Rule 36.13.Filing Requirements–Criminal

Rule 36.13 covers what has to accompany a criminal filing and how circuits manage the data those filings generate. Indictments, no bills, and accusations presented to the clerk must be filed along with the documents that go with them — arrest warrants when one has issued, and the Georgia Crime Information Center OBTS form when the offense calls for one.

The rule then reaches beyond the filing counter into how that data moves. The chief superior court judge of each judicial circuit is tasked with helping clerks and prosecutors implement and maintain uniform standards for creating and transmitting criminal history data, and a judge may order a party to supply data a clerk or prosecutor needs to keep that transmission working. Each circuit, or the counties within it, must also have an agreed compliance protocol addressing the accuracy, completeness, uniformity, integration, accessibility, and security of that data, based on approved state standards.

That protocol is not a one-time document. The rule requires it to be reviewed at least every two years and updated as needed, recognizing that criminal history reporting standards and technology change over time.