Georgia Superior Court Could Not Sanction Probate Court Conduct
February 28, 2018
Authored by: Luke Lantta
Probate court practice can be quirky, fraught with procedural peculiarities and appellate traps for those who do not regularly practice there. Appeals from a Georgia county probate court to that county’s superior court – an appellate process that does not apply to every probate court in Georgia but only to those in certain counties – is one arena in which these quirks frequently arise. Often, the issues relate to jurisdiction between the two courts. In McNair v. McNair, the Georgia Court of Appeals addressed a superior court’s authority to impose sanctions for conduct that occurred in probate court proceedings in the same case but prior to the appeal to superior court.
The short answer? It can’t.
Estate disputes are among the most hotly contested disputes for myriad reasons, not the least of which is they often involve family.