Rule 560-10-22-.02 - Special Prestige License Plates(1) Applicants for special prestige license plates must submit a Special Prestige License Plate Application (form MV-9B) and the manufacturing fee of $35.00 to the tag agent in the county wherein the owner of the vehicle resides during the period specified by the Department. The county tag agent may waive the application form requirement if the owner applies for the special prestige license plate in person in the office of said tag agent.(2) Special prestige license plates for motorcycles are restricted to a maximum of six (6) letters, six (6) numbers, or any combination thereof totaling no more than six (6). All other special prestige license plates are restricted to a maximum of seven (7) letters, seven (7) numbers, or any combination thereof totaling no more than seven (7). No punctuation or symbols are allowed. All requests for a special prestige license plate will be approved based upon the order in which they are received. No combination shall be issued on a special prestige license plate that duplicates a regular issue license plate. Applicants should print or type in the spaces provided on the application form the alpha and/or numeric characters desired and leave blank any spaces not used. The burden of proving eligibility for a special prestige license plate shall always be on the applicant.(3) The Commissioner of the Department of Revenue or his/her designee shall maintain a list of letter and number combinations that are not permitted for prestige license plates. This list shall be accessible to the public. The Commissioner or his/her designee shall periodically but no less than once yearly, review the list to ensure that all letter/number combinations on the list fall within one of the prohibited categories below. The Commissioner or his/her designee shall provide public notice of this review. Any letter/number combination that does not fall within one of the prohibited categories below shall be immediately removed from the list. Special prestige license plates will not be issued for letter/number combinations that fall into any of the following categories: (a) Contains any combination of letters or numbers which are obscene according to current community standards, or which includes any reference to sex, sexual acts or body parts, or any reference to excrement or to bodily fluids;(b) Contains any combination of letters or numbers which disparage a religious belief or being, race, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation;(c) Contains any combination of letters or numbers which indicate an office or position unless the applicant holds such office or position including, but not limited to, an elected office, employment as a police officer, firefighter, emergency medical technician, paramedic or first responder;(d) Contains any combination of letters or numbers which are profane;(e) Contains any combination of letters or numbers subject to a trademark or copyright unless the applicant owns the trademark or copyright;(f) Contains any combination of letters or numbers referring to a crime or criminal activity under state or federal law;(g) Contains any combination of letters or numbers which might reasonably result in an immediate breach of the peace; or(h) Contains the following combination of letters and or numbers: hate, h8, ha8, hat, haytr, aytr, anti, ante, suck, suk, blow, 69.(4) Applications for a special prestige license plate will be processed as follows: (a) Where an application is submitted, either in person or by mail, to a county tag office, the county tag agent processing the application shall check the requested letter/number combination against the list of prohibited tags maintained by the Commissioner of the Department of Revenue. If the requested letter/number combination is on the list of prohibited tags maintained by the Commissioner, or the request duplicates a regular issue license plate, the county tag agent will notify the applicant that the request is denied, give a reason for the denial and provide the applicant with the procedure for appeal. If the requested letter/number combination is not on the list, then the application shall be forwarded to the Department of Revenue for a determination under paragraph (4)(c) below.(b) Where an application is submitted, either in person or by mail, to the Department of Revenue, the Commissioner or his/her designee shall check the requested letter/number combination against the list of prohibited tags. If the requested letter/number combination is on the list, or the request duplicates a regular issue license plate, the Commissioner or his/her designee will notify the applicant that the request is denied, give a reason for the denial and provide the applicant with the procedure for appeal. If the requested letter/number combination is not on the list, the Commissioner or his/her designee will make a determination under paragraph (4)(c) below.(c) If the requested letter/number combination is not on the prohibited list, the Commissioner or his/her designee shall determine whether the letter/number combination falls within any of the prohibited categories listed in paragraph (3) above. In making this determination, the Commissioner or his/her designee shall be guided by the following: 1. the definitions of words as found in a standard English dictionary;2. review of the letter/number combination both from left to right and right to left;3. phonetic spelling; and4. standard foreign language dictionaries. The applicant will be notified of the decision to approve or deny the prestige license plate request. If the request is denied, the applicant will be provided with the procedure for appeal under paragraph (5) below.
(d) The Commissioner or his/her designee may recall and cancel any special prestige license plate that may later be determined to fall into any of the aforementioned categories in paragraph (3) above. If a plate is recalled a registration stop will be placed on the applicable license plate, specifying it as "recalled". The owner/applicant will be notified by mail that a new personalized choice must be made. The owner/applicant may appeal the recall as described in paragraph (5) below.(e) If an application for the manufacture of a special prestige license plate is submitted by mail and subsequently denied, the Department or the county tag agent shall return the application to the applicant indicating that the request is denied, give a reason for the denial and provide the applicant with the procedure for appeal. The Department or the county tag agent shall also issue a refund under separate cover of the manufacturing fee and special tag renewal fee.(5) Any person whose application for a prestige license plate is denied may appeal the denial within thirty (30) days of the date the notice of denial is issued. A panel of three members, designated by the Commissioner, will review all appeals. The application will be denied only where all three members of the panel vote to deny the appeal. If an appeal is denied, the panel shall provide a written statement of their reasons for denial of the appeal.(6) A person to whom a special prestige license plate has been issued may request a special prestige license plate with the same information for the next license plate period in the manner prescribed by the Department during the person's registration month in the year prior to the issuance of the new license plate or during a time period determined by the Commissioner. If the owner fails to make such a request by the end of his or her registration month in the year of the next license plate period or during the time period determined by the Commissioner, the special prestige license plate combination previously issued to the applicant will be made available to other applicants on a first-come, first-served basis.Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. R. 560-10-22-.02
O.C.G.A. §§ 40-2-60, 40-3-3, 40-16-2, and 48-2-12.
Original Rule entitled "Special Prestige License Plates" adopted. F. Feb. 7, 1992; eff. Feb. 27, 1992.Repealed: New Rule of same title adopted. F. Feb. 17, 1998; eff. Mar. 9, 1998.Repealed: F. Jan. 27, 2004; eff. Feb. 16, 2004.Adopted: New Rule entitled "Special Prestige License Plates." F. Oct. 10, 2013; eff. Oct. 30, 2013.