Section 15-9-37. Duties of clerks or probate judges acting as clerks

   (a) It is the duty of clerks of the probate courts, or the judges of the probate courts acting as such:

   (1) To issue all citations required by law and to administer all oaths incident to the business of the court;

   (2) To grant temporary letters of administration;

   (3) To grant marriage licenses;

   (4) To issue all writs of fieri facias for costs on all judgments of the judge or other process necessary to enforce them;

   (5) To issue subpoenas for witnesses and all similar process in connection with a trial;

   (6) To issue any paper or process by order of the judge and bearing teste in his name;

   (7) To keep fair and regular minutes of each session of the court entered in a suitable book and perform such other services as the judge may require; but any minutes, dockets, or other records required to be kept as records of the probate court under this paragraph or paragraph (8) of this subsection or under any other law may be combined into one or more suitable books, as the ends of justice require, but in any case shall be indexed, permanent, economical, and accessible to the public;

   (8) To keep in their offices a suitable book for each of the following purposes:

      (A) Record of wills;

      (B) Record of all letters of administration and guardianship;

      (C) Record of all bonds given by administrators and guardians;

      (D) Record of all appraisements, inventories, and schedules;

      (E) Record of all accounts of sales;

      (F) Record of all current accounts authorized to be made to the judge, together with the vouchers accompanying the same;

      (G) Record of all marriage licenses and the returns thereon;

      (H) Record of all official bonds required to be recorded in the office of the judge; and

      (I) Docket in which to enter all applications and other proceedings, in the order they are made, which shall be called in like order at each session;

   (9) To procure and preserve for public inspection a complete file of all newspaper issues in which their advertisements actually appear;

   (10) To keep their books and papers arranged, filed, labeled, and indexed, as clerks are required to do;

   (11) To give transcripts likewise as clerks are required to do, and when the judge of the probate court and the clerk are the same person, so to state in the certificates;

   (12) To keep and maintain facilities for the filing of wills of persons who are still alive; and

   (13) To perform any other duty required of them by law or which is indispensable to those required.

(b) Nothing in this Code section shall restrict or otherwise prohibit a clerk or a probate judge acting as such from electing to store for computer retrieval any or all records, dockets, indices, or files; nor shall a clerk or a probate judge acting as such be prohibited from combining or consolidating any books, dockets, files, or indices in connection with the filing for record of papers of the kind specified in this Code section or any other law, provided that any automated or computerized record-keeping method or system shall provide for the systematic and safe preservation and retrieval of all books, dockets, records, or indices. When the clerk or a probate judge acting as such elects to store for computer retrieval any or all records, the same data elements used in a manual system shall be used, and the same integrity and security maintained.

Orig. Code 1863, § 316; Code 1868, § 377; Code 1873, § 344; Ga. L. 1882-83, p. 70, § 1; Code 1882, § 344; Civil Code 1895, § 4250; Civil Code 1910, § 4808; Code 1933, § 24-1804; Ga. L. 1958, p. 354, § 1; Ga. L. 1974, p. 383, § 1; Ga. L. 1982, p. 1617, §§ 1, 2; Ga. L. 1983, p. 3, § 12; Ga. L. 1991, p. 1753, § 1; Ga. L. 1992, p. 6, § 15.