SB 30 requires newly appointed municipal court judges to be attorneys.

Often times, criminal defendants do not pay all of their criminal fines, surcharges and other fees all at one time. When only a partial payment is made, Georgia law establishes priorities for how the funds are distributed to the various funds and agencies to which they are owed. SB 50 reorders the fees and adds funding of local victim assistance programs to the priority list.   The list was reordered to place all fees that are kept locally or benefit local government ahead of all fees that are remitted to the state.  The local governing authority has moved up to number 9 on this list from 14 in the last version of the bill.

This bill is a substantial revision of the laws dealing with juvenile criminal and civil cases. This legislation mandates that a prosecutor from the DA's office bring all charges in juvenile cases. Each juvenile charged will have a right to attorney and cannot waive counsel until they have met with an attorney.  The requirement for the Circuit Public Defender to establish a Juvenile Division has been struck from the statute, putting the responsibility for a public defender in juvenile cases back to the counties.  A new continuum of services for juveniles will also be required. 

This bill updates some of the code sections referenced in the retirement code relating to county retirement systems that allow probation and intake employees from the Department of Juvenile Justice.