<P> Until 1916, the Court of Appeals effectively functioned as a second court of last resort for the state of Georgia, there being no provision for appeal from its judgments . This posed two problems for the state: first, despite the constitutional requirement that the Supreme Court's decisions constituted binding precedent over the court of appeals, conflicts began arising between the rulings of the two courts; secondly, the workloads of both courts continued to increase steadily . The Legislature remedied these problems by approving a constitutional amendment to enlarge the subject matter jurisdiction of the Court of Appeals and limit that of the Supreme Court . The Legislature also approved a statute to create an additional three - judge division of the Court of Appeals, providing that all appeals of criminal cases be heard in one division, and the remaining civil cases be divided up so as to equalize their work . </P> <P> The Legislature increased the size of the court to seven judges in 1960, and then to nine judges in three divisions in 1961 . The requirement for all criminal cases to be heard in one division was repealed in 1967 . In 1996, Governor Zell Miller submitted a bill to increase the court's size to thirteen judges . The bill failed, but the Legislature did approve another act to add a tenth judge . </P> <P> The court grew again in 1999 when Governor Roy Barnes signed a bill which increased the number of judges to twelve . The court now has 15 members, who serve in five divisions . As of 2008, a total of seventy - six judges have served on the court, with fifteen serving on both the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of Georgia . </P> <P> The court's appellate jurisdiction is rather limited in comparison with many other state appellate courts . It may hear appeals in all cases which do not involve: </P>

How many court of appeals are there in georgia