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 2026 Clear filters
Found 117 matching documents.
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · February 17, 2026
Wilmington Trust, National Association v. Ameritas Life Insurance Corp
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia clarified how courts should decide whether a third party, rather than the insured, actually obtained a life insurance policy, a question that determines whether the policy is an illegal wager on a human life.
On December 20, 2006, Mr. Shapiro and the Trust applied for a premium financing loan from Barclays. On January 4, 2007, Ameritas received a formal application for a $6 million dollar policy on Mrs. Leone’s life whereby Mr. Shapiro, as trustee on behalf of the Trust, was the policyowner and beneficiary. The Policy’s application was signed in Atlanta,...
iv. The Nonrecourse Loan On February 16, 2007, the Insured and her husband executed a Disclosure Statement, Representations and Warranties, and Consent, in connection with a Loan and Security Agreement to pay for the Policy premiums with the assistance of attorney Ian Chaikin. Chaikin testified that he did not personally know Mrs. Leone, Mr. Leone, or...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · June 2, 2026
Clark v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia sent a 2000 murder-for-hire case back to Fulton County for a hearing on whether Cleveland Clark's trial lawyers were ineffective, because he has had no earlier chance to raise that claim. His other challenges failed.
notice apparently was based on a verbal report received the same day from the defense’s expert preliminarily opining that Clark met the diagnostic criteria for mental retardation and appeared not to be competent to stand trial. The trial court held an evidentiary hearing on the motion for continuance on May 27, 2009, the day before the trial was scheduled...
In an ex parte session on May 4, 2009, the defense reported that, although some experts were being paid, those with pay concerns were asking Fulton County to guarantee payment. Additionally, because the trial was scheduled for May 28, many of the potential experts were telling the CDO that they did not have enough time to perform testing on Clark and...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · April 21, 2026
In the Matter of Darryl J. Ferguson
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia dismissed an attorney discipline case against a personal injury lawyer, ruling the State Bar failed to prove he improperly withheld settlement money owed to a chiropractor who treated his clients.
MCMILLIAN, Justice, dissenting. Because I believe that the “Notice of Doctor’s Lien” for each client constituted contractual liens and that Ferguson could not reasonably conclude that he had a defense to those contractual liens, I respectfully dissent. A “lien” is generally “used to denote a legal claim or charge on property, either real or personal, for...
13 Although not relevant here, an equitable lien may also be available when a party was entitled to a statutory lien but was prevented from perfecting the lien. See, e.g., Clover Cable of Ohio v. Heywood, 260 Ga. 341, 344 (1990) (“When a party entitled to a statutory lien has been prevented from perfecting such lien by the acts of the adverse party, it has...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · February 17, 2026
In the Matter of Bryan Matthew Pritchett
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia disbarred attorney Bryan Matthew Pritchett after he admitted forging clients' signatures on workers' compensation checks and keeping the money for himself, then lied to clients and ignored the State Bar's investigation.
11 Rule 1.15(I)(a) provides that, in relevant part, that “[a] lawyer shall hold funds or other property of clients or third persons that are in a lawyer’s possession in connection with a representation separate from the lawyer’s own funds or other property. … Complete records of such account funds and other property shall be kept by the lawyer and shall be...
PER CURIAM. This disciplinary matter is before the Court on the report and recommendation of Special Master LaRae Dixon Moore, who recommends that respondent Bryan Matthew Pritchett (State Bar No. 588325), who was admitted to the State Bar in 2001 and is currently suspended from the practice of law in Georgia, be disbarred. Because Pritchett defaulted in...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · May 19, 2026
In the Matter of Clifford E. Hardwick, IV
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia disbarred Clifford E. Hardwick, IV after finding he lied to State Bar investigators about letting a former criminal client use his bank accounts to funnel $655,000 from 14 fraud victims.
