Court of Appeals of Georgia history

The original minutes of the Court of Appeals indicate that the three elected Judges convened at the State Capitol on January 2, 1907, and determined by lot the length of their respective terms.

J. R. Pottle had been Judge Powell's law partner in Blakely, and succeeded his partner on this bench when Powell resigned to enter private practice in Atlanta in January 1912.

By its 1915 annual meeting, the workload of the two appellate courts had grown so much that the Georgia Bar Association deemed it necessary to take positive steps toward alleviation.

Only a few other jurisdictional changes have occurred since 1916.

Broyles' tenure as Chief Judge was the longest; he served 28 years as Chief Judge until his death in 1947 at the age of 78.

The first was a 1956 constitutional amendment providing for direct review by the two appellate courts of juvenile court judgments.

In the following year, the General Assembly by statute (1961 Ga.

The State Bar of Georgia was created pursuant to an order of the Supreme Court dated December 6, 1963.

John Sammons Bell was elected Chief Judge by his colleagues on September 5, 1969, after 10 years of service as Judge and Presiding Judge, and served 10 more years in this position.

A 1970 legislative act established Georgia's state court system by designating certain countywide courts as courts of limited jurisdiction.

Indicative of the harmony which has always been a hallmark of this bench is the fact that before the position of Chief Judge was placed on a rotating basis in 1979, there had been only seven Chief Judges.

The formation of the Society came shortly after the creation of the Circuit in 1981.

The Eleventh Circuit Historical Society is a private, nonprofit organization incorporated in Georgia on January 17, 1983.

In early 1989, the Georgia Supreme Court, acting through the State Bar of Georgia, established the Chief Justice’s Commission on Professionalism.

In October of 1992, the Georgia Supreme Court created the Georgia Commission on Dispute Resolution to develop and oversee a comprehensive statewide system of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) to complement the existing system of justice.

In the Atlanta Judicial Circuit in 1994, there were 15 superior court judges.

On July 16, 1996, Governor Miller swore-in Judge Frank M. Eldridge as the first ever tenth judge of the Court of Appeals of Georgia and as the sixty-third judge in the Court's history.

State court judges must have been admitted to practice law for seven years if elected or appointed after the year 2000 and five years if elected or appointed before the year 2000, and they must reside in the geographical area in which they are selected to serve.

The extent of the Court’s jurisdiction is controlled jointly by the Georgia Constitution and by the Appellate Jurisdiction Reform Act of 2016.