The Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury issued the FY 2017-18 Tennessee Judicial Weighted Caseload Study in April 2019. The state has an estimated net deficit of 6.51 full-time equivalent judges. In the previous year, there was a deficit of 9.76 judges across the state and four judicial positions were added 2018 as a result.
There is a deficit of Judges in Rutherford and Cannon Counties, which serve the public together. The two counties have a deficit of negative .25.
Judicial districts 19 (Montgomery and Robertson counties), 22 (Giles, Lawrence, Maury, and Wayne counties), and 23 (Cheatham, Dickson, Houston, Humphreys, and Stewart counties) showed the highest demand for additional judicial resources in 2018. In the map on the right, the counties in red show a deficit while the counties in blue show and excess.
In terms of categories of cases, criminal cases increased about 5.5 percent (46 percent of cases), civil cases decreased by less than 1 percent (30 percent of cases), and domestic relations cases decreased by over 3.5 percent (25 percent of cases). With an increase of 3,082 case filings compared to last year, probation violations saw the largest change in the number of case filings by a wide margin.
