A 1013 hold in Georgia lasts up to 48 hours at an emergency receiving facility. If a physician there signs a second certificate, you can be transferred to an evaluating facility and held up to five additional business days. Any longer requires a probate court order for involuntary treatment, which can run up to six months for inpatient care or up to twelve months for outpatient care. How long you actually stay depends on which stage you reach and whether you keep meeting the legal criteria at each step.
The First 48 Hours
Once a physician (or other authorized clinician) signs a 1013 certificate after personally examining you, you’re transported to a state-designated emergency receiving facility.1Justia Law. Georgia Code 37-3-41 – Emergency Admission Based on Certificate2Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities. Resources for Law Enforcement The clock starts when you arrive. A physician at that facility must examine you within 48 hours. If the 48th hour falls on a weekend or holiday, the deadline extends to the next business day.
By the end of that window, one of three outcomes has to occur. The examining physician can conclude you don’t meet the criteria for involuntary treatment and release you. You can agree to stay voluntarily, which converts your legal status and lets you help shape your treatment plan. Or the physician can decide you need further assessment and issue a second certificate directing your transfer to an evaluating facility within 24 hours.3Justia Law. Georgia Code 37-3-43 – Procedure Upon Admission
The 48-hour figure is a ceiling. If the examining physician sees you sooner and clears you, you can leave sooner. Nothing in the statute requires the facility to hold you for the full two days.
The Five-Business-Day Extended Evaluation
When the emergency receiving facility’s physician determines you need more assessment, the second certificate (commonly called a 1014) authorizes transfer to an evaluating facility designated by the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities. That facility then has up to five business days to complete a psychiatric evaluation and decide whether you need ongoing involuntary treatment.3Justia Law. Georgia Code 37-3-43 – Procedure Upon Admission
Business days matter here. Weekends and state holidays don’t count toward the five days, so an extended evaluation that begins late in the week can stretch across a calendar week or more. As with the initial 48 hours, this is a maximum. Many evaluations conclude before the five days run out, and you can be released at any point during the window if you no longer meet the legal criteria. You can also convert to voluntary status during this stage.
Add the two stages together and the maximum time you can be held on the 1013 process itself, before any court gets involved, is 48 hours plus five business days.
Beyond the Hold: Court-Ordered Treatment
If the evaluating facility’s clinical team and chief medical officer conclude you still need involuntary treatment when the five days end, they file a petition with the probate court. At that point the decision stops being clinical and becomes legal. The court must hold a hearing no sooner than 10 days and no later than 12 days after the petition is filed, and the state must prove its case by clear and convincing evidence.4Justia Law. Georgia Code 37-3-62 – Hearing on Petition for Court Ordered Evaluation
You have the right to an attorney at the hearing. If you can’t afford one, the court must appoint counsel unless you decline representation in writing. You can waive the hearing itself, but only after counsel has been appointed or formally waived.
If the court grants the petition, the length of the order depends on the type of treatment:
- Inpatient treatment: up to six months.
- Outpatient treatment: up to twelve months.
Orders don’t renew on their own. Before an inpatient order expires, the facility must convene a Committee for Continued Involuntary Treatment to decide whether you still need involuntary care. If the committee and the chief medical officer agree you do, they file a petition for continued treatment through the Georgia Office of Administrative Hearings, and you get another chance to contest it.5Georgia Department of Human Services. 6007 Inpatient Hospitalization
How the Hold Can End Sooner
At every stage, you can be released once you no longer meet the criteria for involuntary treatment. The treating physician or the facility’s chief medical officer makes that call. In practical terms, it means your symptoms have improved enough that you’re no longer at substantial risk of harming yourself or others and you can manage your basic physical safety.6Justia Law. Georgia Code 37-3-1 – Definitions
Agreeing to voluntary treatment is the other common exit. Converting to voluntary status gives you more say in your care and avoids the legal footprint of a court-ordered commitment. It’s an option throughout the 1013 process, not just at the end.
When you are discharged, federal rules require the facility to have an actual discharge plan. The hospital must identify follow-up care, evaluate your access to outpatient services and community resources, and discuss the plan with you or your representative before you leave.7eCFR. 42 CFR 482.43 – Condition of Participation: Discharge Planning Being released with nothing but a taxi voucher and a phone number is a legitimate issue to raise with an attorney or patient advocate.
What a 1013 Alone Does and Doesn’t Do to Your Gun Rights
People often assume any psychiatric hold costs them their firearm rights. It doesn’t. Federal law prohibits firearm possession by anyone who has been “committed to a mental institution,” but federal regulations define that phrase narrowly as a formal commitment by a court, board, commission, or other lawful authority. The definition explicitly excludes a person held in a mental institution for observation.8eCFR. 27 CFR 478.11 – Meaning of Terms
A 1013 emergency hold, and the five-business-day extended evaluation that can follow, are observational holds. If you’re released at either of those stages without a court order, the federal firearm prohibition generally does not apply. If the case proceeds to a probate court order for involuntary treatment, that is a commitment, and you become a prohibited person under federal law, unable to purchase, possess, or transport firearms.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 922 – Unlawful Acts Court-ordered commitments are reported to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.10U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. HIPAA Privacy Rule and the National Instant Criminal Background Check System Georgia has a separate legal process for restoring firearm rights after an involuntary commitment.
The duration question and the rights question are connected. The shorter your involvement with the process, the less legal weight it carries after you’re out. If you’re facing a hearing that could turn a temporary hold into a court-ordered commitment, that’s the point at which having an attorney matters most.