§ 9-16-1.Short title

This section does one job: it names the chapter. From here forward, anyone drafting a pleading, a court order, or a footnote can refer to “the Georgia Uniform Civil Forfeiture Procedure Act” instead of spelling out “Chapter 16 of Title 9 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated” each time.

The name tells you something about scope, too. It’s a civil statute, not a criminal one — forfeiture here runs on its own track, separate from any prosecution, even though the two often arise from the same conduct. And it’s billed as “uniform,” signaling that Georgia built this framework to track a shared, cross-state model for how civil forfeiture cases should proceed, from seizure through final distribution of the property.

The Act took effect through 2015 legislation, and the twenty-one sections that follow this one work as a single connected system: definitions, jurisdiction and venue, seizure and notice rules, claim and answer deadlines, burdens of proof, and distribution of what the state ultimately forfeits.