DUI Defense
Short answer: a DUI charged in Fayette, Tipton, Haywood, Weakley or any other West Tennessee county is tried under the same statute as a Memphis DUI, with the same mandatory minimums, the same license revocation and the same bar on diversion and expungement. What changes is the courtroom: one General Sessions judge in the county seat, a docket that may sit one or two days a month, a different prosecutor’s office, and a long drive on every setting. Brooks Law Firm defends first-offense and repeat DUI charges in the General Sessions and Circuit Courts of twenty West Tennessee counties from our office in Midtown Memphis, on a flat fee: a first offense from $2,500 in Shelby, Fayette and Tipton County, and from $3,500 in the other West Tennessee counties.
Charged with DUI outside Shelby County? Call (901) 324-5000, or call or text the criminal line at 901-412-2973, with the citation or bond paperwork in front of you. Se habla español.
Which court hears a DUI outside Shelby County
Jurisdiction follows where the stop happened, not where you live. A Memphis resident stopped on I-40 in Haywood County answers in Brownsville; a Dresden student stopped in Shelby County answers at 201 Poplar. In every West Tennessee county the pattern is the same. The town courts in Covington, Somerville, Martin, Bolivar and the rest handle city ordinance and traffic matters only. A DUI is a state criminal charge, so whoever made the arrest, a town officer, a sheriff’s deputy or a Tennessee Highway Patrol trooper, the case goes to that county’s General Sessions Court at the county seat.
General Sessions hears misdemeanor DUI, which is every first, second and third offense, from arraignment through plea or bench trial, with a right to appeal to Circuit Court for a new trial. A fourth or later DUI is a Class E felony and is bound over to Circuit Court after a preliminary hearing. Two counties have wrinkles worth knowing. In Dyer County, Dyersburg City Court holds General Sessions jurisdiction, so a Dyersburg Police arrest is usually set there rather than at the courthouse. In Gibson County, General Sessions sits in both Trenton and Humboldt, and which courtroom you report to depends on where you were stopped.
The law is the same statewide. The courtroom is not.
Every number that matters in a DUI case is set by the Tennessee Code, and it does not change at the county line. Under T.C.A. § 55-10-401 and § 55-10-402, a first offense carries at least 48 hours in jail (seven days at a blood alcohol concentration of 0.20 or higher), a fine of $350 to $1,500 and a one-year license revocation. A second offense carries at least 45 consecutive days and two years; a third at least 120 days and six years; a fourth is a felony with 150 days served day for day. Tennessee does not allow judicial or pretrial diversion for DUI, and a DUI conviction cannot be expunged absent a governor’s pardon. A refusal of the breath or blood test is a separate implied-consent charge with its own revocation, one year for a first refusal and 18 months when the test refused was blood. The detail is on our Tennessee DUI penalties and implied consent pages.
What does change is how the case moves, and that is where a lawyer who is already in these courts earns the fee.
- One judge, one docket. Memphis spreads DUI across several General Sessions divisions. A county court has one General Sessions judge who hears everything, and in several counties the criminal docket sits on one or two fixed days. Carroll County calls its criminal docket every Wednesday; Tipton County’s General Sessions criminal dockets are Tuesdays and Thursdays; Haywood County sets a separate DUI docket on Thursdays. Most of the smaller counties publish no weekly day at all, and your first date is simply the one printed on the citation or bond paperwork.
- A different prosecutor. Shelby County is its own judicial district. The West Tennessee counties are grouped into districts with their own District Attorney General, their own assistants and their own habits about what a first-offense DUI with a clean record is worth. Knowing the office you are negotiating with matters more than it does downtown.
- Who stopped you. Interstate and highway stops in these counties are heavily Tennessee Highway Patrol, and a trooper’s stop comes with dash and body camera video, a written report and, increasingly, a blood draw by warrant rather than a breath test. Town police and sheriff’s deputies produce different paper. The case is built on what that record shows about the reason for the stop, the roadside tests and the implied consent warning.
- Distance. Brownsville is an hour from Memphis, Dresden is two and a half. Every reset costs you a day off work. Part of the job is keeping the number of trips down and telling you plainly which dates you must attend and which we can handle.
