Procedures
City courts, courts of appeal and a Supreme Court of cassation
Civil claims begin in city or district courts, are appealed to the Tbilisi or Kutaisi Court of Appeal, and may go to the Supreme Court on cassation. The Civil Procedure Code of 1997 governs the process and provides for mandatory mediation in defined categories.
Key rules
- Jurisdiction — National, subject to the situation in Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
- Deadline — Appeal to the Court of Appeal: 14 days from service of the reasoned judgment in most civil cases
- Deadline — Cassation appeal to the Supreme Court: 21 days from service of the appellate judgment
Governing law
- Civil Procedure Code of Georgia1997, as amended
- Organic Law on Common Courts (2009) — court structure and judicial administration
- Law on Mediation (2019) — judicial and private mediation
In practice
Georgian appeal deadlines are notably short by regional standards — 14 days for most first appeals — and are strictly applied, which makes diary management a real risk area. Cassation to the Supreme Court is discretionary and confined to questions of law with wider significance. The Law on Mediation of 2019 established a certified mediator profession and made mediation compulsory in certain family and small-claim matters before litigation may proceed. Enforcement is carried out by the National Bureau of Enforcement, and Georgia has an unusually digitised court filing and case-tracking system.