October 9, 2002

 

 

Welcome to Jekyll Island Judge:

 

            Enclosed please find the following:

 

1)      Business Meeting 2002 minutes from our Spring Conference at Brasstown Valley.

2)      An updated State Court directory.  Final changes were made before the September 10th runoff.  Hence, if you are a new judge and do not appear in this edition, you will appear in the next edition slated for publication next spring.

3)      In cooperation with the Georgia Indigent Defense Council, we have produced a listing of Terms of Court for all of the State Courts.  This listing is enclosed and hole-punched so that you can conveniently slip it into your Benchbook.  For the moment, slip it behind Tab 6 and once other revisions to the Benchbook are completed, I will let you know exactly where it will go and I will update the table of contents.  All of these terms have been cross-referenced with the actual local legislation establishing them.  If you feel that there is an error, please let me know.

4)      Please give a hearty welcome to another new member of our Council, Judge Diane E. Bessen of the Fulton State Court bench who will be filling the seat vacated by Gino Brogdon who has been appointed to the Superior Court.  Her contact information is as follows: T3855 Justice Center Tower, 185 Central Ave., SW, Atlanta, GA 30303, phone (404) 730-7760, fax (404) 224-0572).

5)      Also, welcome to the Council to the following new Judges: John Bass (Grady), David Darden (Cobb), John Holland (Turner), Johnny Panos (DeKalb) and Ronald Thompson (Effingham); all of whom will be taking office in January (except Judge Holland who will be taking office shortly).

6)      Debra Nesbit of the AOC (Administrative Office of the Courts), respectfully requests that you complete the Court Fee Survey that they have developed if you have not already done so.  It can be found on the Internet at www.georgiacourts.org and then by clicking on “Court Fee Survey.”  This is in response to the Performance Audit of Court Fees, a copy of which has been sent to you in a previous mailing.

7)      A new Reimbursement Form has been developed by the AOC, and they respectfully request that we start using these (although they will still accept the old ones for some time to come).  As shown in the enclosed “print screen,” this form can be found at www.georgiacourts.org and then by clicking on the “AOC” button on the left side, and then by clicking on “Departmental Organization” in the middle, and then by clicking on “Fiscal Office” in the middle, and then by clicking on the “Forms” button on the left side, and then by clicking on the “In-State Excel Form” (for most of our business) in the middle.  You must have Microsoft Excel to use this form, and after clicking on “In-State Excel Form,” click on Run and then when the dialog box comes up, click on “Enable Macros” and then you will be at the form where there should be an instruction tab.

 

 

 

 

 

 

8)      There has been a request to have a sentencing survey (having nothing to do with the aforementioned “fee” or surcharge survey) to see how the various state court judges apply sentences to very common offenses (eg: DUI).  If you have any ideas on which offenses to include or any other input, please contact me.

9)      If you have set up a Traffic Violation Bureau in your county, please let me know as I am trying to track which counties have one.

10)  WestLaw is trying to crack our account again.  They may be at Jekyll to make individual offers.  This actually works out in our favor as we have less than 2 years left on our current contract with LEXIS and having WestLaw trying to obtain our business while LEXIS tries to re-sign us will only accrue to our benefit.

 

IMPORTANT NOTE: The enclosed letter from WestLaw is an individual offer from them.  In other words, if you want it, you (or your county) will have to pay for it.

 

11)   FINAL REMINDER: At the behest of Judge Robins (DeKalb) and the outstanding legislative work by some of your colleagues, House Bill 254, a retirement bill, was passed and signed into law.  Please ensure that you decide whether to take advantage of this should it apply to you.  In pertinent part, it changes (shown by italicization) existing law by providing that any superior court judge, state court judge, solicitor general, or district attorney who was previously an active member of the Employees´ Retirement System of Georgia may elect to have all contributions made by or on behalf of such member transferred from such retirement system to this retirement system [Georgia Judicial Retirement System].  Any such member shall notify the board of trustees of each retirement system not later than December 31, 2000 2002, or within 90 days after first becoming a member of this retirement system, whichever date is later.  You will need to send your letter to Cedric Williams of the Georgia Judicial Retirement System, Suite 300, 2 Northside 75, Atlanta, GA 30318, phone (404) 352-6456.

 

 

Best wishes and have a great conference!!!!!!!!!

 

 

                                                                                    Respectfully Yours,

 

 

                                                                                    Stephan J. Frank

                                                                                    Executive Director

 

 

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: [From an editorial in the Atlanta fish wrap on computerized voting machines and computerized video gaming devices] “What’s the difference?  Both are gambling devices.  In one, you select someone to throw your money away for you; in the other, you can throw your money away directly, without the middleman.”