The mistake or misprision of a clerk or other ministerial officer shall in no case work to the injury of a party where by amendment justice may be promoted.
§ 9-10-133.Mistake by clerk or ministerial officer
Chapter 10. Civil Practice and Procedure Generally · Article 6. Amendments · Last amended 1933 · Last verified July 17, 2026
In one sentenceProtects parties from being penalized for a clerk’s or other court officer’s clerical error by allowing correction through amendment whenever doing so would serve justice, instead of letting an administrative slip decide the outcome of a case.
Full Text of § 9-10-133
Plain-English Summary
Court clerks and other ministerial officers handle the paperwork that keeps a case moving — filing dates, docket entries, issuing process — and mistakes happen. This section makes sure those mistakes land on the system rather than on the party who did nothing wrong. The mistake or misprision of a clerk or other ministerial officer shall in no case work to the injury of a party, where amendment can promote justice.
Rather than punishing a litigant for an error they had no hand in and often no way to catch, the section points toward the fix that already runs through this article: amendment. If a clerk’s slip can be corrected without prejudice to the real dispute, the section directs the court toward doing that rather than letting the error decide the case.
Frequently Asked Questions
Whose mistakes does this section address?
The mistake or misprision of a clerk or other ministerial officer.
Can a clerical error hurt a party’s case under this rule?
No, the section provides that such a mistake shall in no case work to the injury of a party, where justice can be promoted by amendment.
How is a clerk’s mistake fixed under this section?
Through amendment — the section ties the protection against injury to the availability of correcting the error by amendment.
Does this section apply to judges’ mistakes as well as clerks’?
By its terms it covers a clerk or other ministerial officer, a category distinct from a judge exercising judicial discretion or judgment.
What standard governs whether the mistake gets corrected?
Whether correcting it by amendment would promote justice.
Amendment History
Laws 1799, Cobb’s 1851 Digest, p. 480; Code 1863, § 3436; Code 1868, § 3456; Code 1873, § 3507; Code 1882, § 3507; Civil Code 1895, § 5125; Civil Code 1910, § 5709; Code 1933, § 81-1205.
Source & verification. Section text and amendment history are
reproduced verbatim from the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, published by the
Official Code of Georgia Annotated, Georgia Code Revision Commission / LexisNexis. Last verified July 17, 2026.
· Official source
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