§ 15-6-62 - Additional duties
O.C.G.A. 15-6-62 (2010)
15-6-62. Additional duties
(a) The clerk of the superior court is required to record all the proceedings relating to any civil action or criminal case within six months after the final determination of the case. Such recording may be in well-bound books, on microfilm, or in digital format. If a clerk elects to record proceedings on microfilm or in digital format, he or she shall make available to the public a machine for reading and reproducing such microfilmed or digitally formatted records. If a clerk elects to record proceedings in digital format, the provisions of Code Section 15-6-62.1 shall apply.
(b) Every clerk of the superior or city courts must record immediately in his book of final records:
(1) Every part of the pleadings in every case;
(2) All garnishments, affidavits, bonds, and answers thereto;
(3) All attachment affidavits, bonds, and writs of attachment; and
(4) All claim affidavits and bonds and all bonds given in any judicial proceeding.
No clerk shall allow any of such papers to be taken from his office before recording them as required in this Code section. Such record shall constitute a part or all of the final record of the papers required by law to be made, as the case may be.
(c) If any subsequent paper in the case is recorded, the clerk shall make a reference at the foot of the record required in this Code section, to the page where such subsequent record may be found and shall also state the case in the index to the book of record and shall enter the number of the pages on which the same is to be found.
(d) Where any paper so recorded becomes lost or destroyed, a certified copy thereof from the clerk of the court may be substituted. No fee shall be charged or collected for any such copy if the loss of the same is caused by or results from any negligence or fault of the clerk.
(e) Any clerk who fails to discharge the duties set forth in this Code section is subject to be fined by the presiding judge, on his own motion, for a contempt whenever the judge discovers that the clerk has failed to discharge his duties. It shall be the duty of the judges of the several superior courts to give this law specially in charge to the grand juries and to require them to inform the court whether or not the clerk has performed the duties specified as aforesaid. However, clerks shall not be punished for contempt under this Code section until after the paper or papers required to be recorded have been filed for three months.
(f) This Code section shall not apply to cases dismissed and settled before the record is made.