(a) Each general sessions court judge is vested with power to:

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Terms Used In Tennessee Code 16-15-401

  • Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
  • Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
  • Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
  • Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
  • Probate: Proving a will
  • State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
  • Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
(1) Grant writs of attachment, returnable to the circuit court, in the same manner and to the same extent as the circuit judge;
(2) Enter up judgment by confession of a defendant to any amount within the judge’s jurisdiction in the particular case;
(3) Issue an execution in the judge’s county upon a certified execution from another county;
(4) Issue a subpoena for witnesses, in any matter to be tried before the judge, to the judge’s own or an adjoining county;
(5) Issue scire facias to revive judgments against the personal representatives and heirs of deceased parties, to any county in the state;
(6) Issue alias and pluries executions whenever necessary;
(7) Issue counterpart writs to any county in the state for the principal maker of any bill, bond, or note, at the instance of the surety or endorser who is sued thereon; and
(8) Punish persons disturbing them in the discharge of their official duties.
(b) Judges of general sessions courts have the same authority as circuit court judges or chancellors to grant fiats for writs of injunction, attachments and other extraordinary process. They also have the same jurisdiction relative to the suspension and revocation of sentences imposed by them as that conferred upon all trial judges by title 40, chapter 29.
(c) The judges of courts of general sessions of counties of the third class, as defined in [former] § 16-15-204 [repealed], having a population of not less than forty-seven thousand eight hundred fifty (47,850) nor more than forty-seven thousand eight hundred seventy-five (47,875), according to the 1970 federal census or any subsequent federal census, in addition to the jurisdiction and powers conferred elsewhere in this chapter, have the authority to sit by interchange for the county judge in nonsupport, probate, juvenile and lunacy proceedings.
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