---
type: "Bill"
title: "Court-referred alternative dispute resolution programs; legal costs; increase maximum amount of additional cost"
description: "A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Code Section 15-23-7 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to collection of additional legal costs in civil actions for purposes of providing court-connected or court-referred alternative dispute resolution programs, so as to increase the maximum amount of such additional cost; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ga"
legislature: "Georgia General Assembly"
session: "2013_14"
identifier: "HB 438"
citation: "Georgia HB 438 (2013_14)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Alex Atwood", "Andrew Welch", "Edward Lindsey", "Jay Powell", "Stephen Allison", "Wendell Willard"]
version_count: 2
action_count: 17
vote_count: 1
first_action: "2013-02-21"
last_action: "2014-07-01"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/eeec5c65-1032-4514-a271-c1761bbd1690"
source_url: "http://webservices.legis.ga.gov/GGAServices/Legislation/Service.svc?wsdl"
source_hash: "35ebacefcdb13c8fc2d343ad68b2d0382917b8ff487406e36a1028d04991719e"
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 438 (2013_14) — Court-referred alternative dispute resolution programs; legal costs; increase maximum amount of additional cost

A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Code Section 15-23-7 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to collection of additional legal costs in civil actions for purposes of providing court-connected or court-referred alternative dispute resolution programs, so as to increase the maximum amount of such additional cost; 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 438/AP*** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20132014/144972.pdf)
2. **LC 21 2105/a** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20132014/131807.pdf)

## Votes

- PASSAGE — **164–3** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Alex Atwood — primary (person)
- Andrew Welch — primary (person)
- Edward Lindsey — primary (person)
- Jay Powell — primary (person)
- Stephen Allison — primary (person)
- Wendell Willard — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2013-02-21** House Hopper
- **2013-02-22** House First Readers `reading-1`
- **2013-02-25** House Second Readers `reading-2`
- **2014-02-20** House Committee Favorably Reported `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2014-02-25** House Third Readers `reading-3`
- **2014-02-25** House Passed/Adopted `passage`
- **2014-02-26** Senate Read and Referred `referral-committee`
- **2014-03-13** Senate Committee Favorably Reported `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2014-03-13** Senate Read Second Time `reading-2`
- **2014-03-18** Senate Tabled
- **2014-03-20** Senate Taken from Table
- **2014-03-20** Senate Third Read `reading-3`
- **2014-03-20** Senate Passed/Adopted `passage`
- **2014-03-26** House Sent to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2014-04-15** House Date Signed by Governor `executive-signature`
- **2014-04-15** Act 494 `executive-signature`
- **2014-07-01** Effective Date

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/eeec5c65-1032-4514-a271-c1761bbd1690`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Georgia legislature records).