Child Support Enforcement: What Every Parent Should Know
Past due child support is an issue that almost all divorced families deal with. Only about 40 percent of obligees (people entitled to support) receive the full amount. For both obligees and obligors (people paying support), past due child support is a time bomb. For obligees, several hundred dollars a month of lost income eventually […]
Ringing In the New Year with The Supremes
The Supreme Court has given us many gifts over the years, including a recently rediscovered eggnog recipe. The recipe emerged in the late 1990s, in the papers of Harlan Fiske Stone, who was Chief Justice in the early 1940s. The papers attributed the recipe to an unidentified person, Harry Parker. Shortly after the recipe’s 1998 […]
Kratom Ban Takes Effect
House Bill 181, which took effect on January 1, 2025, added this substance to the controlled substances list, criminalizing its use, sale, or possession, and adding other requirements as well. The provision lowers the age of illegal kratom transfers from 21 to 18. It also prohibits the ingestion of kratom using a heating element, power […]
Top Ten Reasonable Bail Factors in Georgia
Since time immemorial, police officers have arrested people for allegedly breaking the law. Then, in most cases, they take these defendants to jail. However, these individuals haven’t done anything wrong in the eyes of the law. So, the Eighth Amendment requires reasonable bail in criminal cases. In merry old England, sheriffs, and later judges, had […]
The Fourth Amendment Simplified
The simple version of the Fourth Amendment is indeed simple. It’s fewer than 100 words, so we’ll reproduce the whole thing here. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, […]
Two Down, Six to Go (If You’re Donald Trump)
State District Judge Scott McAfee dismissed two of the eight Georgia criminal charges against the once and future (maybe) president on jurisdictional grounds. McAfee found that state prosecutors did not have the authority to bring those charges, which related to the alleged filing of false documents in federal court. McAfee allowed the remainder of the […]
Alleged Elder Fraudsters Held Without Bond in MS
Two Georgia men who allegedly tried to steal $50,000 from an 80-year-old man are now sitting in a federal prison facility in Mississippi. The 52-year-old man and 69-year-old man were arrested Sept. 5 by the Lafayette County Sheriff’s Office on state charges. Monday morning, both men had their initial appearances in federal court, charged with […]
Macon Authorities Arrest Father of Injured Children
Bibb County Sheriff’s Office deputies responding to a disturbance call found a 2-year-old boy and 4-year-old girl with injuries. The sheriff’s office said it got a call from a witness who reported that children at a residence in Del Park were “in danger.” After responding to the home, deputies found a 2-year-old boy and 4-year-old […]
DUI Tests Explained
The two kinds of DUI tests are field sobriety tests and chemical tests. FSTs measure a defendant’s physical dexterity and mental acuity. Normally, these tests don’t prove intoxication, but they establish probable cause for a chemical test. This chemical test is nearly always a Breathalyzer breath test and, in a few cases, a blood test. […]
Human Trafficking Sting Operation Nets Seventeen Arrests
The GBI arrested and charged 17 people in Operation “Wrong Room,” a multi-jurisdictional effort to combat human trafficking in Georgia. Operation “Wrong Room” coincided with Operation “Coast to Coast.” On August 22, 2024, law enforcement and service providers from across the United States came together to conduct a multi-state human trafficking operation. “Coast to Coast” […]
