The new 25 case limit on the civil dockets in Davidson County General Sessions has been the problem we thought it would be.
As of last Thursday, the next available civil hearing date for new and pending cases was December 9, 2020.
Since last Thursday, 357 new cases have been filed in Sessions Court.
Given the usual holiday court schedule, I’d bet that–as of this blog post— there are no more open civil dockets in 2020.
The Nashville Bar Association hosted a General Sessions Court Town Hall today to talk about these issues, but, given the unprecedented nature of this problem, nobody knows what’s next and how to solve it. Will there be afternoon dockets? Staggered morning dockets? Video appearances?
I’ve received a handful of calls from local lawyers, for advice on how to navigate all this. In some cases, the best move is to file the matter and just get a date locked down before things get worse (even if it’s in mid-January).
Another option, though, if you aren’t going to get into Court until January or February, is to file your commercial eviction lawsuits in Circuit Court (which has jurisdiction, per Tenn. Code Ann. § 29-18-108).
If you file an eviction action in Circuit, today, and get it served this week, you may be able to get a judgment by early December (or early January).
And, yes, I know I’ve criticized lawyers for filing Sessions-sized and eviction matters in Circuit Court (a move that generally presents no tangible strategic advantage, other than the lawyers get more billable hours).
But these unprecedented times call for novel ideas.
Creditors Rights 101 
Currently in the process of evicting someone who is a holdover lease tenant of a commercial motel bldg/restaurant. Meanwhile, he appealed the eviction. He did not put up a surety bond nor one years worth of rent. He simply walked in with two dummies that signed for him who absolutely could not cover the costs. He is now collecting rents and not paying anything. He has demanded a jury trial to buy him even more time while he holds the property captive. ( This is in Tennessee)