SUPREME COURT OF GEORGIA

DRA

July 10, 2020

FOURTH ORDER EXTENDING DECLARATION OF

STATEWIDE JUDICIAL EMERGENCY

COVID-19 Task Force, and other judicial partners, recognizing again

that most in-court proceedings compel the attendance of various

individuals rather than allowing them to decide how best to protect their

own health, and further recognizing that the novel coronavirus continues

to spread in Georgia, it is hereby determined that the Order should be

extended again.

Courts in Georgia have continued to perform essential functions

despite the pandemic. The May 11 extension order also encouraged courts

to work diligently to address the backlog of pending cases on a case-by-

current circumstances, however, this order continues the prohibition on

all jury proceedings and almost all grand jury proceedings.

As has been the direction since the original Order, all Georgia

courts must continue to conduct proceedings, remotely or in-person, in

compliance with public health guidance, applicable statutes and court

rules, and the requirements of the United States and Georgia

Constitutions, including the public’s right of access to judicial

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proceedings and a criminal defendant’s rights to confrontation and an

open courtroom. All courts should continue to use and increase the use of

technology to conduct remote judicial proceedings as a safer alternative

to in-person proceedings, unless required by law to be in person or unless

it is not practicable for technical or other reasons for persons

participating in the proceeding to participate remotely. This order

further delineates the health precautions required for all in-person

judicial proceedings and specifies that courts must adopt operating

until Tuesday, August 11, 2020 at 11:59 p.m. All Georgia courts shall

continue to operate under the restrictions set forth in that Order as

extended, with the following clarifications, modifications, and directions.

Where this order refers to “public health guidance,” courts should

consider the most specific current guidance provided by the federal

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Georgia

Department of Public Health (DPH), and their local health departments.

I. Continued Prohibition on Jury Trial Proceedings and Most

trials shall remain in effect and until further order, all courts are

prohibited from summoning new trial jurors and grand jurors and from

conducting criminal or civil jury trials.

(B) Grand juries that are already impaneled or are recalled from

a previous term of court may meet to attend to time-sensitive essential

matters, but these grand juries shall not be assembled except when

necessary and only under circumstances in which social distancing and

other public health guidance can be followed. A guidance document about

the continued authority of grand juries impaneled prior to the issuance

of the Order is included in the Appendix to this order. Courts and counsel

are reminded that many criminal cases may proceed on accusation and

do not require a grand jury indictment.

(C) The Judicial COVID-19 Task Force continues to develop

policies, procedures, and templates to allow the safe resumption of jury

(A) As announced in the June 12 extension order, this order

hereby reimposes all deadlines and other time schedules and filing

requirements (referred to collectively herein as “deadlines”) that are

imposed on litigants by statutes, rules, regulations, or court orders in

civil and criminal cases and administrative actions and that have been

suspended, tolled, extended, or otherwise relieved by the March 14, 2020

Order Declaring Statewide Judicial Emergency, as extended, on the

following schedule and with the following exceptions and conditions:

(bench) trials. Until grand jury proceedings are generally authorized,

statutes of limitation in criminal cases shall also remain tolled.

(2) All other deadlines imposed on litigants shall be

reimposed effective July 14, 2020, as further explained below.

(3) In cases that were pending before the March 14

Order, litigants will have the same amount of time to file or act after

July 14 that they had as of March 14. For example, if an answer in a civil

case was due on March 20, that answer will now be due on July 20, and

if a criminal defendant’s pretrial motions were due on March 23, they will

now be due on July 23.

(4) In cases filed between March 14 and July 13, 2020,

the time for deadlines will begin running on July 14. For example, if a

civil complaint was filed in June and the answer would have been due 30

(6) If the reimposed deadline falls on a weekend or legal

holiday, the deadline will as normal be the next business day. See OCGA

§ 1-3-1 (d) (3).

(7) Any extension of time for a litigant’s filing or action

that was granted by a court, or was agreed or consented to by the litigants

as authorized by law, before July 14, 2020 shall also extend the time for

that filing or action after July 14. For example, if a litigant’s filing was

initially due on March 10 but she was granted a 10-day extension of that

deadline (to March 20), the filing will be due on July 24 (10 days after

Order Declaring Statewide Judicial Emergency or tolls applicable

deadlines after July 14, 2020.

(9) The tolling and suspension of deadlines imposed on

litigants in civil and criminal cases that are calculated by reference

to terms of court shall be lifted as of July 14, 2020, and any regular

term of court beginning on or after July 14 shall count toward such

deadlines. See also the May 4, 2020 Guidance on Deadlines and Time

Limits Defined by Reference to Terms of Court included in the Appendix.

