A provision buried in Georgia's Family Justice Center Act just extended sexual assault evidence storage requirements from one year to ten—and it affects any trade business contracted to handle it.
Most Georgia construction and trades business owners don't realize they may already be subject to a new state requirement that dramatically extends how long they must store certain evidence—and the costs and compliance obligations that come with it.
Here's what happened: Georgia's HB1283, the Family Justice Center Act, included a provision that rewrites the rules for storing sexual assault biological evidence. Effective immediately upon enactment, the law now requires any private business contracted by law enforcement to store this evidence to keep it for 10 years instead of 12 months.
If your business operates as a forensic laboratory, medical facility, or evidence-storage vendor under contract to law enforcement agencies, this applies to you. That includes small operations that may have taken on evidence storage as a secondary service or as part of a larger contract with police departments, sheriff's offices, or other agencies.
The change is codified in Section 2 of HB1283, amending Georgia Code Section 17-5-71(b).
The old standard: 12 months of storage.
The new standard: 10 years of storage.
That's an 8.9-fold increase in duration. For a business holding evidence in custody, the impact is concrete:
Storage costs multiply. Longer retention means higher facility expenses, whether that's climate-controlled space, secure shelving, or dedicated warehouse capacity. A year of storage is manageable; a decade compounds the expense.
Chain-of-custody compliance gets heavier. Maintaining proper documentation, access logs, and handling procedures for ten years—not one—creates more administrative burden and more opportunities for documentation gaps that could expose you to liability.
Liability exposure increases. The longer evidence sits in your facility, the longer you're responsible for its integrity, security, and proper handling. Damage, loss, contamination, or unauthorized access during a ten-year window creates greater legal risk than a one-year window.
Insurance and bonding may need review. Your current coverage was likely priced around one-year retention. A tenfold increase in storage duration and liability exposure may require policy adjustments.
The law took effect upon enactment with no stated transition period. That means evidence already in your custody may now fall under the new ten-year requirement, even if it was originally accepted under the old one-year standard.
If you hold law enforcement evidence contracts, review them immediately. Clarify with your law enforcement clients whether the new requirement applies to evidence currently in your facility and whether contract terms need amendment. Assess your storage capacity, documentation systems, and insurance coverage against a ten-year horizon, not one year. If this is a significant portion of your business, consult with your insurance broker and legal counsel about the compliance and liability implications.
The provision is real, it's in effect, and it changes the economics of evidence storage work in Georgia.
Source: HB1283, Section 2, amending O.C.G.A. § 17-5-71(b).