Georgia CommonsSearch every collection
Search Georgia Commons
Bills, Supreme Court opinions, the Code and the two constitutions, and House and Senate meeting transcripts, in one search. Ask in plain words: the search ranks passages by meaning as well as by their words.
Filters:Supreme Court of Georgia 2023 Clear filters
Found 65 matching documents.
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · August 21, 2023
Reese v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a Fulton County man's murder conviction, rejecting his claims that the trial judge should have instructed jurors on self-defense and accomplice testimony and that his trial lawyer was ineffective.
“A jury instruction on the need for accomplice corroboration should be given if there is slight evidence to support the charge.” Stripling v. State, 304 Ga. 131, 136 (816 SE2d 663) (2018) (citation and punctuation omitted). An accomplice is someone who “shared a common criminal intent to commit the crimes in question with the actual perpetrators.” Ash v....
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · February 21, 2023
WS CE RESORT OWNER, LLC v. HOLLAND
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that homeowners cannot claim an easement in a nearby golf course just because it was labeled 'golf course' on a subdivision plat and they bought lots referencing that plat.
These features share two related things in common. First, there is simply a well-settled understanding, reflected in more than a century of our decisions, that when these basic features are designated on a subdivision plat, there is ordinarily no reason to doubt that they are included as part of the unified plan for the subdivision and meant for the lot...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · May 31, 2023
RAFFENSPERGER v. JACKSON (And Vice Versa)
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia struck down Georgia's Lactation Consultant Practice Act, ruling that limiting paid lactation care work to those with a private IBCLC certification violates the state constitution's due process protections for pursuing a lawful occupation.
research and evidence-based curriculum in a free 16-hour course. Approximately 1,000 individuals have participated in ROSE’s training course. In 2013, the General Assembly first considered a bill that would require lactation care providers to be licensed through the Secretary. See House Bill 363 (2013). Pursuant to OCGA § 43-1A-5 (a) (1), the Georgia...
(A) Lactation assessment through the systematic collection of subjective and objective data; (B) Analysis of data and creation of a lactation care plan; (C) Implementation of a lactation care plan with demonstration and instruction to parents and 6 By specifying that the named services “shall include, but not be limited to,” the list is not exhaustive....
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · October 24, 2023
STATE OF GEORGIA v. SISTERSONG WOMEN OF COLOR REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE COLLECTIVE
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that Georgia's six-week abortion ban cannot be struck down as having been unconstitutional when passed just because it conflicted with Roe v. Wade, which the U.S. Supreme Court later overruled in Dobbs.
ELLINGTON, Justice, dissenting. 1. The trial court correctly granted in part the plaintiffs’ motion for judgment on the pleadings on the basis that Section 4 and Section 11 of the Living Infants Fairness and Equality Act, Ga. L. 2019, p. 711, Act No. 234 (HB 481) (“the 2019 Act”) were void on the date enacted and can never be enforced, despite the...
affirmative duty to declare Georgia laws that violate the United States Constitution or our state Constitution void. See Aycock v. Martin, 37 Ga. 124, 127 (1867) (Because the Georgia Constitution provides that “legislative acts in violation of the Constitution are void, and the judiciary shall so declare them[,]” if the act at issue “is in violation of the...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · August 21, 2023
HENDERSON v. THE STATE (Two Cases)
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed the murder convictions of Demetre Mason and Frankland Henderson, rejecting challenges to trial evidence, a co-defendant's statement, and the decision to try them together.
But it is not quite so simple. This limiting-instruction fix puts a great deal of faith in the jury’s ability to consider the co-defend- ant’s statement against the co-defendant, but to ignore it entirely when considering the guilt or innocence of the defendant. To be sure, jurors are instructed all the time in our legal system to compart- mentalize in this...