(b) Rule Violations The Special Master concluded that Hardwick violated Rules 1.15(I)(a) by failing to hold the funds he received separate from his own funds and failing to keep the funds in an approved attorney trust account; 1.15(II)(a) by failing to deposit the funds he received into an attorney trust account and by failing to ad- minister the funds from...
4 Hardwick’s accounts were not IOLTA accounts. agreements. Hardwick retained a 2% commission on the money wired from third parties into his bank accounts with respect to some of the transactions. The Special Master further recounted that, during the evidentiary hearing, Hardwick testified that he received money wired from third parties into his bank...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · June 16, 2026
Calhoun v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld James Calhoun's malice murder conviction for the shooting of Pamela Williams, rejecting his claims about trial evidence, jury procedures, and his lawyer's performance, largely because he failed to back up many of his arguments.
Link, the subdivision’s security officer, testified that, during the evening of November 30, as he patrolled the neighborhood in his car, he saw a group of young men, including Calhoun, Banks, and Sims, standing in front of Sims’s house. Sims’s and Calhoun’s houses are near each other on the same street, and Banks was staying with Sims. Link saw Calhoun,...
showing error on appeal. As to those claims of error that Calhoun does support with argument, they fail for the reasons set out below. In Sims v. State, ___ Ga. ___, S26A0143, slip op. at 2-8 (Ga. June 2, 2026), wherein we affirmed the convictions of one of Calhoun’s co-defendants, we set forth the facts of this case as follows: Viewed in the light most...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · March 17, 2026
In the Matter of Charles Bruce Singleton, Jr
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia disbarred an attorney who abandoned three clients, failed to refund fees, and kept a minor's personal injury settlement money for himself despite multiple court orders to turn it over.
(iii) SDB Docket No. 7830 Around 2021, Singleton represented a minor in a personal injury action and received $35,388.83 in settlement funds belonging to the minor, which Singleton deposited in his trust account. The conservator for the minor made several requests to Singleton to release the settlement funds in Singleton’s possession. Singleton did not...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · October 14, 2026
In the Matter of Hakeem Bertrand Brock
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia disbarred Atlanta-area attorney Hakeem Bertrand Brock for mishandling his trust accounts and mistreating clients in five separate matters, including converting a grieving mother's wrongful death settlement.
2. Special Master’s Report and Recommendation (a) Allegations and the Special Masters Findings (i) SDBD Nos. 7531 & 7718 These two matters concern Brock’s mishandling of his trust accounts. Regarding SDBD No. 7531, the State Bar alleged that it received notice that two checks from an “Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Account” (“IOLTA”) belonging to Brock had been...
Based on this evidence and Brock’s second petition, the 2 The State Bar filed a formal complaint against Powell regarding the same matters and charging many of the same Rule violations. Powell submit- ted a petition for voluntary discipline requesting a public reprimand, which this Court rejected. See In the Matter of Powell, S25Y1162 (Aug. 26, 2025)....
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · March 3, 2026
In the Matter of Oksana Klymovych
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that a disciplinary hearing officer wrongly refused to let a Ukrainian-American solo attorney reopen her default after she missed a filing deadline, and sent her case back for a decision on the merits.
With respect to the issue of default, the record shows that Klymovych was retained by a client in the summer of 2022 and deposited client funds in an IOLTA account. In December 2022, Klymovych returned the funds to the client after the client filed a grievance with the State Bar. In early 2023, the State Bar and Klymovych exchanged emails regarding the...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · August 18, 2026
In the Matter of Fiame Michelle Simpson
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia suspended an Atlanta-area lawyer for three years, rather than disbarring her, after she misused her client trust account and tried to hide the misconduct by submitting altered bank records to the State Bar.
9 In terms of specifics, Simpson admitted on cross-examination that between September and December 2017, she paid “about nine utility bills” from her IOLTA account. Additionally, the records show that between January 1, 2017, and August 31, 2018, there were multiple transfers of money via check and cash into and out of Simpson’s general IOLTA account from...
