Appeal If you are convicted of a criminal offense after a trial, that does not mean that the process is over or that the conviction is necessarily final. Often, there are legal errors that occur during a trial that can impact the outcome of the verdict. You may have...
Jury Trial After any legal issues are litigated, and any negotiations with the prosecutor take place, the final step in criminal court is a jury trial. No one is ever required to take a case to trial, but there are times that a person’s innocence can only be proven by...
Criminal Court For most people, if your case continues through the criminal justice system, the second court you would encounter is the criminal court. In some counties in East Tennessee, the criminal court is called circuit court. In defending your case, criminal...
Grand Jury Proceedings After a preliminary hearing, if the general sessions court determines that there is probable cause for the case to move forward, then the case will be reviewed by a grand jury. The grand jury is a group of people from the community who are...
General Sessions Court In Tennessee, there are two levels of court in each county that hear criminal cases – the General Sessions Court and Criminal Court (called Circuit Court in some counties). After being arrested and charged with a criminal offense, most cases...
