Chief Justice discusses family court initiatives

By Rep. Hugh Floyd

Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Leah Sears presented the annual State of the Judiciary address to a joint session of the House of Representatives and the Senate on Wednesday. Chief Justice Sears related, “In the halls of justice throughout the state, I have witnessed first hand first-rate judges, court staff and lawyers working together to provide for the peaceful resolution of disputes, to protect constitutional rights and to uphold the rule of law. Their commitment to Georgia is remarkable and gratifying.”

The Chief Justice also touched on family cases before the courts and said that domestic relations cases make up 65 percent of all Superior Court cases. They now outnumber all felony and misdemeanor cases combined. She cited a study conducted in the year 2000 that estimated divorce proceedings alone cost state taxpayers between $922 million and $1 billion. To combat this, Chief Justice Sears said, the Supreme Court voted unanimously to create the Georgia Supreme Court Commission on Children, Marriage and Family Law to address Georgia’s domestic relations case problems.

"We now live in a country where over one-third of all our children are born to unmarried women and where 40 percent of the children of divorce do not see their father in a typical year," she told lawmakers.  "Our prisons are full of young men who have fathered children they will never be able to support.  And there are too many children in foster care."

I would like to congratulate my former House colleague, Jane Vandiver Kidd of Athens, on her election as the new Chair of the Democratic Party of Georgia. She has deep roots in public service, as the daughter of former Gov. Ernest Vandiver and the niece of former U.S. Sen. Richard B. Russell. Having worked closely with Jane on a number of legislative issues, I can attest that she will lead our state party in the right direction and in the right manner.

This week, I co-sponsored legislation that is intended to result in the protection of the marshlands along the Georgia coast. House Resolution 51 urges the state Department of Natural Resources to refrain from adopting rules that would put the state’s marshlands in jeopardy by going to a 25-foot buffer between the marsh and upland development. The rules proposed would also not allow consideration of storm water runoff from upland developments.

This environmental measure states that Georgia has protected these salt marshlands by strong legislation since 1970, and the growing popularity of our coast as a place to visit and live makes it ever more important that the salt marsh be strongly protected.

The resolution was referred to the House Natural Resources & Environment Committee for it consideration.

On Thursday, a celebration was held at the Capitol recognizing the milestone of 1 million HOPE Scholarship recipients since the inception of the program in 1993. It is truly an outstanding achievement for Georgia to have been able to send a million students to our state’s colleges, universities and technical colleges at no tuition cost. This is a very proud accomplishment for our state and a reminder that we must continue to work diligently to protect HOPE against any attempt to cut, restrict or otherwise derail the program.

Family Day at the State Capitol will be held Saturday, February 10. The legislature will be in session, and this is an opportunity for Georgians who are at work during the week to visit the Capitol and watch the lawmaking process. I hope you will take advantage of this event and join us that day.