Legislators

House Bill 1134 allows the Office of the Attorney General to concurrently investigate and prosecute gang-related crimes with local district attorneys.

House Bill 1150, also known as the “Freedom to Farm Act”, aims to protect farmers from nuisance litigation from neighboring property owners that encroach on existing agricultural areas. The bill addresses vagueness and ambiguity in the law that Georgia shares with other states whose farmers have fallen victim to this type of litigation.

House Bill 1520 would create the Georgia Council on Addressing Health Care Workforce Challenges. The council would include 26 members from a variety of industries: the University System of Georgia, the Technical College System of Georgia, private colleges, K-12, members of the House and Senate, providers including nurses, physicians, rural health systems and state health entities like the Department of Community Health. The Governor’s Office will appoint a chair to lead the council in its efforts and it will remain functional until June 2025.

Senate Bill 379 would create the Office of Workforce Development. This entity will establish a program to promote the creation and expansion of registered apprenticeship programs in the state, with the goal of creating more programs to support the demands of our growing economy and current workforce challenges. Businesses that train up to five students will be eligible to receive compensation of up to $10,000 per student upon completion of the apprenticeship course.

House Bill 961 cleans up statutory language in Georgia’s apportionment statute addressing damages in civil litigation originally passed in 2005. In a recent Georgia Supreme Court ruling, Hatcher v. Alston & Bird, inconsistencies in the statute were at issue. Under the guidance of the ruling in that case, HB 961 clarifies the legislative intent of the statute and reinstates the apportionment of damages aligned with the apportionment of fault in single-defendant cases.