Judge grants injunction halting transfer of legal ads in Catoosa
RINGGOLD — A judge has temporarily halted the county’s attempt to transfer The Catoosa County News’ legal organ status to an out-of-state newspaper.
Senior Superior Court Judge Adele Grubbs of Marietta issued an injunction Wednesday, effectively stopping the transfer, which was scheduled to take place Jan. 1, 2018.
Three Catoosa County constitutional officers — Sheriff Gary Sisk, Probate Court Judge Jeff Hullender and Superior Court Clerk Tracy Brown — want to turn the newspaper’s legal advertising over to the Times Free Press, a daily newspaper in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Grubbs was brought in to hear the case because Georgia law prohibits a county’s judge from presiding when it involves another judge in the circuit.
Bob Berry, representing the Catoosa County News, argued during a hearing on Dec. 22, that granting legal organ status to TFP would cause “irreparable harm.” Judge Grubbs, during the Dec. 22 hearing, said her basic concern with giving legal ads to the Times Free Press is that it is an out-of-state newspaper.
Georgia law requires, among other stipulations, that a newspaper seeking to become a county’s legal organ must have published within the county for at least two years.
This is the second time constitutional officers have considered transferring the newspaper’s legal organ status to the Tennessee newspaper. Fifteen years ago, in 2002, three constitutional officers held public meetings on the matter, which helped change their minds. This time they did not offer public meetings.