How To Find Information About Tennessee’s Trial Judges

The purpose of this book is to give you helpful information about Tennessee’s trial judges.

The book is divided by judicial district.  There are additional chapters (at the very end) for senior judges and commissioners serving on the Board of Claims.

Each judge in each district has a section in this book in the chapter devoted to his or her district.  At this time, each section consists of two parts.  First, there is a link to a biography of the judge, if readily available.   Second, there is a listing of the cases handled by the judge that were later reviewed by an appellate court (but only if the appellate court issued an opinion). Each listing is accompanied by a link to the appellate opinion and the summary of the opinion as prepared by the appellate court.  The book includes decision issued by the appellate courts beginning January 1, 2022.

Some judges will have no cases listed.  There are several reasons for this.  First, the judge may be newly elected (or relatively recently appointed) to the Bench.  In such a case, it may take eighteen months or more before a case handled by the judge is appealed and the appellate court opinion is released.  Second, even some judges who have been on the bench for two or three years may not have a decision reviewed by an appellate court on or after January 1, 2022.   Multiple factors impact whether and how often a decision of a trial judge is appealed to an intermediate appellate court or our Supreme Court.

There are two ways to find the section devoted to a given judge.  First, you can go down the list of chapters (which is a list of Tennessee judicial districts) and click on the appropriate judicial district.  When you do so, a list of the judges in that district will appear.  Then, click on the name of the judge you are researching and the information will appear.

Alternatively, you can use the “search” function to find the page about your judge.  Remember, however, that several judges in the state share the same last name.

This book is updated as new appellate opinions are released.  Updates usually occur within three days, but no later than five days,  after release of an appellate opinion.

Finally, the book only contains information about current judges. A significant number of judges left office in 2022 and new judges were either appointed or elected.  Those elected took office effective September 1, 2022.  Judges no longer serving have been deleted from this database.