Chancellor Steven Stafford of the 29 th Judicial District, including Dyer and Lake counties, has been elected presiding judge of the Tennessee Court of the Judiciary. The 15-member panel, created by the General Assembly, is charged by state law with receiving complaints against judges and imposing sanctions or recommending removal from office when appropriate.
Stafford is succeeding Circuit Court Judge J.S. Steve Daniel of Murfreesboro . Daniel is retiring from the Circuit Court bench to assume senior judge status and also has resigned from the Court of the Judiciary, where he served as presiding judge.
“The work of the Court of the Judiciary is important because it helps instil public trust and confidence in our system of justice,” said Stafford , a member since 1999. “It provides a voice for members of the public who believe a judge has violated the Code of Judicial Conduct.”
Judicial misconduct for which judges may be sanctioned includes discourteous treatment of parties in court, conflicts of interest, receiving improper gifts, displaying obvious bias in court proceedings and abusing the powers of office. The Code of Judicial Conduct is a rule of the Tennessee Supreme Court.
Stafford is a past president of the Tennessee Judicial Conference, which includes all of the state’s appellate, trial and senior judges. He also serves as dean of the Tennessee Judicial Academy and was a member of the statewide Public Trust and Confidence in the Courts Committee. He serves on a special joint committee of the General Assembly created to determine whether Tennessee ’s 31 judicial districts should be revamped and also represents the judiciary on a pro se committee exploring how to improve access to justice for self-represented litigants.
He has been chancellor in his district since 1993 and was part-time city judge for Dyersburg from 1988-93. He was in the private practice of law from 1983 until he became chancellor.
Stafford , who earned his undergraduate degree at UT Martin and his law degree at the Cumberland School of Law at Samford University in Birmingham , AL , is married to Tempe Collins Stafford and has two children, Lynlee, 23, and Sydnee, 12.