And that determination under Rule 403 was not an abuse of the trial court’s discretion. Evidence that Mason stole the handgun was certainly probative, because it directly connected Mason to the murder weapon. See Jordan v. State, 313 Ga. 841, 845-846 (2) (b) (874 SE2d 67) (2022) (evidence that machine gun and ammunition were stolen four months before...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · April 18, 2023
In the Matter of Jason Lee Van Dyke
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia imposed a three-year suspension on Texas lawyer Jason Lee Van Dyke for pleading no contest to filing a false police report, backdated so he is effectively reinstated immediately.
The Special Master concluded that although the Court has imposed disbarment in cases where a lawyer engages in criminal conduct involving fraud, deceit, or false swearing, see In the Matter of Skandalakis, 279 Ga. 865 (621 SE2d 750) (2005), disbarment is not mandatory in cases involving dishonesty and moral turpitude when mitigating factors warrant a lesser...
3. Analysis Having reviewed the record, we conclude that the Special Master’s recommendation of a three-year suspension is an appropriate penalty in this case. We note, however, that although the Special Master declined to impose reciprocal discipline for the Second Texas Incident and concluded that reciprocal discipline “based upon the remaining...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · May 31, 2023
Knox v. State of Georgia
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that a lawsuit by five University System professors challenging Georgia's 2017 'campus carry' law was moot, because the Board of Regents itself adopted a policy allowing guns on campus consistent with that law.
(v) Not apply to faculty, staff, or administrative offices or rooms where disciplinary proceedings are conducted; (vi) Only apply to the carrying of handguns which a licensee is licensed to carry pursuant to subsection (e) of Code Section 16-11-126 and pursuant to Code Section 16-11-129; and (vii) Only apply to the carrying of handguns which are concealed....
Title 20. See also Ga. L. 2022, p. 74, §§ 6, 7 (replacing “license holder” with “lawful weapons carrier” in OCGA §§ 16-11-127 (c) and 16-11-127.1). judgment.” After the governor approved HB 280, the Board’s chancellor provided guidance to USG institutions to “implement the law as written” and called for each institution to “review its campus conduct and...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · March 21, 2023
In the Matter of Willie George Davis, Jr
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia ordered attorney Willie George Davis Jr. disbarred after finding he mishandled his sister's estate and his orphaned nephew's trust funds and repeatedly defied probate court orders.
(c) Recommendation of Discipline. The Special Master concluded that disbarment remained the presumptive penalty because, sympathy aside, the mitigating factors were not sufficient to offset the aggravating factors. After a review of Davis II and other cases “involving violations of trust accounting rules and [GRPC] Rule 8.4,” the Special Master recommended...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · December 19, 2023
CLEMENTS v. THE STATE (Two Cases)
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed the murder convictions of London Clements and Eric Velazquez, both connected to the shooting death of a Hall County deputy during a chain of burglaries and a police chase in July 2019.
With respect to Lee’s testimony regarding the statements Garcia-Solis made to her in the hospital about the defendants’ plan to leave one person “to shoot the cop” while the others ran away, because Garcia-Solis was also on trial, these statements were the “admissions of a party opponent” and were not excluded by the hearsay rule. Lyons, 309 Ga. at 28 (8)...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · August 21, 2023
HOSPITAL AUTHORITY OF WAYNE COUNTY v. AMERISOURCEBERGEN DRUG CORPORATION
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that the Hospital Authority of Wayne County cannot challenge the constitutionality of Georgia's opioid settlement law, because the law itself strips the authority of the power to pursue such claims.
Moreover, to the extent that OCGA § 31-7-75 and the preemption provision could be read as conflicting, the canons of statutory construction dictate that the more recent and specific provisions of the Settlement Act govern over the older and more general provisions of OCGA § 31-7-75. See Bellsouth Telecommunications, LLC v. Cobb County, 305 Ga. 144, 151 (1)...
