Court Opinion

ID: 9845538
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 03:23:59.127678+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:16:13.227153
License: Public Domain

Weltner, Justice,
concurring specially.
We granted certiorari to answer the following inquiry: “What is a professional as contemplated by OCGA § 9-11-9.1?”
I suggest that the term “professional” should be limited for purposes of the requirements of OCGA § 9-11-9.1, as follows:
1. (a) OCGA § 14-7-2 provides:
(2) “Profession” means the profession of certified public accountancy, architecture, chiropractic, dentistry, profes*501sional engineering, land surveying, law, psychology, medicine and surgery, optometry, osteopathy, podiatry, veterinary medicine, registered professional nursing, or harbor piloting.
Decided November 2, 1990.
Wildman, Harrold, Allen, Dixon & Branch, Robert N. Dokson, Frank O. Brown, Jr., for appellant.
Bovis, Kyle & Burch, Terry L. Yewell, Smith, Gambrell & Russell, John L. Latham, Carter & Ansley, Thomas E. Magill, for appellees.
(b) OCGA § 14-10-2 provides:
(2) “Professional service” means the personal services rendered by attorneys at law and any type of professional service which may be legally performed only pursuant to a license from a state examining board pursuant to Title 43, for example, the personal services rendered by certified public accountants, chiropractors, dentists, osteopaths, physicians and surgeons, and podiatrists (chiropodists).
(c) OCGA § 43-1-24 provides:
Any person licensed by a state examining board and who practices a “profession,” as defined in Chapter 7 of Title 14, the “Georgia Professional Corporation Act,” or who renders “professional services,” as defined in Chapter 10 of Title 14, “The Professional Association Act,” whether such person is practicing or rendering services as a proprietorship, partnership, professional corporation, professional association, other corporation, or any other business entity, shall remain subject to regulation by that state examining board, and such practice or rendering of services in that business entity shall not change the law or existing standards applicable to the relationship between that person rendering a professional service and the person receiving such service, including but not limited to the rules of privileged communication and the contract, tort, and other legal liabilities and professional relationships between such persons.
2. The foregoing limitations suggest that Creel is not a “professional” within the meaning of OCGA § 9-11-9.1.