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1. How are court staff positions defined?

Attorney
The word attorney refers to any person admitted to practice in the superior courts of Georgia, and to any person who is permitted, in accordance with law, to represent a party in an action pending in a superior court of the State of Georgia, and to any person proceeding pro se in an action pending in a superior court of this state. The word attorney is synonymous with counsel in these rules.

Calendar Clerk
The term calendar clerk refers to that person who is charged with the responsibility of setting and scheduling all hearings and trials in actions assigned to a particular judge. Each calendar clerk carries out those duties under the supervision of the assigned judge or the designee of that judge. In the Paulding Judicial Circuit, the Superior Court Clerk assigns individual employees to be calendar clerks for each of the three elected superior court judges.

Court Administrator
The term court administrator refers to that person who is charged with the responsibility of organizing and administering non-judicial activities of the Superior Court including but not limited to managing the budget and finance of the court, case management, information technology, interpreters, and media relations.

The Court Administrator will also assist in the development and implementation of innovative programs and procedures to improve court operations and serve as a liaison with local and state government agencies, other courts, the bar, as well as the news media and community.

Judge
The word judge refers to any of the several active judges of the superior courts of Georgia, and to any senior or other judge authorized to serve as a judge of a superior court of this state.

Law Clerk
The term law clerk refers to that person who performs legal research and prepares and analyzes legal documents for a Superior Court Judge. Once a law clerk has passed the State Bar of Georgia that person may be referred to as a staff attorney.

Staff Attorney
Please refer to the law clerk definition.

Superior Court Clerk
The word clerk refers to the clerk of any of the several superior courts in this state and to the staff members serving as deputy clerks.

2. What does it mean when I receive a letter marked "Jury Summons" for the Superior Court of Paulding County?

This means that you have been randomly selected by a computer to be a prospective Grand Jury or trial jury member in the Superior Court. It means that you have been selected to participate in one of a citizen's most sacred privileges and provides you with an opportunity to do a patriotic duty. Jury service also gives you the opportunity to see first-hand how the courts in your community function.

You should read both the summons, and the letter accompanying the summons, very carefully and completely to make sure that you understand exactly when and where you are to report for jury service as well other matters which are important to you and to the Courts.

Georgia law provides that you must respond to a summons for jury duty and report, if not excused earlier, or face penalties, including the payment of a fine of up to $300. It is very important to follow all instructions in the letter and summons carefully and completely. If your summons says to call a particular phone number the day you are to report for jury duty, you should do so. Failure to do so may cause you unnecessary time and expense which could have been avoided had you followed the instructions.

3. Why do I need to answer the questions on the questionnaire that comes with the letter and the summons for jury duty?

Georgia law provides that the attorneys for the parties involved in jury trials have the right to ask questions of the prospective jurors in order to assist them in selecting the jury to try the case.

The judges of the Paulding Judicial Circuit believe that the jury selection process, and thus most jurors' stay in court, is greatly shortened by this process. Having each prospective juror answer these questions by use of this questionnaire before they come to court saves time spent by the lawyers asking the same questions in each and every case.

If your completed questionnaire is received prior to the date you are to report for jury duty, you will receive an additional fifty cents to reimburse you for postage and envelope costs, or if you hand delivered the questionnaire back to the Clerk of Superior Court you can be reimbursed for gas.

4. How long does jury service last?

Grand Jury
The Paulding Judicial Circuit now has two terms of Superior Court per year; a Grand Jury serves for six months. Generally, you will serve one day at the beginning of the term and be recalled each month for another one-day session. Very rarely, you may be called upon to serve an additional day or so within the term.

The judges of the Paulding Judicial Circuit try to make sure that some alternate grand jurors are sworn at the initial session of each Grand Jury so that, if a Grand Jury member has an irreconcilable conflict with coming for any subsequent session, an alternate may take his or her place at the subsequent session.

Trial Jury
Generally, civil and criminal trials in the Superior Courts of the Paulding Judicial circuit are held during trial weeks scheduled at various times through the year. Jury service is generally for one trial if you are selected on a jury, or one day if you are not selected to be on a jury.

If, on the first day you report for jury duty, you are not selected to serve on a jury, then that generally ends your service for that term, although on rare occasions you may be required to return later in the week to see if you are selected to be on a jury then.

If, on the first day you report for jury duty, you are selected to serve on a jury, then you must return and serve each day until the trial is completed. Most trials do not take more than one or two days to complete, but in extremely rare cases, a trial may extend into a Saturday or Sunday or even the next week.

5. What if I can't come to Court on the day I am summoned for jury service?

Georgia law provides only two categories for complete exemption from jury duty:

• Persons over 70 years of age
• Persons with permanent mental/physical disability

In addition, Georgia law provides that two other groups of persons shall be excused from jury service:

• Any person who is a full-time student at a college, university, or vocational school
• Any person who is the primary caregiver having active care and custody of a child under four years of age in a situation where alternative child care is not reasonably available

If you believe you fall into one or more of these four categories and desire to be excused from jury duty, you should contact the office of the Clerk of Superior Court for your county in order to obtain the appropriate affidavit, which must be completed before you can be excused or exempted.

You may obtain the affidavit by going by the Clerk's office in the County Courthouse or by calling the Paulding County office at 770-443-7527.

If you already have plans and can't change them, you may ask that your jury service be postponed or rescheduled. This means that you arrange to serve on another day.

Requests for postponement must be submitted in writing and received in the Superior Court Clerk's office at least 10 days prior to the date you are supposed to report. In a personal emergency, give as much notice as possible.