Legal Question in Family Law in Georgia

Re: establishing child custody

You file a "petition for custody" in the superior court and allege all the statutory items necessary. Once the pleadings are filed, and all the parties are served properly, a hearing will be held and the judge will determine who has custody based on the evidence presented. Normally takes a few months for uncontested or lightly contested cases, longer for contested. This is a summary. There are many other legal things that could happen, like discovery, motions, etc. during the course of the legal proceedings.