2022 Georgia Code
Title 15 - Courts
Chapter 1 - General Provisions
§ 15-1-3. Powers of Courts Generally

Every court has power:

1. To preserve and enforce order in its immediate presence and, as near thereto as is necessary, to prevent interruption, disturbance, or hindrance to its proceedings;
2. To enforce order before a person or body empowered to conduct a judicial investigation under its authority;
3. To compel obedience to its judgments, orders, and process and to the orders of a judge out of court in an action or proceeding therein;
4. To control, in the furtherance of justice, the conduct of its officers and all other persons connected with a judicial proceeding before it, in every matter appertaining thereto;
5. To administer oaths in an action or proceeding pending therein and in all other cases when it may be necessary in the exercise of its powers and duties;
6. To amend and control its processes and orders, so as to make them conformable to law and justice, and to amend its own records, so as to make them conform to the truth; and
7. To correct its own proceedings before final judgment.

History. Orig. Code 1863, §§ 200, 3428; Code 1868, §§ 194, 3448; Code 1873, §§ 206, 3499; Code 1882, §§ 206, 3499; Civil Code 1895, §§ 4047, 5118; Civil Code 1910, §§ 4644, 5702; Code 1933, §§ 24-104, 81-1202.

Cross references.

Powers of courts with regard to management of churches, § 14-5-45 .

Law reviews.

For article comparing sections of the Georgia Civil Practice Act with preexisting provisions of the Georgia Code, see 3 Ga. St. B.J. 295 (1967).

For article, “The Civil Jurisdiction of State and Magistrate Courts,” see 24 Ga. St. B. J. 29 (1987).

For annual survey of domestic relations law, see 58 Mercer L. Rev. 133 (2006).