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28 Ga. St. U. L. Rev. 379 (2011-2012)
Georgia's New Evidence Code - An Overview

handle is hein.journals/gslr28 and id is 393 raw text is: GEORGIA'S NEW EVIDENCE CODE - AN OVERVIEW Paul S. Milich' I. A BRIEF HISTORY - A LONG AND WINDING ROAD...... .....380 II. A STRUCTURAL OVERVIEW OF THE NEW EVIDENCE CODE ..........384 III. A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THIRTY-EIGHT SIGNIFICANT CHANGES WROUGHT BY THE NEW RULES.................. ......387 (A) General Rules Applying to Both Civil and Criminal Trials ....................................387 (B) Rules Relating to Criminal Trials ..................405 (C) Rules Relating to Civil Trials ...........................414 IV. UNFINISHED BUSINESS-A FEW ISSUES TO ADDRESS IN THE FUTURE .........................................419 V. CONCLUSION .....................................421 On May 3, 2011, Governor Nathan Deal signed into law House Bill 24 (HB 24) bringing a new set of evidence rules to the State of Georgia.2 The new rules3 will go into effect on January 1, 2013. The author of this article was the Reporter for the State Bar Evidence Study Committee when new rules were first proposed back in the mid-1980s, and again throughout the recent, successful effort to reform the rules. Part I of this article will give a brief history of the twenty-six-year effort to bring new evidence rules to Georgia. Part II will provide a structural overview of the new rules. Part III will then describe thirty-eight significant changes that judges and trial lawyers will find in the new rules. Finally, Part IV will mention a few evidentiary issues that still need attention. 1. Professor of Law and Director of the Litigation Program, Georgia State University, College of Law. Professor Milich was the Reporter for the State Bar of Georgia Evidence Study Committee that proposed the new rules of evidence Law. Professor Milich was the Reporter for the State Bar of Georgia Evidence Study Committee that proposed the new rules of evidence. 2. 2011 Ga. Laws 52 (to be codified in GA. CODE ANN.). 3. For the purposes of this article, new rules refers to the rule that will go into effect January 1, 2013. Current rules refers to the rules in effect prior to January 1, 2013. 379