Chief Justice Harold D. Melton, Supreme Court of Georgia (Photo: John Disney/ALM)

Electronic filing policies and uniform rules for bail and other considerations in misdemeanor cases will lead the agenda when the Judicial Council of Georgia meets at 10 a.m. Friday in the James H. “Sloppy” Floyd Building across Martin Luther King Drive from the state Capitol.

The 27-member council, made up of judges from courts across the state, meets periodically to receive information and take action on policy and administrative matters for the judicial system. Friday's meeting will be the first one chaired by Georgia Supreme Chief Justice Harold Melton, who took the leadership role in September.

The council is set to meet for about 2½ hours Friday morning and then have lunch. The agenda includes reports and voting on action items from its committees: Technology, Legislation, Budget, Criminal Justice Reform, Judicial Workload Assessment, Process Servers and Strategic Plan.

The Technology Committee is expected to request approval for rules regarding civil e-filing—a task the Judicial Council was charged with by Senate Bill 407, which was passed by the Legislature earlier this year. Also arising from the bill is the approval of a uniform misdemeanor citation form and rules, both drafted by the council's Ad Hoc Committee on Criminal Justice Reform, according to the council spokesman.

The full agenda is available on the council's website.

The group's last meeting in August was chaired by Chief Justice P. Harris Hines, Melton's close friend and mentor, who retired that month and was killed in a car crash two months later. Melton eulogized Hines at his funeral, as did Gov. Nathan Deal.