Mission Statement
Metropolitan General Sessions Court is committed to excellence in administering justice and is a contributing partner working toward a safe and vital community in Nashville-Davidson County.
Presiding Judge Robin Kimbrough Hayes, Division V (5)
Click here for Judge Kimbrough Hayes bio
General Sessions Court Welcomes a New Judge!
We are proud to announce that Jodie Bell was elected by the Metro Council last night 11/18/2025 to assume the Division 6 judgeship that was recently vacated by Judge Jim Todd, now with State Trial Court.
Judge Jodie Bell’s official start day on the job will be this Friday 11/21/2025. We welcome her aboard and look forward to having her be part of our body of judges.
Overview
The Metropolitan General Sessions Court of Nashville-Davidson County is a high-volume limited jurisdiction Court that hears civil, misdemeanor, felony, traffic, environmental, and metropolitan ordinance violations. This Court is served by eleven judges that are elected to an eight-year term. There are also fifteen law-trained judicial magistrates that handle the probable cause hearings in the issuance of a criminal warrant and one referee that handles the environmental cases and other non-traffic metro ordinance violations.
Justice A.A. Birch
Adolpho A. Birch, Jr. (September 22, 1932 – August 25, 2011) was an American lawyer and judge who was the first African American to serve as Chief Justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court.
Birch is the only person in Tennessee history to serve in every level of the state’s judiciary. In 1969, Governor Buford Ellington appointed him as a General Sessions Court judge in Davidson County, making him the first African American to serve in that office. In 1970 he was elected to the judgeship, the first time an African American won election as a judge in the county.