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From Country to Courts hosted by Mike Hammond, radio veteran, Country Radio Hall of Fame inductee, and longtime Criminal Court Clerk.
This podcast explores the vital issues at the heart of our courts and criminal justice system in a way that’s clear and compelling.
Each episode will dive into insights on how the court system works, what citizens can expect if they ever find themselves in court, and the programs and services many never hear about, like Veterans Recovery Court, Mental Health Court, and driver's license reinstatement programs.
Whether you’re facing a legal issue, serving jury duty, or just curious about what happens behind courtroom doors, From Country to Courts offers real world context and practical information to help you better understand the justice system and your place in it.
Mike: Welcome to another edition of From Country to the Courts. I’m Mike Hammond, criminal court clerk in Knox County, and I’m your host, and have this very special guest today. And that very special guest is Mandy Branch, who works in the General Sessions office, and she is one of our supervisors, and her specialty is traffic tickets. I’m sure none of you listening have ever gotten a traffic ticket, whether it’s a speeding ticket or a parking violation, whatever that may be, but for those of you who have, we’re going to talk a little bit about that today, what are your responsibilities and what do you need to do before you come to court and when you get to court. So, we’re going to be talking with Mandy about that. So Mandy, thank you for joining us today.
Mandy: Well, thank you for having me.
Mike: I know that the vast majority of cases we have in sessions tend to go around traffic, whether it’s a speeding ticket, a DUI, some type of speeding violation. So, what are some of the cases that we would see kind of on a weekly basis that have to do with traffic?
Mandy: So weekly, we get from different agencies, mostly the Tennessee Highway Patrol, Knox County Sheriff’s Office, and we get very few traffic violations from Knoxville police department because they keep the majority of their things at City Municipal Court. We have various offenses that range from speeding to seat belt, moving, non-moving.
Mike: And it’s one of those things, too, where DUI is probably the most serious that we get, unless there’s an accident and there’s some type of injury or something like that, but we’re just going to kind of focus now on just the minor types of things that most people would get. And so, let’s talk about first of all, you say moving and non-moving. What does that mean?
Mandy: So, a moving violation is anything that would points on your driver’s license if you’re found guilty or if you just pay it. That’s considered a conviction, so that would go on your motor vehicle record with the Department of Safety. You hold 12 points on your driver’s license in a calendar year that could potentially suspend your driver’s license if you go above that amount.
Mike: And people really get concerned about their points because they obviously do not want their driver’s license to be revoked. And so, when we talk about speeding, there’s some violations where if you’re five miles over the speed limit, 10, 15, 20, at what point does it become reckless driving?
Mandy: Only if the officer cites you for reckless. There’s nothing statutorily that requires that it is an immediate reckless driving.
Mike: So, the officer has a lot of power, then? The officer could say, “Hey, you were 21 miles over the speed limit. I’m charging you with reckless driving.” But it’s basically up to the officer to decide that?
Mandy: Yeah, absolutely it is. It’s at their discretion. In the statute, it is quoted that they may use their judgment, and a lot of times, they’ll just cite for this speeding violation because you get more points.
Mike: You mentioned seat belt violations, and that’s something that’s kind of new, in that there is a monetary fine that goes along with that. But also, if you do not have your license plate, for example, you’re driving, and maybe your license plate has fallen off, or maybe you just forgot to put it on, or maybe it’s expired, that’s another thing that we see quite a bit.
Mandy: Yes. Those registration violations, there’s multiple of them, and they are all non-moving. And through our court system, the District Attorney General’s office, allows our office, the clerks, to accept any satisfying documents on those and we can dismiss on cost that wouldn’t require anybody to appear before the judge to actually get that signed off on.
Mike: Now, that’s another thing I want to talk about is, you get a citation—and we’re talking about the minor offenses now—at what point does someone need to come to court? Now, you’re going to be cited to court, but what steps can they take before court to try to get it satisfied so they don’t have to come all the way to the city county building?
Mandy: They’ll be instructed by the officer on scene when they’re given the violation to actually call our office, and our call center can help them navigate that. But everyone is entitled to go before our district attorney general and speak with them and go before a judge. That’s everyone’s right. So, you can absolutely take the day off from work and do that on your given court date, or if you can’t appear on that day, you can get a reset.
However, if you wanted to try to satisfy anything prior to parking, navigating the building, coming to court, just the stress of it all, there are other options. Some violations we can dismiss on cost with proof, like I said, and then others are mandatory court appearances. And again, most people want to avoid just paying violations that are moving because of the points that will be assessed on their driver’s license. The only way to avoid that through our system would be to appear in court because the DA and the judge have to agree that it would be a potential dismissal on cost or allow them to do a Driver Improvement Program, which is driving school.
