Keisha Martin Chambless has been appointed as Chief Magistrate by the judges of the Forsyth County Superior Court. She will serve the remainder of retiring Chief Magistrate Walker Bramblett’s term, beginning July 30, 2021.
Chief Magistrate Chambless has served as a magistrate judge in Forsyth County since 2018 when appointed by Chief Magistrate Judge Walker H. Bramblett.
Chambless, a life-long resident of Forsyth County, began her career as a staff attorney for the Superior Court of the Ogeechee Judicial Circuit before returning to Forsyth County and going into private practice. Her law practice focused on land-related litigation, representing clients across Georgia in both the state and federal courts and at all levels of the appellate courts. She also became an associate director of career development at Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School beginning in 2016.
Chambless earned her bachelor’s degree at the University of Georgia and her juris doctorate at Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School.
Magistrate Court has jurisdiction over all civil claims of $15,000 or less; distress warrants and dispossessory writs; county ordinance violations; bad checks; preliminary hearings; summons, arrest warrants and search warrants and an expanded jurisdiction of certain misdemeanors. Magistrate may also grant bail in cases where the setting of bail is not exclusively reserved to a judge of another court.