10 The Special Master concluded that Simpson “admitted to the conversion of client funds when she admitted there were times that she spent unearned fees that were in her IOLTA account on her personal needs,” citing the statute for criminal theft by conversion. See OCGA § 16-8-4 (“A person commits the offense of theft by conversion when, having lawfully...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · October 14, 2026
CHATHAM COUNTY v. SMITH
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that Chatham County's fire protection fee, charged per parcel and by building square footage, was actually an illegal tax because it was not based on property value as Georgia law requires for such taxes.
1. The Fire Fee was a tax. “The Georgia Constitution protects taxpayers by limiting the methods and means by which Georgia governments can impose taxes.” Homewood Assocs. v. Unified Gov’t of Athens- Clarke County, 323 Ga. 62, 77 (2025) (Peterson, C. J., concurring). “The distinction between a tax and a fee is not one of names but of substance.” McLeod v....
Drawing from McLeod, Bellsouth identified four factors that Georgia courts should consider in determining whether a governmental fee or charge is in substance a tax. The factors to be considered are that a tax is “(1) a means for the government to raise general revenue based on the payer’s ability to pay (i.e., income or ownership of property), without...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · June 16, 2026
Banks v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld the murder and burglary convictions of Jonathan Banks, one of three men found guilty in a Fulton County home invasion that ended in the fatal shooting of Pamela Williams.
Monica Salinas, who lived in the Cooks Landing subdivision in Fulton County, testified that on September 18, 2013, she heard a doorbell ring and saw two young men standing outside her front door. When she did not answer the door, they rang her doorbell “20, 15 times consistently, just constantly ringing the doorbell.” Moments later, her dogs started barking...
After Banks shot Williams, he and the others fled from the house on foot and, shortly thereafter, sped out of the neighborhood in their cars. Banks hid at the home of Sims’s cousins, Cassandra and Joseph Hockaday. According to the Hockadays, who gave statements to the police and testified at trial, Banks admitted to them that he, Calhoun, and Sims had...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · October 14, 2026
Culpepper v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a Dougherty County man's malice murder conviction, finding eyewitness identification and prior threats were enough evidence and rejecting his claims that his trial lawyer was ineffective.
During Culpepper’s motel stay, something was stolen from him, and he blamed Miller for the theft. 2 According to the motel manager, around the time of his checkout, Culpepper reported a theft, but motel staff took no action. And on the night of the shoot- ing, Culpepper referred to the theft again when speaking to a long-time motel resident, Jessica Alred....
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · May 19, 2026
In the Matter of Matthew Jason Anderson
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia disbarred attorney Matthew Jason Anderson after he failed to pay settlement funds owed to clients and medical providers in four personal injury cases and lied about it to a client and the State Bar.
1 Rule 1.4(a)(4) provides that “[a] lawyer shall promptly comply with reasonable requests for information.” The maximum penalty for a violation of this Rule is a public reprimand. 2 Rule 1.15(I)(b) provides that “a lawyer may not disregard a third per- son’s interest in funds or other property in the lawyer’s possession if: the interest is known to the...
4 Rule 1.15(II)(a) provides that “[e]very lawyer who practices law in Georgia … and who receives money or property on behalf of a client or in any other fiduciary capacity, shall maintain or have available one or more trust accounts as required by these rules. All funds held by a lawyer for, or related to the representation of, a client and all funds held...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · March 3, 2026
Jackson v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld Quintavius Jackson's felony murder conviction in a DeKalb County gas station killing, but sent the case back because the trial court wrongly imposed a life-without-parole sentence on two felony murder counts instead of one.
During a subsequent search of Jackson’s home, the police saw a pile of clothing that included a navy-blue shirt like that worn by Jackson and a burgundy Polo hat matching that worn by Dorsey during the shooting. The hat was swabbed for DNA. Subsequent testing showed that the DNA on the hat matched DNA samples taken from both Jackson and Dorsey. The police...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · February 3, 2026
FLAKES v. THE STATE (Two Cases)
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld Jeffrey Flakes's murder conviction but reversed a new trial granted to his co-defendant Curtis Williams, ruling the prosecutor was not required to be disqualified even though she had once represented both men as a public defender.
