As of July 1, 2021, the Georgia Uniform Mediation Act (GUMA) covers all mediations in Georgia, whether or not they are court-connected. Before GUMA, the Supreme Court Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Rules only offered confidentiality and party protection to court-connected mediation sessions.  GUMA provides these protections, and others, to those cases mediated outside of the judicial system (often referred to as private cases). You can read the whole text of GUMA HERE. The Supreme Court ADR Rules are HERE. The post Georgia Uniform Mediation Act first appeared on Georgia Family ..read more

The thing that people tell us they hate the most about divorce is the financials. They hate how expensive divorce is, to begin with. They hate having to pay an attorney to represent them. But mostly, they hate having to lay all of their finances out in the open for everyone to examine. Sometimes we don’t like seeing what our financial status actually is. We may have more debt than we would like, we may not be making enough money, or we may just not know what the finances are at all. That can be a little bit embarrassing to admit, that you haven’t paid attention to that kind of thing in the pas ..read more

Congress passed a new stimulus package on December 27, 2020 that impacts both families and businesses.  Here is some information you should know: Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) The Small Business Administration is authorized to make loans up to the $284.5 billion in newly allocated PPP funding.  We are still waiting on more guidance, but what we know so far: PPP loans will be available to businesses with 500 or fewer employees that have not previously received a PPP loan to help with payroll, rent, utilities, healthcare costs and more. In addition to providing for new PPP loans f ..read more

Lots of organizations are providing resources for people impacted by Covid-19.  Here are some that may be useful to you (cross-posted on Lawyers For Equal Justice). Community Resources Georgia Legal Aid Resource List Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Community Resources Court Orders Supreme Court of Georgia Declares Statewide Judicial Emergency State Court Judicial Emergency Orders Georgia Governor extends all valid driver’s licenses and identification cards set to expire between March 25, 2020, through June 30, 2020, by 120 days Shelter-in-place order does not apply to parenting time or custo ..read more

Today the Supreme Court of Georgia postponed the July 2020 Georgia bar examination until September 9-10, 2020 and authorized certain recent law graduates and licensed attorneys from other jurisdictions who recently moved to Georgia to practice law under the supervision of a licensed Georgia lawyer pending receipt of their bar examination results. Click HERE for the order. Click HERE for the Court’s press release related to its order. The post Georgia Law Graduates Get Provisional Bar Admittance first appeared on Georgia Family Law Project ..read more

Prep Your Exhibits PDF your exhibits. Label them and put them in a dropbox or Drive folder. Make the link to the folder publically viewable for anyone with the link. If you want to make it easier for people, shorten your link using tinyurl.org.  You can make a custom alias to make it something more readable like “tinyurl.com/JonesContemptExhibits.” Also put your exhibits into a PDF Portfolio so that you can more easily flip between exhibits in share mode without having to open the individual files. Send your client and witnesses the exhibits in advance so they will be prepared for them ..read more