Georgia Code
Article 1 - General Provisions
§ 19-8-13. Petition; Filing and Contents; Financial Disclosures; Attorney’s Affidavit; Redaction of Certain Information Unnecessary

History. Code 1981, § 19-8-13 , enacted by Ga. L. 1990, p. 1572, § 5; Ga. L. 1991, p. 1640, §§ 4, 5; Ga. L. 1992, p. 6, § 19; Ga. L. 1997, p. 1686, § 6; Ga. L. 2000, p. 20, § 13; Ga. L. 2011, p. 573, § 4/SB 172; Ga. L. 2013, p. 294, § 4-27/HB 242; Ga. L. 2016, p. 87, § 2/HB 229; Ga. L. 2018, p. 19, § 1-1/HB 159; Ga. L. 2019, p. 683, § 7/HB 288; Ga. L. 2019, p. 1056, § 19/SB 52; Ga. L. 2020, p. 493, § 19/SB 429; Ga. L. 2021, p. 151, § 8/HB 154.
The 2016 amendment, effective July 1, 2016, substituted the present provisions of subsection (f) for the former provisions, which read: “Whenever a petitioner is a blood relative of the child to be adopted and a grandparent other than the petitioner has visitation rights to the child granted pursuant to Code Section 19-7-3, the petitioner shall cause a copy of the petition for adoption to be served upon the grandparent with the visitation rights or upon such person’s counsel of record.”
The 2018 amendment, effective September 1, 2018, rewrote this Code section.
The 2019 amendments. —
The first 2019 amendment, effective January 1, 2020, substituted “Code Section 15-6-77” for “Code Sections 15-6-77, 15-6-77.1, and 15-6-77.2” at the end of subsection (b). The second 2019 amendment, effective May 12, 2019, part of an Act to revise, modernize, and correct the Code, revised punctuation and language in subparagraph (a)(5)(E).
The 2020 amendment, effective July 29, 2020, part of an Act to revise, modernize, and correct the Code, substituted “compliance with Chapter 4 of Title 39” for “compliance with 4 of Title 39” in subparagraphs (a)(2)(E) and (a)(3)(F).
The 2021 amendment, effective July 1, 2021, substituted “subsection” for “Code section” near the beginning of divisions (a)(2)(A)(i) and (a)(2)(A)(ii); deleted “subsection (a) of” following “adoption is pursuant to” near the beginning of the first sentence of paragraphs (a)(3), (a)(4), and (a)(5); deleted “and” at the end of paragraph (a)(7); added paragraph (a)(8); and redesignated former paragraph (a)(8) as present paragraph (a)(9); in subsection (g), deleted “subsection (a) of” following “when the adoption is sought under”, and inserted “or pursuant to the corresponding provisions of the laws of another state” near the middle; deleted “or” at the end of subparagraph (h)(1)(B); substituted “; or” for a period at the end of subparagraph (h)(1)(C); added subparagraph (h)(1)(D); and added subsection (j).
Code Commission notes.
Pursuant to Code Section 28-9-5, in 1990, “acknowledgment” was substituted for “acknowledgement” in subparagraph (a)(5)(B).
Pursuant to Code Section 28-9-5, in 2018, a period that was inadvertently deleted was added at the end of subparagraph (h)(1)(C).
Pursuant to Code Section 28-9-5, in 2019, “Chapter” was inserted near the end of subparagraph (a)(5)(E).
Editor’s notes.
Ga. L. 2013, p. 294, § 5-1/HB 242, not codified by the General Assembly, provides that: “This Act shall become effective on January 1, 2014, and shall apply to all offenses which occur and juvenile proceedings commenced on and after such date. Any offense occurring before January 1, 2014, shall be governed by the statute in effect at the time of such offense and shall be considered a prior adjudication for the purpose of imposing a disposition that provides for a different penalty for subsequent adjudications, of whatever class, pursuant to this Act. The enactment of this Act shall not affect any prosecutions for acts occurring before January 1, 2014, and shall not act as an abatement of any such prosecutions.”
Law reviews.
For article surveying developments in Georgia domestic relations law from mid-1980 through mid-1981, see 33 Mercer L. Rev. 109 (1981).
For article, “Continuing Confusion in the Georgia Adoption Process,” see 20 Ga. St. B.J. 62 (1983).
For article, “2019 Legislative Review,” see 24 Ga. St. B.J. 28 (June 2019).