Columbia County Veterans Treatment Court

The court is a veterans court division under Code section 15-1-17 (see the Georgia entry), run within the Columbia Judicial Circuit's felony accountability court alongside drug and mental wellness tracks. The Council of Accountability Court Judges' certified list calls it the Columbia Circuit Veterans Treatment Court, names Judges James G. Blanchard, Jr. and Sheryl B. Jolly, coordinator Elizabeth Snellings, says it serves Columbia County and dates it July 2022. The team. Senior Judge James G. Blanchard, Jr. presides; the contract's recusal waiver keeps the case before him "or any other Judge/designee assigned to preside over the Veterans Court". Coordinator Elizabeth Snellings (706-447-6761) and case manager Grant Nichols (706-447-7736) work the docket; the Huggins Peil firm is defence counsel for the mental wellness and veterans tracks, the District Attorney's office prosecutes, Serenity Behavioral Health is the listed treatment provider, and the Columbia County Sheriff's Office and probation office are the law enforcement representatives. Court sessions are at the Felony Accountability Court, Columbia County Superior Court, 640 Ronald Reagan Drive, Evans. The treatment contract. From November 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026, Still Waters Professional Counseling Services provides treatment across the drug, mental wellness and veterans courts for a flat $7,750 a month covering up to 50 participants, under a contract the Board of Commissioners approved from the October 28, 2025 committee packet and the November 4, 2025 Board packet; a medication-assisted-treatment consultation contract followed on April 21, 2026. What the contract asks (CJCDA form, revised July 2022, post-adjudication). At least 24 months, "or longer if all requirements of the program have not been met"; remain clean and sober; no alcohol in any form and not to occupy any residence or vehicle where alcohol is present; no drugs, legal or illegal, without staff approval; gainful full-time employment or full-time student status unless the judge approves otherwise; court-ordered AA/NA or community support meetings with proof of attendance; breath, blood, urine, hair or sweat testing on request, with the participant possibly paying; no firearms anywhere the participant lives or goes; support of legal dependents; and restitution. A participant must "reside within Columbia County throughout my involvement in the Veterans Program or have the Judge's permission to reside outside the jurisdiction". The fees. The entry order grants an own-recognizance bond on condition that the defendant "pay a Veterans Court fee of fifty dollars ($50) a month for the duration of his/her participation" and "an admission fee of twenty-five dollars ($25)", both collected by the Columbia County Clerk of Court. On success, the pending probation-violation petition and warrant are dismissed or probation may end early. Where that is narrower than the law. Section 15-1-17 defines a veteran as any former member of the armed forces or a state's National Guard, bars only murder, armed robbery, rape, aggravated sodomy, aggravated sexual battery and child molestation charges, and says nothing about fees or residence. The residence rule and the two fees are this circuit's own, and entry is post-adjudication, by plea and probation conditions.