Advisory Task Force on Composition of Judicial Districts

On May 21, 2018, Governor Haslam signed into law Public Chapter 974, which established an Advisory Task Force of 11 members appointed jointly by the Speaker of the Senate and Speaker of the House "to review the composition of Tennessee's current judicial districts." Information about the eleven appointed members is available here.

Chaired by the Honorable Telford E. Forgety, Chancellor in the 4th and 5th Judicial Districts, the Advisory Task Force is charged with reporting its recommendations for "a proposed statewide redistricting plan [that provides] reasonable and timely access to Tennessee's circuit, chancery, and criminal courts and shall promote the efficient utilization of publicly funded resources allocated for the courts." The plan must be published by December 1, 2019.

The Advisory Task Force will hold three public hearings, one hearing in each of Tennessee's three Grand Divisions, and public notice of those hearings, along with any additional meetings of the Advisory Task Force, will be posted here when scheduled.

The Task Force wants your input about the makeup of the current 31 judicial districts and welcomes any suggestions or ideas for redistricting. The Task Force is also particularly interested in responses to the following focus questions:

1. Do weighted caseload studies indicate a need for a change in district lines? If so, what changes should or might be made?

2. Are there any geographic or contiguity concerns that exist with the current judicial districts? If so, what changes should or might be made to address these?

3. Do population changes or trends indicate a need to change district lines? If so, what changes should or might be made to address these?

4. What communities of interest will be affected by a change in the judicial districts as you have suggested?

5. What effect(s) would changing the current judicial districts have on existing collateral resources, e.g., Drug Task Forces, Recovery Courts, local grant funding, etc.?

6. Are there compelling reasons to change the existing judicial districts?

At the Task Force’s April 29, 2019 business meeting, it voted to pose additional focus questions based upon feedback from the General Assembly and the first two public hearings in Nashville on March 4th and in Jackson on April 15th:

7. How should judges be allocated/reallocated within the judicial districts of Tennessee?

8. How should district attorneys generals' staffs and district public defenders' staffs, including attorneys, support staff, and any ancillary staff, be allocated/reallocated within the judicial districts of Tennessee?

View The Final Report

PUBLIC COMMENTS

NEWS

ELECTRONIC RESOURCES

MEETING RESOURCES

GRAND DIVISION HEARINGS

MEET THE TASK FORCE MEMBERS