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Committee backs bill to create senior municipal judge role and municipal court clerks council
Summary
The Senate Judiciary Committee passed a bill to allow experienced judges to serve as senior municipal court judges and to create a Georgia Municipal Court Clerks Council and a clerk certification program, which supporters said will standardize operations across 389 municipal courts and impose no direct state cost.
Representative Yard presented House Bill 304 (LC 474248S), saying the bill restores language the panel considered last year to create an office of senior municipal court judge and to form a Georgia Municipal Court Clerks Council.
The bill would permit judges with 10 or more years of experience to serve as senior municipal court judges, subject to continuing certification under O.C.G.A. 36-32-1.1 and existing local selection processes. "This is one of our priorities," said David Will, past president of the Georgia Council of Municipal Court Judges and a municipal court judge in Alpharetta, Sandy Springs and Clarkston, who testified in favor. He said senior judges would fill temporary needs—handling warrants, first appearances, arraignments and hearings—without changing municipal-court operations or creating a state cost.
Jason James, court administrator for Dalton's municipal court, also endorsed the bill and told the committee it had passed this committee unanimously last year. Committee members asked no substantive questions after testimony.
Senator Watson moved and Senator McNeill seconded a motion to pass the committee substitute. The committee voted unanimously to advance the bill; sponsors indicated a Senate carry would follow.
The bill is intended to standardize practices across Georgia's 389 municipal courts through a clerk certification program and to expand a pool of judges available for short-term municipal assignments. The committee recorded no amendments in committee; next steps are to place the bill on the Senate calendar for floor consideration.
