In Re: Grady Alexander Roberts
Pursuant to OCGA § 5-6-4 and Court of Appeals Rule 5, filing fees are $300 in civil cases and accrue upon the docketing of a direct appeal in this Court. Filing fees “shall be paid no later than the . . . filing of the appellant’s brief in direct appeals.” Court of Appeals Rule 5; see also OCGA § 5-6-4 (a).1
Attorney Grady Alexander Roberts has filed numerous direct appeals to this Court. In each case, the Court has notified Roberts by email or letter of his obligation to pay the $300 filing fee and of the deadline for making the payment. Each email or letter has included the following language: “If you are an attorney and the cost is not paid by the date above, your name shall be removed from the roll of attorneys who are permitted to practice in the Court of Appeals of Georgia and that fact will be communicated to the State Bar of Georgia.” Since 2011, Roberts has failed to pay the filing fees in 81 direct appeals, and he presently owes the State of Georgia $24,300. This Court has submitted annual bills to Roberts itemizing these past due amounts. A copy of the most recent bill, mailed to Roberts on January 27, 2017, is attached to this Order. To date, Roberts has not paid this bill.
Court of Appeals Rule 7 (d) provides that “[r]epeated violations of this Court’s rules or orders may result in the revocation of the violator’s admission to practice before the Court of Appeals.”2 Based on Roberts’s repeated failure over the past six years to comply with our rule regarding the payment of filing fees and his continuing disregard of our communications directing him to make such payments, we hereby exercise our authority under Rule 7 (d). Grady Alexander Roberts’s permission to practice law before the Court of Appeals is hereby REVOKED. The Clerk of the Court is DIRECTED to remove Grady Alexander Roberts’s name from the roll of attorneys permitted to practice in this Court. The Clerk is FURTHER DIRECTED not to accept any future filings from Grady Alexander Roberts, except in the three cases discussed below. This prohibition applies to direct appeals, applications, motions, and all other filings.
Roberts is currently representing litigants in three direct appeals (Case Nos. A17A0456, A17A0732, and A17A0791) and one discretionary application (Case No. A17D0285) pending in this Court. Roberts will be permitted to continue his representation in those cases only. The Clerk of the Court is DIRECTED to forward a copy of this Order to the parties represented by Roberts in the above-listed cases within five days of the entry of this Order. Roberts is also DIRECTED to forward a copy of this Order to the parties he represents in those cases within five days of the entry of this Order.
The Clerk of the Court is DIRECTED to forward a copy of this Order to the State Bar of Georgia.
Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia Clerk’s Office, Atlanta, 02/15/2017
1 There are several exceptions to this requirement, none of which apply here.
2 See also Court of Appeals Rule 7 (a) (recognizing this Court’s “inherent power to maintain control over proceedings conducted before it”).