CLERKS WHO MUST COMPLETE TRAINING: 
 
Anyone designated to serve as a municipal court clerk as the primary person most directly responsible for the administration of a municipal court other than the chief judge of the municipal court, whether full-time or part-time, must be certified according to O.C.G.A. §36-32-13.   
 
NOTICE OF TRAINING: 
 
A schedule of training to be offered each year by the Institute of Continuing Judicial Education (ICJE) will be mailed to each clerk who has notified the Administrative Office of the Courts of their designation, and to each clerk listed on the ICJE mailing list.  Additionally, the Georgia Municipal Courts Training Council, hereinafter the “Training Council,” will publish from time to time notices of training in the newsletter of the Georgia Municipal Association. 
 
INITIAL CERTIFICATION: 
 
Each municipal court clerk, upon being designated as chief clerk, shall attend the 16-hour Basic Certification Course offered by the Training Council within 12 months of their designation.  There are no alternatives to this course.  If a clerk has a break in service of more than 12 months, then the clerk must attend the Basic Certification Course again. 
 
RECERTIFICATION: 
 
Each clerk, after initial certification, shall annually attend eight hours of training approved or sponsored by the Training Council to retain the clerk’s certification.  If a clerk has a break in service of less than 12 months, then the clerk is eligible for recertification.  The Training Council will offer such recertification training at least twice during each calendar year.  
 
VERIFICATION OF TRAINING: 
 
Upon verification by the Training Council of the appropriate hours of attendance at sponsored or approved training, a letter verifying that the mandatory hours have been completed shall be mailed to the clerk.  The clerk shall be responsible for maintaining this verification of training. 
 
CREDITABLE TRAINING: 
 
The primary provider of municipal clerk training is the Institute of Continuing Judicial Education (ICJE). In addition, the Training Council may approve a list of authorized providers for clerk training.  Every other year the Training Council will extend up to eight hours of credit to a clerk for any training provided from the list of pre-approved training providers.  Any clerk relying on this must attend ICJE-sponsored municipal clerk training the following year.  The primary focus of all creditable training should be judicial office responsibilities, duties and ethics. 
 
All requests for credit hours, other than courses sponsored by ICJE, shall be from the pre-approved listing by the Training Council, and submitted on the approved forms designated, with an agenda of the coursework if possible.   
 

 
 
Each clerk attending ICJE sponsored training, or requesting credit for any pre-approved alternate training, is obligated to pay ICJE the certification fees as designated for that year before a verification of training letter will be issued by the Training Council. 
 
CREDIT FOR PARTICIPATING AS INSTRUCTOR: 
 
The Training Council will extend recertification credit of three hours for each hour of instruction performed by a municipal court clerk participating in an ICJE sponsored certification or recertification course. A clerk may request credit of three hours for each hour of instruction performed at a course from the Training Council’s pre-approved list.  The instructor is expected to participate in preparing instructional materials for the training session.   
 
The Training Council will extend recertification credit for two hours for each hour a municipal court clerk participates in a panel session on the program of an ICJE sponsored initial certification or recertification course or for a course from the Training Council’s pre-approved list.  
 
In no event will more than four hours of credit for any one year be given for participation as an instructor. 
 
FAILURE TO ATTEND TRAINING: 
 
A clerk who does not attend a sufficient number of hours of training or who does not attend approved training is not eligible to perform the duties of a municipal court chief clerk.  In accordance with the statute, the Georgia Municipal Courts Training Council will report uncompleted training requirements to the governing authority of the applicable municipality as well as to the chief municipal court judge. 
 
However, this provision shall not apply in the event that the Training Council, on a case-by-case basis for hardship reasons only, extends the time for compliance.  Hardship requests must be timely made in writing addressed to the Secretary of the Training Council and must be approved by the full Training Council membership.   
 
ADDRESSING HARDSHIP AND REPEATED DELINQUENCY  
 
Ordinary deficiencies in attaining the annual MCJE requirement must be reported to the JQC.  It has been the JQC’s custom to permit these MCJE deficiencies to be made up by the delinquent party during the subsequent year.   
 
In accord with extraordinary MCJE deficiencies, those that have been occasioned by hardship due to personal or family member medical illness or infirmity and which are supported by a treating physician’s affidavit, henceforth, it shall be the policy of the Municipal Courts Training Council to withhold reporting such deficiencies to the JQC, provided that the delinquent party pledges to make-up the deficiency in the year subsequent to it, along with fulfilling the annual MCJE requirement for that ensuing year. 
 
In the case of multiple year deficiencies in fulfilling the MCJE requirement regardless of the causing circumstance, it shall be the policy of the Municipal Courts Training Council to report to the JQC after three instances of annual deficiency, whether or not involving successive years, as well as to recommend that such a delinquent be removed from office for demonstrable and repeated failure to comply with the MCJE law. 
 
 
(Updated June 2010)