The Trousdale County General Sessions Court is one of 95 General Session Courts in Tennessee. This is a court of limited jurisdiction that hears civil and criminal cases.[1]
Tennessee is one of 43 states that hold elections for judicial positions. To learn more about judicial selection in Tennessee, click here.
Judges of the general sessions court are elected in nonpartisan elections to eight-year terms. Individual towns or cities may establish varying ordinances for the election of their municipal judges—e.g., ordinances that allow for some positions to be elected by popular vote and some to be selected by other methods.[3][4][5][6]
Qualifications
To serve on the court, a judge must be:[7]
Primary elections may be held for trial court judges. The political parties in each county determine whether or not there will be a primary election in their respective counties.
Counties that are having a primary election will have them on a Tuesday in May. The candidate who wins the county primary election in May will then move on to the county general election in August and run against other party candidates that won their respective primaries.[8]
Primary elections in Tennessee serve to designate a party's nomination and narrow the field down to one candidate from that party for a specific office. A candidate who wins their primary nomination will move on to the general election.[8] It is not uncommon for a candidate to run unopposed in their party primary and then go on to run unopposed in the general election as well. Similarly, candidates may win their primary and go on to run unopposed in the general election.
Voters do not need to declare their party affiliation when they register to vote. However, primary voters must declare whether or not they will be voting in the Democratic or Republican primary.[8]