Issuance and Sale of Hunting, Fishing, and Trapping Licenses; Identification Required; Withdrawal of Agents' Authority to Sell Licenses; Online Licensing System to Allow Making of Anatomical Gifts; Anatomical Gift Education and Awareness

  1. Law
  2. Georgia Code
  3. Game and Fish
  4. Licenses, Permits, and Stamps Generally
  5. Hunting, Trapping, or Fishing
  6. Issuance and Sale of Hunting, Fishing, and Trapping Licenses; Identification Required; Withdrawal of Agents' Authority to Sell Licenses; Online Licensing System to Allow Making of Anatomical Gifts; Anatomical Gift Education and Awareness

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  1. Hunting, fishing, and trapping licenses shall be issued and sold by the department on forms containing such information as may be prescribed by the department. As used in this Code section, the term "license" shall include all permits, licenses, or stamps issued by the department under Code Section 27-2-23. Licenses for hunting and fishing may be sold in each county by persons approved by the department to be license agents.
  2. Each license agent may be required to:
    1. Remit to the department a premium which shall entitle him or her to coverage under a blanket performance bond provided by the department. The premium, which may include the reasonable cost of administering a self-insurance program, shall be in an amount determined by the commissioner, and shall be due and payable annually upon billing by the department;
    2. Account for all license sales and the monetary receipts from such sales in reports to the department, which reports shall be on a schedule and in a form specified by the written agreement between the license agent and the department. Failure to remit license sales receipts as specified in the agreement may result in suspension of the license agent's ability to sell licenses; and
    3. Receive for himself or herself no more than 60› for each license issued, except for nonresident hunting licenses and resident sportsman's licenses, for which the license agent may receive $1.25 for each license issued, and except for licenses sold by telephone by an approved telephone license agent or over the Internet by an approved Internet license agent, for which the agent may charge and receive up to $5.00 per transaction in addition to the actual cost of the license or licenses sold during the transaction; provided, however, that neither the telephone license agent nor the Internet license agent shall receive any additional fee per license sold during a telephone or Internet transaction; provided, further, that the sale of one or more licenses to one applicant during one telephone call or one Internet session shall constitute a single transaction.
  3. The commissioner may either purchase a blanket performance bond for the department's license agents from or through the Department of Administrative Services or any other source or establish a self-insurance bond by retaining all moneys paid to the department for the premium established pursuant to subsection (b) of this Code section, all moneys received as interest, and nonappropriated funds received from other sources to establish and maintain a reserve fund for the purpose of making payments to the department upon the defalcations of license agents and defraying the expenses necessary to administer the program; provided, however, that no revenue collected from taxes, fees, and assessments for state purposes shall be deposited in such fund. The commissioner shall invest any such moneys in the same manner as other moneys in his or her possession. The commissioner is authorized, in his or her discretion, to contract for any or all of the services necessary to carry out the functions enumerated in this Code section.
  4. Prior to selling any license, except for a license sold over the telephone by an approved telephone license agent or over the Internet by an approved Internet license agent, each license agent shall require each person desiring to purchase a license to display a driver's license or equally reliable identification of the individual and the current residence and age of such individual. In the event the department determines that a license agent has intentionally or negligently sold a resident license to a person who is a nonresident or who is underage, the department may immediately withdraw the authority of such license agent to issue and sell licenses on behalf of the department, provided that the department shall not withdraw the license agent's authority until the license agent has been given ten days' written notice of intention to withdraw authority setting forth the reason or reasons for the withdrawal and giving the license agent a hearing in the county of said agent's residence on the reasons for withdrawal.
    1. The General Assembly finds that it is in the best interest of this state to encourage improved public education and awareness regarding anatomical gifts of human organs and tissues and to address the ever-increasing need for donations of anatomical gifts for the benefit of the citizens of Georgia.
    2. Whenever any person applies for or requests the issuance or renewal of any hunting, fishing, or trapping license through the department's online licensing system, excluding those requested through license agents, the department shall allow the applicant to make an anatomical gift pursuant to Article 6 of Chapter 5 of Title 44, the "Georgia Revised Uniform Anatomical Gift Act." The department shall not be required to keep the physical record of the donor's application once it has entered the information into the online system and issued the license in order for the anatomical gift to be valid.
    3. The department website shall provide links to organ procurement websites and provide information describing anatomical gifts, along with the need for and benefits of anatomical gifts.
    4. The department, with the consent of the applicant, shall make available to organ procurement organizations or secure data centers maintained and managed at the direction of such organizations information as provided for in Article 6 of Chapter 5 of Title 44, the "Georgia Revised Uniform Anatomical Gift Act," including the name, license number, date of birth, gender, and most recent address of any person eligible pursuant to such Act who obtains a fishing, hunting, or trapping license and who indicates such person's desire to be an organ donor; provided, however, that the information shall be made available only to an organ procurement organization or secure data center if such organization or center has sufficient funds to reimburse the department for reasonable costs associated with the application process and providing such information. Information so obtained by such organizations and centers shall be used for a state-wide organ donor registry accessible to organ tissue and eye banks authorized to function as such in this state and shall not be further disseminated.

