Happy New Year! I hope that you enjoyed the holidays and have begun 2013 in peace and enthusiasm. I am a member of a women's investment club, and we had a wonderful New Year's fellowship last weekend. One of our members suggested that each of us choose one word to motivate our thoughts, behavior, and actions in the year ahead, and we did so. As a full-time government attorney with a husband, a son who is a senior in high school with seemingly endless expenses, senior class activities, and college & scholarship application deadlines, an ambitious eighth grade daughter, and active memberships in several organizations and church ministries, you may surmise that my word is "prioritize" this year! But I also have two other words -" "balance" and "healthy". So, too, I encourage you to select one or two words to embrace and guide your thoughts, behavior, and actions this year!  Read more....

MEET GWINNETT'S NEW CHIEF MAGISTRATE 

Kristina Hammer Blum was first appointed to the

Magistrate Court as a part time Magistrate in 2005; she became a full time Magistrate in 2009. In prior years, she practiced law with several different firms including Barnhart, O'Quinn & Williams, Hipes & Norton, and Williams, Morris & Blum (where she was a partner). Although she practiced in a variety of areas, she specialized in the representation of city and county governments and public officials. In fact, she came to the Magistrate Court from the Gwinnett County Law Department where she was a Senior Assistant County Attorney for 7 years. In the Law Department, Judge Blum began her relationship with Magistrate Court as its lawyer, representing and advising the Court on policy issues and in litigated matters. She also served as a Staff Attorney to the Hon. Judge Carla Brown.

Off the bench, Judge Blum is an avid SCUBA diver. She has over 250 dives and her favorite hobby is underwater photography. She recently returned from Cocos Island where she dove with hundreds of hammerhead, white tip, black tip and Galapagos sharks.

Judge Blum jumping into shark infested waters!

She also has an extensive theatre background and actually spent two years as a principal cast member of Second Base Improv Comedy Troupe. She is presently choreographing her daughter's school musical and is her son's Cub Scout Den Leader. She was taking guitar lessons for two years but quit when her family begged her to stop playing "Margaritaville," which is the only song she managed to learn and play competently. Judge Blum is married to love of her life, James Paul Blum, Jr., an attorney with the Cobb County firm of Beloin, Brown & Blum. She has two hilarious and amazing children, Merritt and Corbin, and one deformed American Bulldog, Madison.  

Case Law Update

by Judge Ronnie Joe Lane

Here are some recent cases to consider.

• Wiretap suppressed - Gwinnett case 
   
• Change of custody improper in contempt action
   
• Service by publication can be adequate if Def concealing himself within jurisdiction (over-ruling prior precedent)  
   
• Criminal case - standard of review for trial court on motion for new trial is not Jackson v. Virginia (common error)