Blue Ridge Judicial Circuit, Cherokee County, Georgia

On the front page 

  NEW| Downloadable forms for use in the entry of a criminal plea in the BRJC.

  NEW| 2009 Master Calendar is now posted.

  Improvement for proposed attorney withdrawal orders

  Link to "fill-in and print" Domestic Final Disposition forms at "local resources" page

  NEW! A discussion of the best practice in presenting proposed final divorce decrees.

  Link to Consent & Contested Parenting Plan forms at "local resources" page

  Child Support Addendum form for use as attachment to Orders including child support provisions.

Blue Ridge Circuit - Cherokee County Superior Court 

Superior Court operations reside in the county judicial facility, but it is not a county court. The Superior Court is the general jurisdiction court in Georgia. Superior Courts are, in effect, circuit courts. The Blue Ridge Judicial Circuit is a single county circuit comprised entirely of only Cherokee County. Court in Cherokee County is held in the Cherokee County Justice Center pictured to the right. For a brief history and overview of the circuit, see About Blue Ridge Circuit We hope that you will return to the Blue Ridge Judicial Circuit website often and that you will find the forms and information available here useful.

Forms for use in presenting criminal pleas  

   Criminal Plea forms are downloadable from the local resources page

Attorney Withdrawal Orders

 When proposing an order allowing the attorney to withdraw, the address of the client or the new attorney representative, should be included in the body of the order in substantially the following language:

"All future notices and pleadings shall be served upon [client name] at [his/her] address that the Clerk of Court, upon this direction, will designate in the record as: [client address]."

Unrepresented corporations: If an attorney withdraws from representation of a corporation and no attorney is substituted, the unrepresented corporation is subject to having its pleadings stricken since it cannot proceed in court unrepresented.

Disposition forms required

O.C.G.A. 9-11-58(b) states in part:"... As part of the filing of the final judgment, a civil case disposition form shall be filed by the prevailing party or by the plaintiff if the case is settled, dismissed, or otherwise disposed of without a prevailing party; provided, however, that the amount of a sealed or otherwise confidential settlement agreement shall not be disclosed on the civil case disposition form. The form shall be substantially in the form prescribed in Code Section 9-11-133. If any of the information required by the form is sealed by the court, the form shall state that fact and the information under seal shall not be provided. The entry of the judgment shall not be made by the clerk of the court until the civil case disposition form is filed...."

The final disposition form is available at the local resources link .

Final Judgment and Decree of Divorce in the age of worksheets, addendums and parenting plans. 

The final divorce paperwork package has seen dramatic changes in the last few years. The changes have not been made easier by the varied manner in which courts have implemented the changes. Simply, the statute requires many more details to appear in the final judgment. In addition to the information in the language of the judgment, certain attachments are required. Specifically, the child support worksheet and the parenting plan. The statute does not require a child support addendum. This attachment has been required by local rule to insure that the language requirements of the statute have been satisfied and to reduce the amount of time required to complete the review of the final judgment by the court. Without the addendum, the time required to review the final judgment would be significantly increased, thus increasing the amount of time parties and attorneys would have to wait on court days. 

Likewise, the statute requiring the parenting plan dictates specific language that must appear in every plan. The approval of a parenting plan form by uniform rule was meant to standardize the process and hopefully offset with efficiencies the expanded efforts required of the parties, attorneys and the court necessary to implement the law. 

Best practice in presenting your case for final judgment: Whether or not you have previously filed a child support worksheet, a copy of the worksheet(s) you want to be incorporated into the final judgment should be attached to the proposed judgment followed by the child support addendum and the parenting plan. Each attachment should be referenced in the judgment as being attached and incorporated as a part of the judgment. Jurisdictions probably differ on this practice, but the benefit to the parties in having a complete final judgment package to go along with their settlement agreement (where applicable) is that when they need to reference their judgment, they will not have to call on the clerk or attorney for extra paperwork copies. The judgment and agreement will be the entire body of information regarding the final divorce. This practice also applies where modification is sought.

Parenting plan forms 

Parenting Plans [copies available for download at Local Resources page]

The plan approved by the CSCJ in USCR 24.10 can be used in consent cases.