Conflicts of Interest
Effective July 1, 2022, the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia received statewide authority to appoint substitute counsel when a district attorney or solicitor-general’s office has a conflict of interest in a case. Since 2002, the Georgia Attorney General had been fulfilling that role. During the 2022 legislative session, the General Assembly modified O.C.G.A. § 15-18-5 (district attorney conflict) and § 15-18-65 (solicitor-general conflict) to make the Executive Director of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia the appointing authority.
The Official Code of Georgia directs that the main avenues for appointment of conflict cases are other district attorneys and solicitors-general, as well as the Georgia Attorney General. Therefore, the responsibility for prosecuting conflict cases belongs to all elected prosecutors in Georgia.
If the elected prosecutor has a conflict of interest, he or she must submit a notice of recusal to the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia. McLaughlin v. Payne, 295 Ga. 609 (2014).
Questions and prosecutor recusal letters can be submitted to conflicts@pacga.org
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