Asking Georgia for a record

What the Open Records Act and the Open Meetings Act actually require, what a request costs, and which office holds birth certificates and county filings.

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  LIT-01

  How a civil case moves through Mississippi courts

  A guide to the path of a civil case in Mississippi, from the complaint and discovery through trial and appeal, with the deadlines written in state law.

  • Civil litigation
  • Mississippi courts
  • Statutes of limitation

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  RUR-01

  What the county file says about a rural parcel before you buy

  Recorded plats, easements, road maintenance agreements and well or septic permits live in different county offices; this page says which file holds which answer.

  • Recorded plats
  • Easements
  • Well and septic permits

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  CRD-01

  Reading the crash map before you ride

  Georgia publishes crash data and road inventories that say where cyclists are actually being struck; this page says which datasets describe a commute and how to read them without alarm.

  • Crash data
  • Commute routes
  • GDOT

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  DIS-01

  A discography kept as a ledger

  A session-by-session record of who played, where and when is the same kind of document as a public register: dated entries that can be checked against each other.

  • Session ledgers
  • Label copy
  • Attribution

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  SGN-01

  Reading a legal document before you sign it

  A contract or deed is a record before it is a promise; this page walks through the parts to read first and what recording does to a document afterward.

  • Contracts
  • Deeds
  • Recording

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  NUR-01

  The license file on a mail-order nursery

  Nurseries that ship plants are licensed and inspected businesses; this page says which records exist, who keeps them and what the file reveals before you order.

  • Nursery licenses
  • Plant certificates
  • Inspections

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  OMA-01

  What the Open Meetings Act requires of a Georgia public body

  A written notice posted twenty-four hours ahead, a majority vote of a quorum to close a meeting, a misdemeanour and a $500 fine for doing it knowingly, and ninety days to sue.

  • Open Meetings Act
  • 24-hour notice
  • 90-day window

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  ORA-01

  How a Georgia open records request works

  Three business days, oral or written, and a statute number when a record is withheld: what the Attorney General’s open government guidance says a Georgia agency must do.

  • Open Records Act
  • 3 business days
  • O.C.G.A. § 50-18-72

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  REG-01

  The parish register next to the civil record

  Church registers of baptisms, marriages and burials predate the state’s vital records and follow their own calendar; this page says what each record proves and where each is kept.

  • Parish registers
  • Vital records
  • Genealogy

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  VEN-01

  What the permit file says about a venue

  A music venue leaves a public file of licenses, permits and inspections; this page says which offices keep which records and what the file reveals about the room.

  • Licenses
  • Venues
  • Inspection files

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  PLT-01

  Reading the plat before the landscape plan

  Easements, setbacks and drainage lines are recorded on the plat long before a landscaper draws; this page says which recorded documents decide what a yard may hold.

  • Plats
  • Easements
  • Drainage

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  CLK-01

  Searching filings held by Georgia superior court clerks

  The Georgia Superior Court Clerks’ Cooperative Authority runs the shared public search, a filing alert service called FANS, a Map Search app and a paid Premium Search tier.

  • GSCCCA
  • FANS alerts
  • Premium Search

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  COV-01

  What a recorded covenant still does to a neighborhood

  A protective covenant recorded in a county’s property books can bind a neighborhood for a century. What such a document is, how long it lasts and where to read a working example.

  • Property records
  • Covenants
  • County recorders

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  TRA-01

  Following a rule back to the document that made it

  A printed rule is the last link of a document chain: proposal, annual framework, adoption, publication. How to walk that chain backwards until you reach the paper that made the rule.

  • Document chains
  • Rulemaking
  • Citations

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  MUN-01

  How to find your city’s sanitation ordinances

  Set-out times, bin rules and sanitation tickets are municipal documents, not state ones: where a city publishes them, who enforces them and how a resident reads them.

  • Municipal rules
  • Set-out times
  • Summonses

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  VIT-01

  Where Georgia birth and death certificates come from

  Vital Records at the Georgia Department of Public Health registers, preserves, amends and certifies Georgia vital events, and takes orders online through listed vendors or by mail.

  • Vital events
  • Order online or by mail
  • Fees not published here

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  ORA-02

  What a Georgia open records request costs

  Twenty-five cents a page, the first fifteen minutes free, an hourly rate capped at the lowest paid qualified employee, and prepayment only above a $500 estimate.

  • 25 cents a page
  • First 15 minutes free
  • $500 threshold

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  EST-01

  Will or trust: Iowa property choices

  How Iowa households choose between a will and a revocable living trust, what each does with the same property, and where the state rules are published.

  • Wills
  • Revocable trusts
  • Iowa probate