---
title: O.C.G.A. § 9-6-20. When mandamus may issue; exceptions.
collection: code
id: 9-6-20
cite_as: O.C.G.A. § 9-6-20 (2025)
canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/9-6-20
md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/9-6-20.md
text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/9-6-20/text
source_url: https://www.legis.ga.gov/api/document/docs/default-source/joint-features-document-library/t9-ch1-10-(v6)-2023-pdf.pdf?sfvrsn=f3cabc45_0#page=506
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/9-6.md
previous: https://georgiacommons.org/code/9-6-1.md
next: https://georgiacommons.org/code/9-6-21.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: CIVIL PRACTICE / EXTRAORDINARY WRITS / MANDAMUS
---

# O.C.G.A. § 9-6-20. When mandamus may issue; exceptions.

All official duties should be faithfully performed, and whenever, from any cause, a defect of legal justice would ensue from a failure to perform or from improper performance, the writ of mandamus may issue to compel a due performance if there is no other specific legal remedy for the legal rights; provided, however, that no writ of mandamus to compel the removal of a judge shall issue where no motion to recuse has been filed, if such motion is available, or where a motion to recuse has been denied after assignment to a separate judge for hearing.

## History

Orig. Code 1863, § 3130; Code 1868, § 3142; Code 1873, § 3198; Code 1882, § 3198; Civil Code 1895, § 4867; Civil Code 1910, § 5440; Code 1933, § 64-101; Ga. L. 2009, p. 643, § 1/HB 221.

## Cross References

Petitioning for mandamus to compel auditor in superior court to certify exceptions to report of auditor, § 9-7-15.

Applications for mandamus, Rules of the Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia, Rule 31.

## Law Reviews

For article discussing the inefficiency of mandamus and impeachment as remedies for judicial inaction, see 5 Ga. St. B.J. 467 (1969).

For annual survey of administrative law, see 38 Mercer L. Rev. 17 (1986).

For article, “A Taxing Exception: Southern LNG, Inc. v. MacGinnitie’s Narrow Interpretation of the Mandamus Exception,” see 66 Mercer L. Rev. 855 (2015).

For note, “The Case of the Vanishing Supreme Court Contest: Barrow v. Raffensperger Eliminates the Power of the People to Elect their Appellate, Superior, and State Court Judges,” see 72 Mercer L. Rev. 957 (2021).