Act, and in particular, the preemption provision, is unconstitutional because it takes away HAWC’s right to pursue its already-filed lawsuit and thus violates the Georgia Constitution’s prohibition against retroactive laws. See Ga. Const. of 1983, Art. I, Sec. I, Par. X (“Paragraph X”).2 As required by Fed. Rule Civ. P. 5.1,3 HAWC served a copy of its...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · March 15, 2023
TAYLOR, EXR. v. THE DEVEREUX FOUNDATION, INC. (And Vice Versa)
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld Georgia's $250,000 cap on punitive damages in a sexual assault case against a Georgia treatment facility, ruling the cap does not violate the right to a jury trial, separation of powers, or equal protection.
(a) Taylor offers evidence that juries were the arbiters of the large damages awarded in pre-1776 English cases. In all six of the pre-1776 English cases Taylor relies on, the jury decided the damages award—which suggests that the question of damages was a jury question, and one in which English courts were hesitant to meddle. See Beardmore, 95 Eng. Rep. at...
Unlike OCGA § 9-11-68, the Code section at issue in Couch, and many other statutes that provide for attorney fee awards, OCGA § 13-6-11, does not modify the term “the expenses of litigation” with “reasonable” or any similar term.93 Likewise, the predecessors to OCGA § 13-6-11 extending at least back to the 1860 Code of 93 See OCGA § 13-6-11 (1983) (“The...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · August 16, 2023
In the Matter of Andrew Matteson
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia accepted attorney Andrew Matteson's renewed petition for a six-month suspension, made retroactive to April 2019, after he provided proof of mental health treatment and that he repaid clients harmed by his misconduct.
Matteson provided with his sworn affidavit, in which he states that from April 2019 through October 2019 he did not work at all, his 2019 income tax returns as evidence that he was not fully employed in 2019. Based on these claims, Matteson now requests as discipline a six-month suspension from the practice of law and that this suspension be imposed nunc...
2 Rule 1.4 (a) provides that a lawyer shall promptly inform the client of any decision or circumstance with respect to which the client’s informed consent is required; shall consult with the client about the means by which his objectives are to be accomplished; shall keep the client reasonably informed about the status of the matter; shall promptly comply...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · October 11, 2023
In THE MATTER OF RYAN CURTIS CLEVELAND (Two Cases)
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia disbarred Ryan Curtis Cleveland after he abandoned eight clients, including a father seeking custody visits and indigent defendants in jail, and then failed to respond to the State Bar's discipline process.
3 Rule 1.5 (a) provides that “[a] lawyer shall not make an agreement for, charge, or collect an unreasonable fee or an unreasonable amount for expenses.” multiple violations of Rules 1.1,4 1.2,5 1.3,6 1.4,7 1.16 (a) and (c),8 3.2,9 8.4 (a) (4),10 and 9.311 of the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct 4 Rule 1.1 requires a lawyer to “provide competent...
9 Rule 3.2 provides that “[a] lawyer shall make reasonable efforts to expedite litigation consistent with the interests of the client.” 10 Rule 8.4 (a) (4) provides that a lawyer shall not “engage in professional conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation.” Certainly, Cleveland’s knowing misrepresentations about the status of one...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · February 7, 2023
SILLAH v. THE STATE (Two Cases)
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia largely upheld the murder convictions of Darnell Sillah and Andrew Murray for killing a Gwinnett County teenager, but ruled that two of Sillah's conspiracy convictions should have merged into the completed crimes.
After Sillah’s sentencing, the United States Supreme Court held in Montgomery v. Louisiana, 577 U.S. 190 (136 SCt 718, 193 LE2d 599) (2016), that Miller was a substantive rule of constitutional law that must be given retroactive effect in state collateral review proceedings. See id. at 212. In concluding that Miller must be applied retroactively, the Court...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · March 7, 2023
Monroe v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld Steven Monroe's murder and gang-related convictions from a fatal 2014 nightclub shooting in Homerville, but found sentencing mistakes on several counts and sent the case back for corrected sentences.