Mike: And we’re going to talk about that in subsequent podcasts about this whole thing. And we’re not really going to focus on DUIs today because it’s a whole different world, and that’s something where there’s a lot of different penalties that go along with that. But if people decide they want to come to court, we strongly recommend that they get an attorney. Now, you can represent yourself, and you can come and not hire an attorney, but I guess it would depend upon the severity of what your violation might be, and if you feel like you’re innocent, any of those types of factors, you can represent yourself, or you can get an attorney. And for the most part, when people call our office, we say, “Hey, you really need an attorney. We can’t give legal advice.”
Mandy: Absolutely. We aren’t in the business of giving legal advice. On those minor traffic offenses, anything traffic related, in my opinion, because of the severity of the other things that we deal with is minor. So, you get to speak with the DA, they give you feedback. If you don’t like what they have to say, you then can be like, “Mm, I need another court date, and I’d like to retain counsel at that point.”
So, just because you appear on your traffic day doesn’t mean that it has to be resolved that day, or you are made to feel like you have to give guilty, not guilty, whatever. You can absolutely walk away and say, “I’d like to have another date and I’d like to retain counsel at that point,” if you feel like it’s not in your favor.
Mike: And we want to emphasize the fact that you do have the right to come to court and appear before the judge and plead your case, whether you do it yourself or whether you hire an attorney. So, let’s say Mike Hammond or Mandy Branch is going down the—and a highway patrol stops you, and they say, “You were speeding.” From the time they give you the citation until it gets into the system, about approximately how long does that take? Because it’s not like it’s that day.
Mandy: It depends. With the highway patrol, they do computer-generated tickets, electronic citations, and we upload those daily, so it would be in the next business day. However, the other agencies that issue don’t, and they’re manual entry tickets, so it depends on the officer and what their internal policy is of when they need to turn that in, and then we pick those up daily, if they’re available. Those usually take a little longer, so we like to tell people, if it’s a handwritten ticket, to wait 10 to 15 business days, and then give us a call, and we do our best to give them the information on it.
Mike: And nothing is really going to happen to them during that 10 to 15 days because it hasn’t been processed; it’s not the system yet. So, we’ve had people who’ve gotten a ticket, and they’ve come by the very next day and says, “Hey, I want to pay,” and we’ll say, “Well, we don’t have it yet.” And that’s the reason why, is it hadn’t been turned into us. And so, it’s always helpful to call and say, “Hey, you know, got a ticket three or four days ago, is it in the system yet,” or whatever, and we’ll be happy to look it up for you. And when we get it, we can tell you, you know, exactly what the citations are.
Mandy: Yes. The call center has access to that, and they also can access everything on our website. If it’s available in our database, it should be accessible on that website.
Mike: Driver’s licenses are important to people, and in subsequent podcasts, we’re going to talk about what happens if you get your license revoked. What are your rights for that? What can you do to get a restricted license, for example? And also, our office does expungements, and that’s another subject for podcasts down the road. So, we handle a lot, and most people don’t realize what we do in the office, and that’s why we’re doing these podcasts, is to let people know what we do, and what are some of the things that you need to know.
Again, we can’t give legal advice, but we can give legal information. And so, most people it’s kind of daunting to come in and try to go to court, and they don’t want to go and stand before a judge, but sometimes you have to, and sometimes you have to say, “No, this is not right, in my opinion, and I want to plead my case.” You have absolutely the right to do that.
Mandy: Yes. And a lot of people have the misconception that if they want to appear and contest, that they’ll be charged additional fees. There is nothing additional charged on your initial appearance date. The only time there’s additional fees is if there is a reset, there’s a small fee, $7, that’s added to the ticket, and that’s in the event you’re found guilty, or if it’s a dismissal on cost. It would still be that $7 regardless, on top of whatever the dismissal on cost price was.
Mike: So, ladies and gentlemen, we’ve got a lot to talk about. Coming up. We’re going to talk about DUIs in subsequent, we’re talking about expungements, we’re going to talk about the criminal cases, we’re going to be talking to sheriff’s deputies. We have a lot of people in the court system that you may not realize, that are important in the process and important to you if you’ve been charged or cited with something. So, we invite you to join us in subsequent weeks right here on From Country to the Courts. Mandy, thank you so much for joining us today.
Mandy: Thank you so much for having me.
Mike: This has been From Country to the Courts. I appreciate your listening. You can follow me on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Also, don’t forget to give me a five-star review on the app of your choice. Thanks, and I’ll see you on the next episode.