Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia ATLANTA,__________________ March 06, 2013 The Court of Appeals hereby passes the following order: A13I0158. ASHOK GOYAL v. NIMITA FIFADARA.

Nimita Fifadara, the mother in the proceeding below, filed a pro se modification of custody action in Gwinnett County against Ashok Goyal, the father who was granted sole legal and physical custody of the minor child after a 2010 custody modification trial in DeKalb County. Goyal moved to transfer the case to DeKalb County. The trial court denied the motion, and Goyal filed this application for interlocutory appeal from that order.

OCGA § 5-6-34 (a) (11) provides that “[a]ll judgments or orders in child custody cases including, but not limited to, awarding or refusing to change child custody” are now directly appealable. The effect of this broad language is that a party seeking to appeal any order in a child custody case – even a non-final order such as the one at issue here – is no longer required to comply with either the interlocutory appeal procedure of OCGA § 5-6-34 (b) or the discretionary appeal procedure of OCGA § 5-6-35 (a) (2). See Cohen v. Cohen, 300 Ga. App. 7, 8 (1) (684 SE2d 94) (2009); Taylor v. Curl, 298 Ga. App. 45 (679 SE2d 80) (2009). Thus, the order that Goyal seeks to appeal is directly appealable.

“This Court will grant a timely application for interlocutory review if the order complained of is subject to direct appeal and the applicants have not otherwise filed a notice of appeal.” Spivey v. Hembree, 268 Ga. App. 485, 486 n.1 (602 SE2d 246) (2004). Goyal’s application for interlocutory appeal is therefore GRANTED. He shall have ten days from the date of this order to file a notice of appeal in the superior court if he has not already done so. The clerk of the superior court is directed to include a copy of this order in the record transmitted to this Court.

Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia 03/06/2013 Clerk’s Office, Atlanta,__________________ I certify that the above is a true extract from the minutes of the Court of Appeals of Georgia.

Witness my signature and the seal of said court hereto affixed the day and year last above written.

, Clerk.