However, the question of whether the language of subsection (m) provides for separate sentences for violations of different subsections of the Gang Act has not been addressed by this Court. It is well settled that “[t]he legislature remains free under the Double Jeopardy Clause to define crimes and fix punishments.” Brown v. Ohio, 432 U. S. 161, 165 (II)...
OCGA § 16-15-4 (m) states that “[a]ny crime committed in violation of this Code section shall be considered a separate offense.” The plain language of this provision evidences the legislature’s clear intent to designate certain crimes as “separate offense[s]” subject to separate punishments. OCGA § 16-15-4 (m). Those crimes that constitute separate offenses...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · July 13, 2023
In the Matter of Keith Chance Hardy
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia disbarred attorney Keith Chance Hardy after finding he stole client funds, abandoned three clients' cases, and never responded to the State Bar's investigation.
316 Ga. 845 FINAL COPY S23Y0869. IN THE MATTER OF KEITH CHANCE HARDY.
her family; withheld information from his client and her family about his theft of her funds; and cut off all communications with the client and her family after his theft of her funds. The special master found that Hardy violated Rule 1.4 in SDBD No. 7624 because of the approximately two-year lapse of communications between him and his client; because...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · December 19, 2023
Beard v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a DeKalb County man's felony murder conviction for shooting his wife, rejecting claims that jury instructions were flawed and that his trial lawyer's mistakes cost him a fair trial.
(c) Appellant also points to his trial counsel’s failure to request a no duty to retreat instruction. However, as explained above, Appellant has not shown that the lack of such an instruction affected 2 The current statute governing the admissibility of expert testimony in criminal cases is OCGA § 24-7-702 because the General Assembly repealed former OCGA §...
317 Ga. 842 FINAL COPY S23A0906. BEARD v. THE STATE.
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · September 19, 2023
Roberts v. Cuthpert
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that a man who successfully sued for a weapons carry license can pursue recovery of his attorney fees from the probate judge who denied him, because Georgia law waives sovereign immunity for such claims.
Roberts also contends the superior court erred by concluding that the Separation of Powers Provision barred Roberts’s recovery of costs, including reasonable attorney fees, under OCGA § 16-11- 129 (j). In declaring the costs-and-fees provision of OCGA § 16-11- 129 (j) unconstitutional, the superior court concluded that the legislative branch infringed on...
15 There may be other ways for the Separation of Powers Provision to be violated, but the probate judge makes no other argument. 16 We note that while the probate judge argued in his brief that granting or denying an application for a weapons carry license was a judicial function, he makes no separation-of-powers argument concerning the assignment of...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · March 7, 2023
In the Matter of L. Nicole Hamilton
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia imposed a six-month suspension on attorney L. Nicole Hamilton for failing to promptly refund an unearned legal fee and delaying payment of a fee arbitration award to a former client.
Accordingly, based on the evidence in the record and the 7 On the other hand, the record does not show that Hamilton has actually engaged in the practice of law during this time period. particular circumstances of this case — where an unusual delay by the State Bar prevented the timely resolution of this matter — we agree with the Special Master that a...
More than three years later, on July 22, 2020, H. Maddox Kilgore, a Coordinating Special Master with the State Bar, filed a motion in this Court, seeking to remove and replace Snipes as the Special Master in this disciplinary matter. In the motion, the Coordinating Special Master asserted that, after Snipes’s appointment by this Court, Snipes was served...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · August 21, 2023
Hatcher v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a Liberty County man's murder conviction for shooting his wife, rejecting his claim that his trial lawyer was ineffective for not challenging a forensic expert's fiber testimony.
317 Ga. 33 FINAL COPY S23A0465. HATCHER v. THE STATE.
One officer went upstairs to the master bedroom and saw Dashea lying in bed in a pool of blood. He saw a gun lying on her abdomen. This officer stood guard to make sure there was no unauthorized entry into the bedroom or any tampering with evidence. He testified that, as his sergeant, other officers, and paramedics arrived, he saw no one touch or move...
Narrow the results
Counts are of the documents this search found.