United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia

• Court
• Judges

Southern District of Georgia Eleventh Circuit Chief: Lisa Wood Judges: 3 Posts: 3 Vacancies: 0 Active judges Hall • Moore Senior Judges Bowen • Edenfield Magistrate Judges Barfield • Graham • Smith Former Judges

Key: (Numbers indicate % of seats vacant.) 0% 0%-10% 10%-25% 25%-40% More than 40%

The United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia is a United States district court.

Vacancy warning level

The United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia's vacancy warning level is currently set at green. The court has all three posts currently filled.

Jurisdiction

The Counties of the Southern District of Georgia (click for larger map)

The jurisdiction of the Southern District of Georgia consists of all the counties in the southern part of the state of Georgia.

There are six court divisions, each covering the following counties:

The Augusta Division, covering Burke, Glascock, Lincoln, Richmond, Warren, Columbia, Jefferson, McDuffie, Taliaferro and Wilkes Counties

The Brunswick Division, covering Appling, Glynn, Long, Wayne, Camden, Jeff Davis and McIntosh Counties

The Dublin Division, covering Dodge, Laurens, Telfair, Wheeler, Johnson, Montgomery and Treutlen Counties

The Savannah Division, covering Bryan, Chatham, Effingham and Liberty Counties

The Statesboro Division, covering Bulloch, Emanuel, Screven, Evans, Candler, Jenkins, Tattnall and Toombs Counties

The Waycross Division, covering Atkinson, Brantley, Coffee, Ware, Bacon, Charlton and Pierce Counties

When decisions of the court are appealed, they are appealed to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals based in Downtown Atlanta at the Elbert P. Tuttle Federal Courthouse.

Cases heard

The Southern District of Georgia has original jurisdiction over cases filed within its jurisdiction. These cases can include civil and criminal matters that fall under federal law.

Case load

Federal Court Case Load Statistics*

Year	Starting case load:	Cases filed:	Total cases:	Cases terminated:	Remaining cases:	Median time(Criminal)**:	Median time(Civil)**:	3 Year Civil cases#:	Vacant posts:##	Trials/Post
2010	1047	1461	2508	1441	1067	9.3	7.9	6(.8%)	0	23
2009	1020	1334	2354	1330	1024	8.8	8.5	9(1.4%)	0	15
2008	923	1356	2279	1262	1017	7.7	10.3	15(2.1%)	6.3	19
2007	1223	1271	2494	1516	978	9.6	10.1	10(1.6%)	16	24
2006	1317	1502	2819	1598	1221	8.3	8.0	45(5%)	5.1	20

*All statistics are taken from the Official Federal Courts' Website and reflect the calendar year through September.    **Time in months from filing to completion. #This statistic includes cases which have been appealed in higher courts.    ##This is the total number of months that any all judicial posts had spent vacant that year.

Clerk's office

The Southern District of Georgia has six separate courthouses with clerical contacts and directions for each. All Clerk's offices are open from 8:30a.m. to 5p.m. five days a week excluding holidays. Please consult the chart below for more information:

Branch	Address	Mailing Address	Phone
Augusta Division	600 James Brown Blvd. Augusta, GA 30901	P. O. Box 1130 Augusta, Ga. 30903	706-849-4400
Brunswick Division	801 Gloucester Street Brunswick, GA 31520	P.O. Box 1636 Brunswick, GA 31521	912-280-1330
Dublin Division	100 North Franklin Street Dublin, GA 31021		478-272-2121
Savannah Division	125 Bull Street Savannah, GA 31401	PO Box 8286 Savannah, GA 31412	912-650-4020
Waycross Division	601 Tebeau Street Waycross, GA 31501		912-283-2870
Statesboro Courthouse	52 North Main Street Statesboro, GA 30458		912-764-3276

History

Court history

The District of Georgia was established by the Judiciary Act of 1789 and established the entire state as one district with one post. On August 11, 1848 Congress reorganized the District of Georgia into the Northern District of Georgia and the Southern District of Georgia with one post split between the two districts. On April 25, 1882 Congress assigned a new post to the Northern District of Georgia and permanently assigned the previous post to the Southern District of Georgia. Since then, two additional posts have been added to the court for a total of three posts.

Judicial posts

The following table highlights the development of judicial posts for the Southern District of Georgia:

Year	Statute	Total Seats
April 25, 1882	22 Stat. 47	1
March 3, 1915	38 Stat. 959	2
1918	Temporary post expired	1
June 2, 1970	84 Stat. 294	2
October 20, 1978	92 Stat. 1629	3

Notable cases

You can find a list of search-able opinions at: Opinions of the Southern District of Georgia.

