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Publication Date

12-2009

Document Type

Survey Article

Abstract

Every Georgia attorney and trial court judge ought to set aside the time to read every Georgia appellate court opinion on the subject of evidence (or, for that matter, any other selected subject) rendered during a given period of a year. The feel that one acquires for the attitude of the appellate courts of Georgia is interesting. Most though, will not have the time for such projects, so that to read someone else's selections and comments may be of some benefit. It will not, however, give the "feel" that one acquires through an individual reading of the cases.

This was former Georgia Supreme Court justice, former superior court judge, and preeminent trial lawyer Hardy Gregory Jr.'s introduction to his 1978 survey of evidence decisions for the Mercer Law Review. As always, Justice Gregory got it right; there is no substitute for reading cases. Today, the sheer volume of cases and our technological ability to ferret out key words makes it even less likely we read an entire case, much less all cases in a given area. This Survey, although perhaps a helpful tool to get you part of the way to where you want to be, is no substitute for a lawyer's own careful reading of the law. Perhaps the best examples of this difficulty are cases interpreting and applying Georgia's Daubert statute. While the Author has spent a lot of time, perhaps too much time, trying to summarize these decisions, to truly understand or get a feel for what the courts are doing in this critical area, one must read the cases. This Article surveys developments in Georgia evidence law during the period of June 1, 2008 to May 31, 2009

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