Criminal defense in West Tennessee isn’t practiced in one courtroom. A charge in Germantown is arraigned on a Wednesday evening at City Hall; a charge in Ripley waits for a set docket day an hour up Highway 51; a felony in Collierville ends its municipal life at a preliminary hearing while a felony in Somerville never leaves Fayette County at all. Brooks Law Firm appears regularly in the courts below — we know their schedules, their clerks, their prosecutors, and the outcomes each docket actually gives. Call (901) 324-5000 or call/text the criminal line at (901) 412-2973.
Shelby County
The heart of the practice. Most Memphis criminal cases begin in the General Sessions Criminal Court at 201 Poplar and proceed, if indicted, to the Shelby County Criminal Court divisions in the same building, with juvenile matters in Shelby County Juvenile Court. We handle the full range of charges there — from traffic offenses through serious felonies — every week. Start with our criminal defense overview.
Suburban Municipal Courts of Shelby County
Germantown, Bartlett, and Collierville hold concurrent General Sessions jurisdiction, which means state misdemeanors arising inside their city limits — DUI, domestic assault, simple possession, theft — can be resolved right there, and felonies begin there through the preliminary hearing before binding over to the Shelby County Grand Jury.
Germantown Municipal Court
Germantown City Hall (Council Chambers), 1930 S. Germantown Road — one of the few evening courts in the county, with sessions Wednesdays at 5:00 p.m. Germantown court guide →
Bartlett City Court
Bartlett Justice Center, 3730 Appling Road — two divisions, Division I Wednesdays at 8:00 a.m. and Division II Mondays at noon, in the same building as Bartlett PD and the city jail. Bartlett court guide →
Collierville Municipal Court
101 Walnut Street — Tuesday morning and afternoon dockets plus Thursday mornings, with assignment by case type, and one of the busiest retail-theft dockets in the suburbs. Collierville court guide →
West Tennessee County Courts
Outside Shelby County, every state criminal charge runs through the county seat: General Sessions Court for misdemeanors and preliminary hearings, then the county grand jury and Circuit Court for felonies. Fayette, Tipton, and Lauderdale share the 25th Judicial District — the same Circuit judges and District Attorney’s office across all three — while Haywood sits in the 28th. We’re in these courthouses regularly, not occasionally.
Fayette County — Somerville
General Sessions and Circuit Court at the Bill G. Kelley Criminal Justice Complex, 705 Justice Drive on the Highway 64 corridor. I-40 interdiction stops, Oakland’s growth, and cases that stay in Fayette County start to finish. Fayette County court guide →
Tipton County — Covington
General Sessions and Circuit Court at the Tipton County Justice Center, 1801 South College Street. Memphis’s commuter county — Atoka, Munford, and Brighton — with a Highway 51 DUI docket and a recovery court track for the right cases. Tipton County court guide →
Lauderdale County — Ripley
General Sessions and Circuit Court at the Justice Complex, 675 Highway 51 South. A smaller docket with one charge most courts rarely see: contraband cases out of West Tennessee State Penitentiary in Henning. Lauderdale County court guide →
Haywood County — Brownsville
General Sessions and Circuit Court (28th Judicial District) at the Justice Complex, 100 South Dupree Avenue. I-40 interdiction country, a county transformed by BlueOval City, and its own recovery court. Haywood County court guide →
Why the Courthouse Matters
The Tennessee Code is the same in every county. What changes is everything else: which day court sits, whether your appearance can be waived, which prosecutor has your file, what diversion and recovery-court options that docket actually uses, and how a preliminary hearing there tends to run. That local knowledge is why we’ve written a guide for each court above — and why the first question we ask a new client is where. If your court isn’t listed here, call anyway; these are the courts we visit most, not a fence around the practice.
Charged in West Tennessee? Start Here
Brooks Law Firm, 2299 Union Avenue, Memphis — serving Shelby, Fayette, Tipton, Lauderdale, and Haywood counties. Office: (901) 324-5000. Criminal matters — call or text: (901) 412-2973. Spanish-language interpreters available. Se habla Español.