(b.1)Any person who applies to be a license agent after June 30, 1998, shall be assessed a fee not to exceed the fair market cost of automated licensing equipment the department shall install in such agent's place of business. Such fees shall be due and payable upon installation of the automated equipment.

(Ga. L. 1931, p. 173, § 5; Code 1933, §§ 45-206, 45-218; Ga. L. 1935, p. 379, § 2; Ga. L. 1935, p. 386, § 7; Ga. L. 1941, p. 463, §§ 1-4; Ga. L. 1943, p. 537, § 1; Ga. L. 1949, p. 1156, § 1; Ga. L. 1949, p. 1577, §§ 1, 2; Ga. L. 1952, p. 258, § 1; Ga. L. 1955, p. 483, § 28; Ga. L. 1968, p. 497, § 7; Ga. L. 1976, p. 1159, §§ 1, 2; Code 1933, § 45-301, enacted by Ga. L. 1977, p. 396, § 1; Ga. L. 1978, p. 816, §§ 17-19; Ga. L. 1978, p. 2290, §§ 1-3; Ga. L. 1979, p. 924, § 1; Ga. L. 1979, p. 1255, §§ 1-3; Ga. L. 1981, p. 144, §§ 1, 2; Ga. L. 1987, p. 179, § 3; Ga. L. 1992, p. 915, § 1; Ga. L. 1995, p. 946, §§ 2, 3; Ga. L. 1998, p. 783, § 3; Ga. L. 2001, p. 1013, § 6; Ga. L. 2019, p. 816, § 1/SB 99; Ga. L. 2020, p. 493, § 27/SB 429.)

The 2019 amendment, effective July 1, 2019, added subsection (e). See Editor's notes for applicability.

The 2020 amendment, effective July 29, 2020, part of an Act to revise, modernize, and correct the Code, substituted "resident sportsman's licenses" for "resident sportsman licenses" near the beginning of paragraph (b)(3).

Code Commission notes.

- Pursuant to Code Section 28-9-5, in 1998, paragraph (b)(4) was redesignated as subsection (b.1) and, in subsection (b), "and" was added at the end of paragraph (2) and a period was substituted for "; and" at the end of paragraph (3).

Cross references.

- Voter registration incorporated into resident hunting, fishing or trapping licenses, § 21-2-221.1.

Editor's notes.

- Ga. L. 1987, p. 179, § 6, not codified by the General Assembly, set forth the legislative intent of that Act.

Ga. L. 2019, p. 816, § 2/SB 99, not codified by the General Assembly, provides: "This Act shall be applicable to all licenses issued on or after July 1, 2019."

OPINIONS OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL

Liability of license agent.

- A license agent is liable for loss of funds collected from sale of state hunting and fishing licenses. 1958-59 Op. Att'y Gen. p. 168 (decided under Ga. L. 1955, p. 483).

RESEARCH REFERENCES

Am. Jur. 2d.

- 35A Am. Jur. 2d, Fish, Game, and Wildlife Conservation, § 51.

12 Am. Jur. Pleading and Practice Forms, Fish and Game, § 4.

C.J.S.

- 36A C.J.S., Fish, § 28. 38 C.J.S., Game; Conservation and Preservation of Wildlife, § 52.


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