To date, Georgia has had ten constitutions. The present constitution took effect in 1983 and is the basic framework for Georgia government. Laws passed by the state government are second only to the United States Constitution. The constitution is broadly classified into the executive, legislative and judiciary branches.

The judiciary branch deals with the three kinds of courts, the limited jurisdiction courts, general jurisdiction court and the appellate jurisdiction courts, and deals with all other matters pertaining to the law.

The judges in these courts are selected through elections; however, the judges of the general jurisdiction court and the appellate courts are selected on a non-member basis. A district attorney elected for a term of four years by a general election heads each judicial network in the state.

Georgian limited jurisdiction courts are broadly classified further into four categories: juvenile courts, magistrate courts, probate courts and the state courts for the counties. One interesting thing about the state of Georgia is that each of the counties in the state has one of these courts, along with a state county court, and the final decision is made by judges rather than by a jury.

All the general trial cases are filed in the general jurisdiction court, which is the superior court. This is a regular court wherein the jury passes a verdict after hearing the case. The judge