Georgia CommonsCourt opinions
Georgia Supreme Court decisions with plain-language summaries. Browse by year and case type, or search by case name.
In the Matter of Ashutosh S. Joshi
The Supreme Court of Georgia accepted attorney Ashutosh S. Joshi's voluntary surrender of his law license, treating it as equivalent to disbarment, even though he never admitted the more serious misconduct originally alleged against him.
In the Matter of Steven Ryan Webster
The Supreme Court of Georgia accepted an attorney's voluntary surrender of his law license, treated as disbarment, after he admitted mishandling client funds in five separate real estate closings.
Jivens v. State
The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a Chatham County teenager's murder conviction, rejecting his claims that the judge should have instructed the jury on voluntary manslaughter and wrongly let jurors see photos of him with guns.
Jones v. State
The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a DeKalb County woman's murder conviction for shooting her husband, ruling that even if the trial judge should have instructed the jury on self-defense, the mistake did not affect the verdict.
Lee v. State
The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld Edward Lee's murder conviction and other convictions from a 2011-2012 crime spree, finding his mistrial requests came too late and his lawyer's failure to object during closing argument was not ineffective assistance.
SUMTER COUNTY v. MORRIS
The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that public use of a subdivision's roads alone cannot force Sumter County to repair them, unless county officials formally or informally accepted the roads as public.
Scoggins v. State
The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld Christopher Scoggins's murder conviction, ruling that circumstantial evidence of his presence, flight and conduct after a fatal shooting was enough for a jury to convict him as a party to the crime.
Scott v. State
The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a Greene County man's felony murder conviction for shooting his girlfriend, finding that any errors in admitting his statements to investigators and other evidence were harmless.
State v. Shropshire
The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that different tests must be used to decide whether a man's child molestation convictions should merge into his aggravated child molestation conviction, sending the case back to the Court of Appeals to redo that analysis.
WILSON v. INTHACHAK
The Supreme Court of Georgia decided it lacked jurisdiction over a medical malpractice case even though the Court of Appeals split 7-7 on part of its reasoning, because all 14 judges agreed the trial court's summary judgment order had to be undone.
Waters v. State
The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a Laurens County man's guilty-but-mentally-ill felony murder conviction for shooting his longtime girlfriend, rejecting his claims of insufficient evidence and ineffective trial counsel.
CAROLE MASO v. BRIAN ZEH
The Supreme Court of Georgia declined to review a Court of Appeals ruling that a state law governing physician assistants does not automatically make supervising doctors legally responsible for a PA's medical mistakes. A concurring justice said the underlying question was important but not properly raised in this case.
In the Matter of Walter Douglas Adams
The Supreme Court of Georgia suspended attorney Walter Douglas Adams for one year and ordered him to repay $2,732.81 to a former client, rejecting the Special Master's recommendation of disbarment over a disputed $7,000 settlement.
BRAY v. WATKINS
The Supreme Court of Georgia vacated a Court of Appeals ruling that threw out a tornado warning lawsuit, holding that courts must decide whether sovereign immunity applies before ruling on the merits of a case.
CAROLE MASO v. BRIAN ZEH
The Supreme Court of Georgia declined to review a Court of Appeals ruling that a state law authorizing physicians to use physician assistants does not automatically make the physician liable for the assistant's mistakes. A concurring justice said the underlying question is important but wasn't properly raised in this case.
Carter v. State
The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a Fulton County man's murder conviction, ruling that the missing jury instruction on accomplice testimony and the admission of a jail release document did not amount to plain error.
Cooper v. State
The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld Kiresa Cooper's murder conviction in the shooting death of a pregnant woman, rejecting arguments that the evidence was too weak and that her trial lawyer botched dozens of missed objections to a detective's testimony.
In the Matter of Carl Lawrence Collins
The Supreme Court of Georgia suspended attorney Carl Lawrence Collins from practicing law while he appeals his federal tax fraud convictions, accepting his own request for the interim suspension.
In the Matter of Cory Howerton Fleming
The Supreme Court of Georgia accepted the voluntary surrender of the law license of Cory Howerton Fleming, an attorney tied to the Alex Murdaugh insurance settlement scandal, effectively disbarring him for mishandling a client's wrongful death settlement funds.
In the Matter of Tamorra A. Boyd
The Supreme Court of Georgia accepted a petition for voluntary discipline from an Atlanta-area lawyer who let a California mortgage-modification company market her law license, imposing a public reprimand instead of the six-month suspension previously recommended.