Prostitution and Solicitation Laws in Georgia

Prostitution (a person 18 or older performing, offering or agreeing to perform a sexual act for money or other things of value) is a misdemeanor (up to $1,000.00 and up to 12 months in jail (§ 17-10-3)). Buying is charged as pandering: soliciting 'a person to perform an act of prostitution' for oneself or a third person; a first offense is a misdemeanor of a high and aggravated nature (up to $5,000.00 and up to 12 months in jail (§ 17-10-4), all but 72 hours suspendable), and a second or later offense is a felony of one to ten years. Pandering involving a person under 18 is a felony punished by ten to 30 years and a fine of up to $100,000.00. An extra $2,500.00 fine applies when these offenses happen within 1,000 feet of a school, place of worship, or a playground or recreation center used mainly by people under 17, and the clerk publishes a notice of a pandering conviction with the person's arrest photo.

Georgia's rule on court-appointed lawyers: Applicants must complete and sign an application and verification and are interviewed at the detention center or the public defender's office. Income standards under O.C.G.A. § 17-12-2, as stated by the public defender office: for misdemeanors, probation violations and county or municipal offenses, a person who 'earns less than 100 percent of the federal poverty guidelines'; for juveniles, those 'whose parents earn less than 125 percent of the federal poverty guidelines'; for felonies, 'less than 150 percent of the federal poverty guidelines' — each with an exception for people with other resources that could reasonably pay for a lawyer, and no one with income above 150 percent of the federal poverty level is considered indigent. Application fee: Georgia law requires every person who applies for public defense services 'to pay the Public Defender Office a single fee of $50'; 'The court shall waive this fee if it finds that you are unable to pay the fee or that hardship will result if the fee is charged.' Attorney fees for court-appointed representation may also be imposed by the court at sentencing. O.C.G.A. §§ 15-21A-6(b), 17-12-2 (as quoted by the Chatham County Public Defender Office, Eastern Judicial Circuit)

Lawyers set their own fees, and Georgia has rules on how they may charge. See hiring a criminal defense lawyer in Georgia for fee rules, how to check a lawyer's license and free help.

Each state sets its own rules for sealing or expunging records. See Georgia expungement and record sealing rules.