Three years after the COVID-19 pandemic shut down courthouses across Georgia in 2020, a handful of judges are continuing to toll statutory speedy trial requirements. Leveraging O.C.G.A. 38-3-62. (b), five judicial circuits have utilized the tolling extensions 15 times since 2022.
Last year, the Atlanta, Clayton, Cordele, Dougherty and Northern judicial circuits extended orders granting relief from statutory speedy trial requirements, but one circuit in particular continues to account for more than half the extensions post-pandemic.
