More court documents online

By Genie Collins
AMERICUS TIMES-RECORDER (AMERICUS, Ga.)

AMERICUS, Ga. Tue, May 13 2008

— It seems all types of businesses are going online these days, and Clerk of Court documents are no exceptions.
The Georgia Superior Court Clerks’ Cooperative Authority has created a Website, where potential notaries can go online and learn how to get handbooks and even take an online training course. The Website is www.gsccca.org.
“The really nice thing that we are enjoying, and we hope the public is enjoying, is the online notary,” said Nancy Smith, clerk of Superior and State Courts in Sumter County.
Also available on the Website are “civil forms,” that one might file in domestic matters. The forms needed for filing deeds — PT 61 forms — can also be downloaded off the Website.
Smith said the person getting the form would fill it out and bring it back to the Clerk’s Office with the deed for filing.
“It gives access to information about real estate,” Smith said. For instance, some counties give the plats that show where specific property is located. Also, liens can be accessed on the Website.
The Website is made free of charge to the clerks’ offices; however, attorneys’ offices, banks and real estate firms can subscribe to it for a fee.
The site contains information from all 159 counties in Georgia, and lists the clerk in each county and biographical information about the clerks.
“They are always building new ways to help,” Smith said of the Clerks’ Authority.
The Authority was established in 1993 with the legislature-created mandate “of implementing and administering a statewide central index for UCC filings,” according to the Website.
Smith said the Authority has given her office “wonderful support” in implementation of the program.

Genie Collins writes for the Americusa (Ga.) Times-Recorder.