Start with duty, record and medical causation
Licensing or regulatory non-compliance must be separated from any alleged unauthorised practice, falsification or harm offence.
What activity required authority, who performed or directed it, what licence existed and what product or patient consequence followed?
Independent expertise should identify the applicable specialty standard and limitations; it should not be asked to declare criminal guilt.
The unaltered clinical record matters first
Licences, staffing and role records, prescriptions, batch traceability, invoices, storage data, regulator correspondence and testing.
Clinical chronology
Reconstruct condition, decisions, interventions and response.
Individual duty
Distinguish practitioner, clinic, agency and executive roles.
Causation
Test competing medical explanations and legally assessed harm.
Articles that may enter the qualification
These provisions are orientation points, not a conclusion. An investigation may start under one article and later be narrowed, expanded or reclassified as facts, expert results, article parts, aggravating circumstances and procedural decisions develop.
Illegal medical or pharmaceutical practice
Potentially relevant where unauthorised practice allegedly causes health damage or death; licensing, individual conduct and causation must be established.
Read full Article 246 text on this pageRead the relevant provisions before the external source
The operative English text below is reproduced from the official consolidated Criminal Code of Georgia, publication 296, accessed 9 August 2026. Formatting has been normalised for on-screen reading; the current Georgian-language consolidated text controls if wording or timing differs.
Article 246Illegal medical or pharmaceutical practice+
1. Illegal medical or pharmaceutical practice that results in health damage, –
shall be punished by a fine or imprisonment for up to three years.
2. The same act that has resulted in loss of human’s life, –
shall be punished by imprisonment for a term of three to seven years, with or without deprivation of the right to hold an office or to carry out activities for up to three years.
Open Article 246 in the official consolidated Criminal Code↗︎How counsel turns the issue into a case plan
For illegal medical or pharmaceutical activity, counsel can identify the operative procedure and decision-maker, test the prosecution theory against each legal element, obtain lawful defence material, frame expert or disclosure requests, preserve objections and prepare the next motion, hearing or cross-border step. Advice must be based on the actual record rather than the page title alone.
Freeze the relevant operational records and map actual functions rather than job titles.
Questions clients ask about illegal medical or pharmaceutical activity
Does Article 246 — Illegal medical or pharmaceutical practice — automatically apply to Illegal Medical or Pharmaceutical Activity?+
For Illegal Medical or Pharmaceutical Activity, Article 246 may provide a starting point, but a page title is not a legal qualification. Investigators and prosecutors must match proved facts to every element, part and aggravating circumstance. The qualification may be narrowed, expanded or changed after expert results, new evidence, a defence motion, prosecutorial review or a court decision. Potentially relevant where unauthorised practice allegedly causes health damage or death; licensing, individual conduct and causation must be established.
Which factual boundary is decisive in a Illegal Medical or Pharmaceutical Activity case?+
In a Illegal Medical or Pharmaceutical Activity case, the evidence must distinguish a criminal act from an adverse outcome, clinical judgment, regulatory breach or contractual dispute. That boundary is tested through the person's individual conduct, knowledge or intent, the legally classified consequence and every circumstance relied upon to move the allegation into a different article or aggravated part.
What evidence can prove—or undermine—the allegation of Illegal Medical or Pharmaceutical Activity?+
The focused record for Illegal Medical or Pharmaceutical Activity is not the same as for every offence. Priority material includes the complete unaltered clinical record, consent, audit trails, samples, protocols, payments and independent expertise. The defence should test provenance, completeness, authorship, lawful collection, chain of custody and whether each item proves the disputed element rather than merely repeating the accusation.
Can the article or charge for Illegal Medical or Pharmaceutical Activity change after the investigation starts?+
Yes. For Illegal Medical or Pharmaceutical Activity, Article 246 may be a starting map, but expert results, quantity or value, injury classification, individual role, attempt or participation, a defence application, prosecutorial review or a court decision may support a different article, part or legal outcome.
What should be preserved immediately in a Illegal Medical or Pharmaceutical Activity matter?+
In a Illegal Medical or Pharmaceutical Activity matter, preserve the original chronology, procedural records and the topic-specific material before routine loss or alteration. Early advice is important because records, samples and device logs need preservation before positions or systems change; preservation must be lawful and must not involve hiding, changing or coordinating evidence.
Primary sources for this guide
Legislation can change and official English translations may lag the Georgian text. Check the current consolidated version and obtain advice before relying on a deadline, offence classification or remedy.
Official consolidated Criminal Code — current text & PDF↗︎Law on Health Care↗︎Law on Patient Rights↗︎