Legislation: batch A — AK AL AR AZ CO CT DE GA HI IA ID

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>

legislation/us/states/ga/2025-26/hb-1208.md

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+---
+type: "Bill"
+title: "Civil practice; require depositions to be taken before certified court reporters"
+description: "A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Article 5 of Chapter 11 of Title 9 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to depositions and discovery, so as to require depositions in this state to be taken before certified court reporters; to repeal requirements that depositions in this state shall be recorded by stenographic means; to provide an effective date; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes."
+jurisdiction: "us/states/ga"
+legislature: "Georgia General Assembly"
+session: "2025_26"
+identifier: "HB 1208"
+citation: "Georgia HB 1208 (2025_26)"
+classification: ["bill"]
+subjects: ["CIVIL PRACTICE", "COURTS"]
+status: "enacted"
+primary_sponsors: ["Esther Panitch", "James Burchett", "Rob Leverett", "Stan Gunter", "Trey Kelley", "Tyler Paul Smith"]
+version_count: 4
+action_count: 14
+vote_count: 2
+first_action: "2026-02-05"
+last_action: "2026-05-05"
+source: "openstates"
+source_identifier: "ocd-bill/17a6881a-a4c4-43c6-91a9-e5c296bf6268"
+source_url: "http://webservices.legis.ga.gov/GGAServices/Legislation/Service.svc?wsdl"
+source_hash: "111bfa194d335ea9189495e8c5f743fdd039851c525598314bb5ff216ddc80ea"
+vintage: "2026-07-01"
+source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
+retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
+confidence: "reported"
+tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ga"]
+---
+
+# Georgia HB 1208 (2025_26) — Civil practice; require depositions to be taken before certified court reporters
+
+A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Article 5 of Chapter 11 of Title 9 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to depositions and discovery, so as to require depositions in this state to be taken before certified court reporters; to repeal requirements that depositions in this state shall be recorded by stenographic means; to provide an effective date; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.
+
+## Version chain
+
+The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.
+
+1. **HB 1208/AP*** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20252026/248115.pdf)
+2. **LC 49 2566/a** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20252026/241644.pdf)
+3. **LC 49 2659S/hcs** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20252026/245512.pdf)
+4. **LC 49 2659S/hs** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20252026/243239.pdf)
+
+## Votes
+
+- Senate Vote #834 - 2025-2026 Regular Session — **48–0** (pass) · upper
+- House Vote #689 - 2025-2026 Regular Session — **138–17** (pass) · lower
+
+## Sponsors
+
+- Esther Panitch — primary (person)
+- James Burchett — primary (person)
+- Rob Leverett — primary (person)
+- Stan Gunter — primary (person)
+- Trey Kelley — primary (person)
+- Tyler Paul Smith — primary (person)
+
+## Timeline
+
+The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.
+
+- **2026-02-05** House Hopper `introduction`
+- **2026-02-06** House First Readers `reading-1`
+- **2026-02-09** House Second Readers `reading-2`
+- **2026-02-19** House Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute `committee-passage-favorable`
+- **2026-03-06** House Third Readers `reading-3`
+- **2026-03-06** House Passed/Adopted By Substitute `passage`
+- **2026-03-09** Senate Read and Referred `referral-committee`
+- **2026-03-18** Senate Committee Favorably Reported `committee-passage-favorable`
+- **2026-03-19** Senate Read Second Time `reading-2`
+- **2026-03-27** Senate Third Read `reading-3`
+- **2026-03-27** Senate Passed/Adopted `passage`
+- **2026-04-06** House Sent to Governor `executive-receipt`
+- **2026-05-05** House Date Signed by Governor `executive-signature`
+- **2026-05-05** Act 387 `executive-signature`
+
+## Source
+
+OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/17a6881a-a4c4-43c6-91a9-e5c296bf6268`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Georgia legislature records).
+