---
title: O.C.G.A. § 43-34-40. Fraudulently obtaining or selling records; fraudulent use of terms.
collection: code
id: 43-34-40
cite_as: O.C.G.A. § 43-34-40 (2025)
canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/43-34-40
md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/43-34-40.md
text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/43-34-40/text
source_url: https://www.legis.ga.gov/api/document/docs/default-source/joint-features-document-library/t43-ch33-51-(v30a)-2021-pdf.pdf?sfvrsn=638c2417_0#page=150
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.
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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: PROFESSIONS AND BUSINESSES / PHYSICIANS, ACUPUNCTURE, PHYSICIAN ASSISTANTS, CANCER AND GLAUCOMA TREATMENT, RESPIRATORY CARE, CLINICAL PERFUSIONISTS, AND ORTHOTICS AND PROSTHETICS PRACTICE / MEDICAL PRACTICE
---

# O.C.G.A. § 43-34-40. Fraudulently obtaining or selling records; fraudulent use of terms.

Any person who shall buy, sell, or fraudulently obtain any diploma, license, record, or registration to practice osteopathic medicine, illegally obtained or signed, or issued unlawfully or under fraudulent representation; or who shall use any of the forms or letters, ‘‘Osteopathy,’’ ‘‘Osteopath,’’ ‘‘Osteopathist,’’ ‘‘Diplomate in Osteopathy,’’ ‘‘D.O.,’’ ‘‘D.Sc.O.,’’ ‘‘Osteopathic Physician,’’ ‘‘Doctor of Osteopathy,’’ or any other title or letters, either alone or with other qualifying words or phrases, under such circumstances as to induce the belief that the person who uses such term or terms is engaged in the practice of osteopathic medicine, or anyone who shall hold himself or herself out as practicing any other nondrug-giving school of medical practice, without having complied with this article, shall be guilty of a felony.

## History

Ga. L. 1909, p. 123, § 11; Penal Code 1910, § 470; Code 1933, § 84-9918; Code 1981, § 43-34-44; Code 1981, § 43-34-40, as redesignated by Ga. L. 2009, p. 859, § 1/HB 509.

## Editor's Notes

Ga. L. 2009, p. 859, § 1/HB 509, effective July 1, 2009, redesignated former Code Section 43-34-40 as present Code Section 43-34-36.