• Troy Davis' innocence claim  Judge(s):William Moore      *In Re: Troy Anthony Davis 4:09-cv-00130-WTM

In August 2010, Judge Moore rejected claims of innocence by Troy Davis, convicted of killing a police officer, in an unusual hearing ordered by the Supreme Court of the United States. By that time, Davis had spent 19 years in prison and was scheduled to be executed, though many believed him to be not guilty. Due to new evidence against his conviction as well as several key witnesses recanting their testimony, the Supreme Court ordered a hearing by a federal judge on Davis' innocence claims. It is the first time in 50 years such a hearing has been ordered. Although Judge Moore finally rejected the claims saying, "Ultimately, while Mr. Davis' new evidence casts some additional, minimal doubt on his conviction, it is largely smoke and mirrors. The vast majority of the evidence at trial remains largely intact, and the new evidence is largely not credible or [is] lacking in probative value," he did suggest that Davis appeal directly to the U.S. Supreme Court. Ultimately, Davis did appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States. A stay of execution was denied; Davis was put to death in September 2011.

Federal courthouse

There are six federal courthouses that serve the Southern District of Georgia.

Major news

For new stories and other related material see Georgia judicial news.

See also

• United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit

External link

• United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia
• US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Georgia
• Opinions of the Southern District of Georgia

References

Southern District of Georgia Eleventh Circuit Chief: Lisa Wood Judges: 3 Posts: 3 Vacancies: 0 Active judges Hall • Moore Senior Judges Bowen • Edenfield Magistrate Judges Barfield • Graham • Smith Former Judges

Key: (Numbers indicate % of seats vacant.) 0% 0%-10% 10%-25% 25%-40% More than 40%

From the time that the court was established, it has been served by 15 Article III judges.

Active judges

Article III judges

See: Article III federal judge
The United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia has 3 posts and 0 vacancies. The current Chief Judge is Lisa Wood. This is a list of the current judges on the court:

Judge	Born	Home	Appointed by	Active	Chief	Preceeded	Bachelors	Law
Judge William Moore	1940	Bainbridge, GA	Clinton	10/11/1994 - Present	2004 - 2010	Anthony Alaimo		U. of Georgia Law, 1964
Judge James Hall	1958	Augusta, GA	W. Bush	4/23/2008 - Present		Berry Edenfield	Augusta State U., 1979	University of Georgia School of Law, 1982
Chief Judge Lisa Wood	1963	Lexington, KY	W. Bush	2/8/2007 - Present	2010-Current	Dudley Bowen	U. of Georgia, B.A., 1985	U. of Georgia Law, J.D., 1990

Pending appointments

There are no current pending appointments for the United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia.

Senior judges

See: Federal judges on senior status
The United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia has 2 judges on senior status currently. This is a list of the current senior judges on the court:

Judge	Appointed by	Active	Chief	Senior	Bachelors	Law
Senior Judge Berry Edenfield	Carter	10/11/1978 - 8/2/2009	1990 - 1997	8/2/2009 - Present	University of Georgia, Bachelor's Business Administration, 1956	University of Georgia, LL.B., 1958
Senior Judge Dudley Bowen	Carter	11/27/1979 - 6/25/2006	1997 - 2004	6/25/2006 - Present	University of Georgia, Bachelor in Business Administration, 1964	University of Georgia, LL.B., 1965

Magistrate judges

Judge	Active	Bachelors	Law
Magistrate Judge W. Leon Barfield
Magistrate Judge James E. Graham
Magistrate Judge G.R. Smith

Past judges

Former Chief judges

Judge	Term
Alexander Lawrence	1970 - 1976
William Moore	2004 - 2010
Dudley Bowen	1997 - 2004
Berry Edenfield	1990 - 1997
Anthony Alaimo	1976 - 1990

In order to qualify for the office of Chief Judge in one of the federal courts, a judge must have been in active service on the court for at least one year, be under the age of 65, and have not previously served as Chief Judge. A vacancy in the office of Chief Judge is filled by the judge highest in seniority among the group of qualified judges. The Chief Judge serves for a term of seven years or until age 70, whichever occurs first. The age restrictions are waived if no members of the court would otherwise be qualified for the position. Unlike the Chief Justice of the United States, a Chief Judge returns to active service after the expiration of his or her term and does not create a vacancy on the bench by the fact of his or her promotion. See 28 U.S.C. § 45.

These rules for Chief Judges in the federal judiciary have been in effect since October 1, 1982. The office of Chief Judge was created in 1948. Until August 6, 1959, the position was filled in each federal court by the longest-serving judge who had not elected to retire on what has since 1958 been known as senior status or declined to serve as Chief Judge. From then until 1982 it was filled by the senior such judge who had not turned 70.

Former judges

1. Anthony Alaimo
2. John Cochran Nicoll
3. John Erskine
4. Emory Speer
5. Beverly Daniel Evans
6. William Wallace Lambdin
7. William Hale Barrett
8. Alexander Lawrence
9. Archibald Lovett
10. Francis Scarlett