"The Judicial Council of Georgia has awarded about $2.43 million in grants to eight Georgia nonprofits to provide civil legal services to domestic violence victims.

The Georgia Legal Services Program received the largest grant, for $1.57 million, followed by the Atlanta Legal Aid Society, with $676,500.

Another legal aid group, the Georgia Law Center for the Homeless, which serves metro Atlanta, received $70,000. The remaining funds went to five domestic violence shelters around the state, which received between $7,000 and $40,000 each for contract lawyers.

The bulk of the funding is used for lawyers to represent domestic violence victims in judicial hearings for 12-month temporary protective orders from their abusers, said Zan Patorgis, legal compliance officer for the state Administrative Office of the Courts, which administers the grants. Victims do not need a lawyer to get an initial one-month protective order, he added, so the funds can’t be used for that."

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