(a) It is the duty of a clerk of superior court:

(1) To keep the clerk's office and all things belonging thereto at the county site and at the courthouse or at such other place or places as authorized by law;

(2) To attend to the needs of the court in the performance of the duties of the clerk;

(3) To issue and sign every summons, writ, execution, process, order, or other paper under authority of the court and attach seals thereto when necessary. The clerk shall be authorized to issue and sign under authority of the court any order to show cause in any pending litigation and any other order in the nature of a rule nisi, where no injunctive or extraordinary relief is granted;

(4) To keep in the clerk's office the following dockets or books:

(A) A civil docket which shall contain separate case number entries for all civil actions filed in the office of the clerk, including complaints, proceedings, URESA actions, domestic relations, contempt actions, motions and modifications on closed civil actions, and all other actions civil in nature except adoptions;

(B) A criminal docket which shall contain a summary record of all criminal indictments in which true bills are rendered and all criminal accusations filed in the office of the clerk of superior court. The criminal docket shall contain entries of other matters of a criminal nature filed with the clerk, including quasi-civil proceedings and entries of cases which are ordered dead docketed at the discretion of the presiding judge and which shall be called only at the judge's pleasure. When a case is thus dead docketed, all witnesses who may have been subpoenaed therein shall be released from further attendance until resubpoenaed;

(C) A general execution docket on which may be entered all executions, such docket to be indexed in the name of the judgment debtor;

(D) A lis pendens docket, in which shall be recorded all notices of lis pendens on real property filed with the clerk, such docket to have direct and reverse indexes;

(E) A docket, file, series of files, book or series of books, microfilm records, or electronic data base for recording all deeds, liens, or other documents concerning or evidencing title to real property, where not otherwise specifically provided for; and

(F) An attachment docket, showing the names of the plaintiff and defendant in attachment, the court to which the attachment is returnable, the amount claimed, and a brief description of the land or other property to be levied on;

(5) To keep all the books, papers, dockets, and records belonging to the office with care and security and to keep the papers filed, arranged, numbered, and labeled, so as to be of easy reference;

(6) To keep at the clerk's office all publications of the laws of the United States furnished by the state and all publications of the laws and journals of this state, all statute laws and digests, this Code, the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals reports, and all other law books or other public documents distributed to him, for the public's convenience; provided, however, the clerk may consent that these publications be maintained in the public law library;

(7) To procure a substantial seal of office with the name of the court and the county inscribed thereon, if this has not already been done;

(8) To make out and deliver to any applicant, upon payment to the clerk of legal fees, a correct transcript, properly certified, of any minute, record, or file of the clerk's office except for such records or documents which are, by provision of law, not to be released;

(9) Upon payment of legal fees to the clerk, to make out a transcript of the record of each case to be considered by the Supreme Court or the Court of Appeals and a duplicate thereof numbered in exact accordance with the numbering of the pages of the original transcript of the record to be transmitted to the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals;

(10) To make a notation on all conveyances or liens of the day they were left to be recorded, which shall be evidence of the facts stated. Beginning July 1, 1998, all liens or conveyances left to be filed shall have a three-inch margin at the top to allow space for the clerk's notation required by this paragraph. If any lien or conveyance shall be presented for filing without sufficient margin, the clerk shall attach a piece of paper sufficient to give such margin at the top of the filing. Such notation may be made by the clerk or the clerk's deputy or employee by written signature, facsimile signature, or mechanical printing;

(11) To attest deeds and other written instruments for registration;

(12) To administer all oaths required by the court and to record all oaths required by law;

(13) To transmit to the Georgia Superior Court Clerks' Cooperative Authority or its designated agent within 24 hours of filing of any financing statement, amendment to a financing statement, assignment of a financing statement, continuation statement, termination statement, or release of collateral, by facsimile or other electronic means, such information and in such form and manner as may be required by the Georgia Superior Court Clerks' Cooperative Authority, for the purpose of including such information in the central indexing system administered by such authority; provided, however, that weekends and holidays shall not be included in the calculation of the 24 hour period;

(14) To remit to the Georgia Superior Court Clerks' Cooperative Authority a portion of all fees collected with respect to the filings of financing statements, amendments to financing statements, assignments of financing statements, continuation statements, termination statements, releases of collateral, or any other documents related to personal property and included in the central index, in accordance with the rules and regulations of such authority regarding the amount and payment of such fees; provided, however, that such fees shall be remitted to the authority not later than the tenth day of the month following the collection of such fees, and the clerk shall not be required to remit such fees more often than once a week;

(15) To participate in the state-wide uniform automated information system for real and personal property records, as provided for by Code Sections 15-6-97 and 15-6-98, and any network established by the Georgia Superior Court Clerks' Cooperative Authority relating to the transmission and retrieval of electronic information concerning real estate data for any such information systems established by such authority so as to provide for public access to real estate information. Each clerk of the superior court shall provide to the authority or its designated agent in accordance with the rules and regulations of the authority such real estate information concerning or evidencing title to real property or access to such information which is of record in the office of clerk of the superior court and which is necessary to establish and maintain the information system. Each clerk of the superior court shall provide and transmit real estate information to the authority for testing and operation of the information system at such times and in such form as prescribed by the authority;

(16) To file and transmit all civil case filing and disposition forms required to be filed pursuant to subsection (b) of Code Section 9-11-3 and subsection (b) of Code Section 9-11-58;

(17)(A) To transmit to the Superior Court Clerks' Cooperative Authority within 30 days of filing the civil case filing and disposition forms prescribed in Code Section 9-11-133.

(B) To electronically collect and transmit to the Georgia Superior Court Clerks' Cooperative Authority all data elements required in subsection (g) of Code Section 35-3-36 in a form and format required by the Superior Court Clerks' Cooperative Authority and The Council of Superior Court Clerks of Georgia. The electronic collection and transmission of data shall begin no later than January 1, 2002. The data transmitted to the authority pursuant to this Code section shall be transmitted to the Georgia Crime Information Center in satisfaction of the clerk's duties under subsection (g) of Code Section 35-3-36 and to the Georgia Courts Automation Commission who shall provide the data to the Administrative Office of the Courts for use of the state judicial branch. Public access to said data shall remain the responsibility of the Georgia Crime Information Center. No release of collected data shall be made by or through the authority;

(18) To participate in agreements, contracts, and networks necessary or convenient for the performance of the duties provided in paragraphs (16) and (17) of this subsection; and

(19) To perform such other duties as are or may be required by law or as necessarily appertain to the office of clerk of the superior court.

(b) Nothing in this Code section shall restrict or otherwise prohibit a clerk from electing to store for computer retrieval any or all records, dockets, indices, or files; nor shall a clerk be prohibited from combining or consolidating any books, dockets, files, or indices in connection with the filing for record of papers of the kind specified in this Code section or any other law, provided that any automated or computerized record-keeping method or system shall provide for the systematic and safe preservation and retrieval of all books, dockets, records, or indices. When the clerk of superior court elects to store for computer retrieval any or all records, the same data elements used in a manual system shall be used, and the same integrity and security maintained. Regardless of the automated or computerized system elected, each clerk shall maintain and make readily available to the public, complete, printed copies of the real estate grantor and grantee indices updated regularly, prepared in compliance with paragraph (15) of subsection (a) of this Code section and Code Section 15-6-66.