon such person by this chapter.#

The notes below are printed with the section but are not enacted law (O.C.G.A. § 1-1-1(c)). They are shown apart from the text.

History

Ga. L. 1927, p. 353, § 21; Code 1933, § 88-9929; Ga. L. 1945, p. 236, § 38; Code 1933, § 88-1727, enacted by Ga. L. 1964, p. 499, § 1; Code 1933, § 88-1731, enacted by Ga. L. 1982, p. 723, § 1; Code 1981, § 31-10-16; Code 1981, § 31-10-31, enacted by Ga. L. 1982, p. 723, § 2; Ga. L. 1992, p. 6, § 31; Ga. L. 2004, p. 477, § 11; Ga. L. 2025, p. 551, § 3/SB 100, effective July 1, 2025.

Amendments

The 2025 amendment, effective July 1, 2025, substituted “birth certificate” for “certificate of birth” twice in paragraph (a)(4).

Editor's notes

Ga. L. 2025, p. 551, § 1/SB 100, not codified by the General Assembly, provides: “This Act shall be known and may be cited as ‘Andee’s Law.’”

Read the official page (the state's PDF, opened at the page this text was read from).

Current through: Including Acts of the 2025 Session of the General Assembly of Georgia.

Text read from t31-(v23)-2025-pdf.pdf, Volume V23, 2025 edition, pages 679 to 680; merge action: bound only; file SHA-256 ba5a57f85d04.