(10) The 122 days between March 14 and July 14, 2020, or

any portion of that period in which a statute of limitation would have

run, shall be excluded from the calculation of that statute of limitation.

(11) Litigants may apply in the normal way for extensions of

reimposed deadlines for good cause shown, and courts should be

generous in granting extensions particularly when based upon

health concerns, economic hardship, or lack of child care.

(C) If before July 14 a court reimposed deadlines by order in a

specific case based on the authority to do so granted by prior extension

orders, the case-specific order reimposing deadlines shall control

over the deadlines for the same filings or actions reimposed by

this statewide order.

(D) If in a divorce or adoption case a time period required by law

actually passed or passes before the court entered or enters a consent

order, consent judgment, or consent decree regarding the divorce or

(A) All courts should continue to use and increase the use of

technology to conduct remote judicial proceedings as a safer alternative

to in-person proceedings, unless required by law to be in person or unless

it is not practicable for technical or other reasons for persons

participating in the proceeding to participate remotely.

and clarified by the emergency amendments made to court rules on

videoconferences and teleconferences.

witnesses, and other essential personnel in remote judicial proceedings,

where allowed by court rules (including emergency amendments thereto).

Such proceedings, however, must be consistent with public health

otherwise authorized and affirmatively waive otherwise applicable legal

requirements.

(E) Courts must ensure the public’s right of access to judicial

proceedings and in all criminal cases, unless affirmatively waived in the

record, a criminal defendant’s rights to confrontation and an open

courtroom.

IV. In-Person Proceedings Under Guidelines for Safe

the public’s right of access to judicial proceedings and a criminal

defendant’s rights to confrontation and an open courtroom.

a court proceeding if the court proceeding or the court facility in

which it is to be held is not in compliance with this order,

including in particular large calendar calls. Courts are also prohibited

from compelling in-person participation in any court-imposed

alternative dispute resolution session that is to be conducted in

a manner inconsistent with applicable public health guidelines.

(C) Each court shall develop and implement operating

guidelines as to how in-court proceedings generally and particular types

of proceedings will be conducted to protect the health of litigants,

lawyers, judges, court personnel, and the public.

guidance provided by CDC and DPH; if local public health guidance is

more restrictive than the bench card, the local public health guidance

should be followed instead.

(2) With regard to everyone who works in a court facility,

the operating guidelines shall require isolation of any person with

known or suspected COVID-19 and quarantine of any person with

COVID-19 exposure likely to result in infection, in accordance with the

DPH Seventh Amended Administrative Order for Public Health Control

Measures, a link to which may be found in the Appendix, or any

who may have been exposed shall occur as directed by DPH or the local

health department.

(4) To the extent operating guidelines previously

implemented by courts do not comply fully with the

requirements of this order, courts shall develop and implement

revised guidelines within 10 days of this order.

(D) Courts of different classes that share courthouse facilities or

operate in the same county should coordinate their operating guidelines,

and should seek to coordinate operating guidelines with non-judicial

entities sharing courthouse facilities.

(E) Each court must submit its operating guidelines to the

Administrative Office of the Courts at https://georgiacourts.gov/covid-19-

court-operating-guidelines-form/ to be posted at

https://georgiacourts.gov/covid-19-court-operating-guidelines/ as a

centralized website available to litigants, lawyers, and the public.

guidance indicates that they are no longer required.

Local Judicial Emergencies

(A) Nothing in the Order Declaring Statewide Judicial

Emergency as extended and modified limits the authority of the Chief

Judge of a superior court judicial circuit under OCGA §§ 38-3-61 and 38-

3-62 to add to the restrictions imposed by the statewide judicial

(B) No court may disregard the restrictions imposed by the Order

as extended and modified.

VI. Guidance on Application of the Order

Included in the Appendix are several guidance documents that

clarify the application of the Order in particular contexts. Additional

guidance documents may be posted on the AOC’s website at

https://georgiacourts.gov/judicial-council/aoc/. Guidance related to the

tolling of deadlines should be read in light of the reimposition of deadlines

by this order and by orders in specific cases.

reminded of their obligation to dispose of all judicial matters promptly

and efficiently, including by insisting that court officials, litigants, and

their lawyers cooperate with the court to achieve that end, although this

obligation must not take precedence over the obligation to dispose of

matters fairly and with patience, which requires sensitivity to health and

other concerns raised by court officials, litigants and their lawyers,

witnesses, and others.

VIII. Notice Provisions

conduct jury trials and convene grand juries will be provided sufficient

notice of the resumption of jury proceedings to allow the complicated

process of summoning potential jurors to be completed.

(C) The impact of COVID-19 varies across the state, and the level

of response and adjustment will likewise vary among courts. Courts

should make available to the public the steps they are taking to safely

increase operations while responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.