Fulton County DUI Court Process

A misdemeanor DUI in Fulton County is heard almost exclusively in the State Court of Fulton County, at 185 Central Avenue SW, not the Superior Court next door. Superior Court, home to twenty judges under Chief Judge Ural Glanville, only takes the felony-tier cases: a fourth offense, or a DUI involving serious injury. Everything else, the vast majority of arrests, lands with one of the ten State Court judges, assigned by a random algorithm tied to the case number. As of the 2025 docket, Division A is Judge Eric Roth, B is Judge Patsy Y. Porter, D is Judge Susan Edlein, E is Judge Jane Morrison, F is Judge Emily K. Richardson, H is Chief Judge Wesley Tailor, and J is Judge Diane Bessen.

Many DUI cases actually start in a municipal court like Atlanta's or Sandy Springs's. Because municipal courts can't hold jury trials, a defendant who wants one has to demand a "bind-over" to State Court, a move that resets the clock, buys months of delay, and puts the case in front of a different solicitor with different plea standards. It's a common enough tactic that defense counsel treat it as a first move, not a last resort.

The first appearance happens fast: within 72 hours of arrest, usually the next morning at 9 a.m. for misdemeanors, right in a courtroom inside the Rice Street jail. Formal arraignment is a different story. It can take two to six months to get scheduled, because the Solicitor General's office needs time to file the accusation. Fulton County practice leans heavily on a "Waiver of Arraignment," a signed document that lets a defendant skip the reading of charges and enter a not-guilty plea on paper instead. Some judges, including Judge Carnesale and Judge Benton, require that waiver filed at least 24 hours before the scheduled hearing. Miss that window and a bench warrant follows.

Court security is strict: no hats, no sunglasses, no torn jeans or sagging pants, and cameras or recording devices need a judge's order to come inside. The Clerk's online docket, run through Odyssey and the CaseLook system for Magistrate matters, carries an explicit warning that it can lag a judicial action by 24 hours or more, so checking the portal the morning of a hearing isn't a substitute for confirming with the case manager directly.

For repeat or high-BAC offenders, the county runs the Recovery Treatment Court, renamed in 2023 from the old DUI Court to shift the framing toward addiction as a treatable condition. Judges Tailor and Edlein preside over it. It's an 18-to-24-month commitment structured in phases: Phase I runs a minimum of 12 weeks with three group therapy sessions a week, a 9 p.m. curfew, and daily calls to a "color code" line to find out if random testing is required that day. Curfews loosen and therapy frequency drops as participants advance through Phases II, III, and IV, but full-time work or school becomes mandatory by the later phases. The program isn't free, running roughly $110 for the intake evaluation and $50 a week after that, and failing out doesn't just end participation. It triggers the full suspended sentence the plea deal was built around. For someone genuinely ready to get sober, though, it's a real path to avoiding a permanent conviction and access to treatment most people couldn't otherwise afford.

Sources

• Fulton County State Court
• Fulton County Superior Court
• Fulton County Recovery Treatment Court