The State also introduced footage from security cameras that were positioned around Jones’s home. As the footage was played, Lieutenant Anthony Locey described what was shown. The footage, which had no sound, showed a person arriving at Jones’s front door at 12:09 a.m. on the night of the murder. The person left, then re- turned at 12:51 a.m., left again,...
Those claims of error fail. The witness’s identification of Flakes in the surveillance video was unlikely to have affected the outcome of the trial because the other evidence of guilt was fairly strong and because the jury could see for itself what the video showed. Contrary to Flakes’s argument, the trial court did apply the balancing test of Rule 403...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · March 12, 2026
GINES v. THE STATE (Three Cases)
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld the murder convictions of three men in the shooting death of Kadarius Medlock, rejecting claims about leg restraints, jury instructions, missing evidence, and ineffective lawyering.
The crime of burglary is committed when the defendant “without authority and with the intent to commit a felony or theft therein … enters or remains within an occupied, unoccupied, or vacant dwelling house of another … .” OCGA § 16-7-1(b). Gines complains that the State failed to prove the “without authority” element of the crime because there was no...
Evidence also established that the maroon vehicle used in the crimes was rented by Gines’s girlfriend at his request. The vehicle was rented from a cash car-rental establishment on April 19, two days before the crimes. The owner of the rental company testified that, as part of the company’s “polices and procedures,” a renter is not permitted to take the...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · June 2, 2026
Tabb v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld Joseph Tabb's murder conviction in the shooting death of a driver-for-hire, rejecting his claims that the evidence was insufficient, that he was wrongly shackled at trial, and that his lawyer was ineffective.
2. Tabb failed to preserve his claim that the trial court abused its discretion in requiring him to be visibly shackled. Tabb argues that the trial court abused its discretion in requiring him to be visibly shackled during his trial, because the trial court failed to balance the need for security measures with protection of Tabb’s constitutional rights and...
(d) Trial counsel was not deficient for failing to object to the visible shackling of Tabb. Tabb argues that trial counsel was ineffective for failing to object to the trial court’s order that Tabb be shackled during his trial. This claim fails. Prior to trial, the trial court questioned Tabb and trial counsel as to their interactions, and trial counsel...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · March 3, 2026
In the Matter of Joseph William Cloud
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia disbarred attorney Joseph William Cloud after he abandoned two clients, mishandled a $12,000 trust payment, and failed to respond to any part of the State Bar's disciplinary case against him.
(b) Based on the GRPC Rule violations charged by the Formal Complaints, which were deemed admitted by Cloud’s default, the Special Master concluded that Cloud’s conduct violated Rules 1.3,2 2 Rule 1.3 states that “[a] lawyer shall act with reasonable diligence and promptness in representing a client,” and defines “reasonable diligence” to mean that “a...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · June 16, 2026
Rease v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a Fayette County man's felony murder conviction in the strangulation death of his neighbor, rejecting claims about excluded evidence, DNA testimony, judicial comments, and his lawyer's performance.
8 OCGA § 17-16-5(a) provides: Upon written demand by the prosecuting attorney within ten days after arraignment, or at such time as the court permits, stating the time, date, and place at which the alleged offense was committed, the defendant shall serve within ten days of the demand of the prosecuting attorney or ten days prior to trial, whichever is...
“With respect to closing argument, defense counsel is per- mitted wide latitude and is not ineffective simply because another attorney might have used different language or placed a different emphasis on the evidence.” Anthony v. State, 311 Ga. 293, 298 (2021) (cleaned up). In closing, counsel emphasized his theory that Rease’s DNA was found under Perry’s...
Narrow the results
Counts are of the documents this search found.