Rule 1.2.Authority to Enact Rules Which Deviate From the Uniform Superior Court Rules

Rule 1.2 starts by closing the door Rule 1.1 opened. The terms “local rules,” “internal operating procedures,” and “experimental rules” no longer have a place in the Uniform Superior Court Rules, and any deviation from these rules is disallowed. That is the default position — but the rest of Rule 1.2 carves out real exceptions to it.

A court may still maintain practices and standing orders that regulate its own internal processes, so long as those matters are not suited to statewide uniformity, relate only to internal procedure, and do not substantially or materially affect a party’s rights. Rule 1.2 lists examples: case management, court administration, case assignment, jury management, court-annexed alternative dispute resolution programs approved by the Georgia Commission on Dispute Resolution, specialty courts, indigent defense, court security, emergency planning, judicial assistance requests, chief judge appointments, and law libraries. The clerk keeps the originals of these standing orders and provides copies on request. Circuits may also retain or adopt jury-duty-excuse guidelines under OCGA § 15-12-10, and a majority of a circuit’s judges may adopt a pilot project — advertised to the local bar, with copies to the State Bar of Georgia, and approved by the Supreme Court — for up to a year, subject to a one-year extension that itself requires approval of the circuit judges and the Supreme Court. At the end of the second year, the Supreme Court either approves the pilot project permanently or lets it sunset. Programs developed under the Supreme Court's Alternative Dispute Resolution Rules follow a separate approval track: the Georgia Commission on Dispute Resolution must approve them before they can attain permanent status under these rules.

The last piece of Rule 1.2 addresses standing orders that fill gaps the uniform rules do not address, such as orders under Rule 24.8 concerning educational seminars, alternative dispute resolution, payments into the court registry, or electronic filing. Those orders bind a party only once actual notice has reached that party — through copies given to attorneys and pro se litigants, service by an opposing party, or dissemination at clerk’s offices, law libraries, legal aid societies, and public libraries. Filing or posting the order in the courthouse is not enough on its own, and no one can be denied access to the court or penalized for failing to comply with a standing order they never received notice of.