The recent

court ruling that a driver's license is required to operate a golf cart

will be challenged after all.

Peachtree City

attorney Lloyd Walker is asking the Georgia Supreme Court to overturn

the ruling by the Georgia Court of Appeals, which came when Walker's client

William T. Coker appealed his conviction for a suspended license. The

appeals court ruled that Georgia law requires the license since the golf

cart is "self-propelled" and thus a motor vehicle.

The Supreme

Court, however, has to decide whether it will even consider the case.

It could decide to let the Appeals Court's ruling stand.

But if not,

"that means the Supreme Court would be concerned about the Appeals

Court's decision," Walker said.

"This

case is very important to Peachtree City," he added. "I'm going

to do my best to change this outcome."

The appeals

court ruling essentially bans anyone under 16 from driving golf carts.

Previously, city ordinance allowed kids as young as 12 under parental

supervision to drive the carts; 15-year-olds could drive them unsupervised

with a valid learner's permit.

The ruling

also affects senior citizens who depend on the golf cart as their only

means of transportation, Walker noted in court documents.

"Many

of the elderly persons affected by this ruling cannot safely operate an

automobile while they can safely operate a golf cart," Walker wrote.

"This ruling condemns many elderly persons in Peachtree City to being

a shut-in. Perhaps nothing is worse for an elderly person than to be cut

off from the society of others by the infirmities of old age. This opinion

works that evil upon the elderly, without, in any way, promoting the safety

concerns inherent in the driver's license statute."

Walker argues

that the section on motorized carts in Georgia law does not implicitly

require a driver's license of operators. Furthermore, another portion

of the law specifically allows local municipalities to regulate the conditions

of how the carts shall be operated, Walker said.

"In other

words, did the legislature really intend that a driver's license was necessary

to drive a golf cart? The answer is no," Walker wrote.

Coker was convicted

Jan. 10, 2002, of the suspended license charge and DUI. State Court Judge

Fletcher Sams sentenced him to two years in prison and a $2,000 fine.

Coker has served

the sentence and has been released from jail since he was credited for

time he served before the sentence, Walker noted.