The West Tennessee courts we appear in
Each county below has its own page with the courthouse address, the clerk’s phone and hours, the published docket days where the court publishes them, and the roads that produce most of its DUI arrests.
| County | County seat | General Sessions criminal docket |
|---|---|---|
| Fayette | Somerville | Date on the citation or bond paperwork |
| Tipton | Covington | Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9:00 a.m. |
| Haywood | Brownsville | Tuesdays; DUI docket Thursdays, 9:00 a.m. |
| Lauderdale | Ripley | Date on the citation or bond paperwork |
| Madison | Jackson | Arraignments weekday mornings, 8:30 a.m.; trial dockets Tuesday and Thursday afternoons |
| Crockett | Alamo | Date on the citation or bond paperwork |
| Hardeman | Bolivar | Date on the citation or bond paperwork |
| Gibson | Trenton and Humboldt | Two courtrooms, one judge; date on the citation |
| Dyer | Dyersburg | Courthouse, or Dyersburg City Court for a city arrest |
| Obion | Union City | Date on the citation or bond paperwork |
| Weakley | Dresden | Date on the citation or bond paperwork |
| Henry | Paris | Date on the citation or bond paperwork |
| Carroll | Huntingdon | Every Wednesday, 9:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. |
| Henderson | Lexington | Date on the citation or bond paperwork |
| McNairy | Selmer | Date on the citation or bond paperwork |
| Hardin | Savannah | Date on the citation or bond paperwork |
| Chester | Henderson | Date on the citation or bond paperwork |
| Benton | Camden | Date on the citation or bond paperwork |
| Decatur | Decaturville | Date on the citation or bond paperwork |
| Lake | Tiptonville | Date on the citation or bond paperwork |
Docket days change, and a clerk’s confirmation beats anything printed here. Where a county publishes no fixed day, the clerk’s office listed on that county’s page will confirm your date and courtroom.
What we do first in a county DUI case
The first call is the same whether the arrest was in Covington or Camden. We get the citation, the bond conditions and the court date, and we tell you whether you need to be there for the first setting. Then we ask for the record: the dash and body camera video, the officer’s report, the field sobriety test notes, the implied consent form and, when blood was drawn, the warrant and the affidavit behind it. In a county case that record often arrives before the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation lab result does, and the questions it answers, why you were stopped, how long you were held, what you were told before the test, are the ones that decide most DUI cases long before anyone talks about a plea.
We handle the license side at the same time. A first conviction or a refusal means a revocation, and in most of these counties there is no bus. Getting a restricted license with an ignition interlock in place quickly, so you can drive to work, is part of the case, not an afterthought. How a DUI is defended on the merits is on our DUI defenses page, and the breath and blood testing issues are on breath and blood test defense.
What it costs
A first-offense DUI is a flat fee from $2,500 in Shelby County, Fayette County and Tipton County, the courts we are in every week. In the other West Tennessee counties, Haywood and Lauderdale through Madison, Dyer, Weakley and the rest of the table above, a first offense is a flat fee from $3,500, which covers the court appearances in that county and the drive; there is no separate travel charge. A case with issues to litigate, a contested stop, a blood draw to challenge, a refusal charge alongside the DUI, runs $3,500 to $5,000, and a jury trial in Circuit Court runs $10,000 to $15,000. Court costs, fines and the Department of Safety’s reinstatement fees are separate and go to the court and the State. The full schedule is on DUI lawyer cost by court.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to drive back for every court date?
Not usually for every one. Practice varies by county and by judge; some settings can be handled by counsel and some, including any hearing or trial, require you. We tell you which is which before each date, and we try to resolve the case in as few trips as the facts allow.
Can I get diversion for a DUI in a county court?
No. DUI is excluded from judicial and pretrial diversion everywhere in Tennessee, and a conviction cannot be expunged absent a governor’s pardon. That is why the goal in a first-offense case is a dismissal or a reduction to a charge that can be diverted or expunged, such as reckless driving, rather than a lighter DUI sentence.
A town officer stopped me. Is my DUI in city court?
Almost never. Town courts in West Tennessee hear ordinance and traffic matters; a DUI is a state charge and goes to the county’s General Sessions Court. The exception is Dyersburg, whose City Court holds General Sessions jurisdiction over Dyersburg Police arrests.
Is the fee higher outside Memphis?
In most counties, yes, by one step. A first-offense DUI starts at $2,500 in Shelby, Fayette and Tipton County and at $3,500 in the other West Tennessee counties. The higher figure is the whole fee for that county’s court dates and the travel; there is no separate charge for the drive, and we are in these courts regularly for DUI, drug and domestic assault cases.
I live out of state and was charged passing through. What happens?
The case stays in the Tennessee county where you were stopped, and a Tennessee conviction is reported to your home state, which applies its own license consequences. Many out-of-state drivers can resolve a first-offense case with one return trip or none, depending on the county and the outcome. Call with the citation and we will tell you what that county requires.
Contact
Brooks Law Firm defends DUI, drug and domestic assault charges in the General Sessions and Circuit Courts of West Tennessee from 2299 Union Avenue in Memphis. Related: Memphis DUI defense, the courts we serve and probation violations in Fayette, Tipton and Haywood County. Call (901) 324-5000 or text 901-412-2973.
This page is general information, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Docket days are as published by each court on the date this page was written and change without notice; confirm with the clerk. Implied-consent periods depend on the date of the arrest and the driver’s history. The outcome of any case depends on its facts.