Court Type: Superior Court

The Superior Courts of Georgia have jurisdiction over almost all types of cases, except matters that must be filed in Probate Court or Juvenile Court. Cases that can be filed in Superior Court include general civil cases and criminal cases. Cases that must be filed in Superior Court include divorces, adoptions, legitimation and paternity cases, child custody cases, family violence and stalking petitions, real estate or land cases, civil injunction cases, and other specific types of cases. The Superior Court has “exclusive” jurisdiction over these cases, meaning that such cases can only be filed in Superior Court.

Superior courts are governed by the Uniform Superior Court Rules, which have a lot of detailed and confusing rules, especially concerning certain types of case such as Divorce, Legitimation, Paternity, and Child Custody cases.

Judges of the Superior Courts are elected in a Judicial Circuit, which is a group of one or more Georgia counties. More often than not, Superior Court Judges are appointed by the Governor to fill an “unexpired term,” and the appointed Judge then stands for election when the term is up. The number of Superior Court Judges in a Judicial Circuit depends on the population and may be two to twenty. A Judge can live in any county in the Circuit, but in Circuits that consist of a very large county surrounded by smaller counties, most of the elected Judges may live in the large county and travel to hold court in the surrounding counties. The qualifications to become a Superior Court Judge are minimal, and can be found here. There is no legal requirement of competency, nor even a requirement that a candidate has handled a trial.

All Superior Courts can conduct Jury Trials. Appeals from Superior Court go to either the Georgia Court of Appeals or the Supreme Court of Georgia.