Background
Martha Carey and Jared Spivey are the parents of three minor children. On August 18, 2026, the trial court entered a family violence protective order against Carey that awarded temporary custody of the children to Spivey and restricted Carey’s visitation.
Carey timely applied for discretionary review, challenging the custody and visitation rulings. Although appeals in domestic-relations cases, including Family Violence Act proceedings, ordinarily require a discretionary application, Georgia law permits direct appeals from orders awarding, refusing to change, or modifying child custody.
The Court’s Holding
The Court of Appeals concluded that the protective order was directly appealable because it included custody rulings and visitation restrictions. Georgia’s statutory definition of a child-custody proceeding expressly includes proceedings for protection from family violence when custody or visitation is at issue.
Because Georgia law requires the court to grant a timely discretionary application when the underlying order is subject to direct appeal, the court granted Carey’s application. It gave her ten days from the order’s date to file a notice of appeal in the trial court if she had not already done so and directed the trial-court clerk to include the order in the appellate record.
Key Takeaways
- A family violence protective order addressing child custody or visitation qualifies as an order in a child-custody case.
- An order awarding temporary custody and restricting visitation is directly appealable under OCGA § 5-6-34(a)(11).
- When a party timely seeks discretionary review of a directly appealable order, the Court of Appeals will grant the application under OCGA § 5-6-35(j).
Why It Matters
The order clarifies the appellate route for family violence cases that include custody or visitation determinations. Although domestic-relations appeals generally proceed through the discretionary-application process, custody-related protective orders fall within Georgia’s direct-appeal provision.
Practitioners should identify whether a protective order resolves custody or visitation because that feature determines the proper appellate procedure and affects the deadline and method for initiating review.