How to Search Civil Dockets
Two routes cover most Coffee County civil docket searches. The Coffee County Court Dockets page posts the dates. It splits General Sessions civil listings from the Circuit civil PDFs for Judge William A. Lockhart and Judge Robert T. Carter. For case metadata on Circuit and General Sessions files, use the Coffee TNCRTInfo portal. It lists no separate Chancery option. For that court, the Clerk and Master is the fallback.
Have a party name, the likely filing year, and the court ready. A local formatted number can narrow the lookup fast.
- Use the docket index for a date-specific hearing list or TNCRTInfo to locate a case record.
- Select Civil and choose General Sessions, Circuit Court, or both.
- Enter the party name or case reference, or enter the year and final numeric case suffix.
- Complete Turnstile, select Find Now, and save the full case number and court.
- Ask the proper clerk for a complaint, motion, order, judgment, or certified copy not supplied online.
No match? Retry with a partial name, a different filing year, and the other court type. Then ask whether the case actually belongs in Chancery or a city court instead. An empty TNCRTInfo result does not mean no Coffee County civil record exists. It may simply sit in a different division.
Coffee County Civil Court Pattern
General Sessions Civil handles limited-jurisdiction work through two local divisions. Part I belongs to Judge Greg Perry and Part II to Judge Gerald Ewell Jr. The recurring calendar is Wednesday plus the third Friday of each month at the Justice Center in Manchester. A pattern helps you plan, but the dated civil docket controls for any specific hearing.
The county's official General Sessions Civil page sets out the jurisdiction, the schedule, and the available forms. The same page shows the current civil docket postings for Coffee County General Sessions.
This civil docket lives on the county's own court page, not a generic statewide calendar. When a recurring court day and a case entry disagree, trust the newest dated PDF.
Courtroom details shift too. A recent Friday docket for Judge Perry ran in the third-floor courtroom at 9:00 a.m., while a sample for Judge Ewell used a first-floor room. Room and time can vary, so treat neither as a standing rule for every Coffee County civil setting.
What a Civil Docket Shows
A Coffee County civil PDF shows scheduled work, not the whole file. General Sessions listings include the court, date, time, judge, floor or courtroom, page number, case number, style, attorney or law-firm labels, and hearing type. Circuit entries use a similar header and case block. The public schedule does not promise every pleading, exhibit, order, or service event.
| Case number | Observed formats include 16GS1-2026-CV-602 and 16CC1-2025-CV-50458. |
|---|---|
| Style or caption | The case parties appear in a versus format. A calendar line does not define every party role or claim. |
| Attorney fields | Attorney and law-firm labels may appear when supplied. A blank field is not proof that no counsel exists. |
| Hearing type | Civil Hearing, Motion, Status, Show Cause, Trial, Slow Pay Hearing, and Warrant to Recover appear in samples. |
| Continuation | Cont'd marks continued material in a dated PDF. It does not by itself supply the next date. |
Need the complaint, answer, motion, or judgment itself? Give the clerk the exact case number and document name. The docket PDF is the index to planned court work, not the paper.
Coffee County Civil Case Codes
The local case number tells you the court. General Sessions civil samples carry 16GS1; Circuit civil samples carry 16CC1. A four-digit year follows, and CV marks the civil segment. The prefix routes the docket search but says nothing about the claim, any judgment, or current access status.
TNCRTInfo asks users with a formatted number to enter only the digits after the last hyphen in the case-number box. Put the original filing year in the Case Year field. Keep Civil checked and pick the correct Court Type. If one court returns nothing, test the other only when the facts support it.
- Motion
- A request set for court action, not proof that the court granted it.
- Status
- A setting label that may concern case progress, not a final status code.
- Show Cause
- A hearing label requiring attention to the filed notice or order for its purpose.
- Slow Pay Hearing
- A local civil calendar label tied to payment or collection issues, not a full balance statement.
- Warrant to Recover
- A literal setting label in a General Sessions sample. The PDF alone does not show the result.
When a docket term is unclear, keep the exact wording and ask the clerk. Coffee County publishes no official code glossary. Guessing at meanings would be unsafe.
Types of Civil Cases on the Docket
Jurisdiction and filing type split the Coffee County civil docket. Circuit Court holds general civil jurisdiction. General Sessions civil jurisdiction is limited. Chancery overlaps with Circuit on divorce and civil matters. Under the county's description, it excludes unliquidated damages. Let the court name, not just the subject, guide your docket search.
- Contract, debt, damages, tort, malpractice, health-care-liability, and wrongful-death actions appear on the Circuit fee schedule.
- General Sessions forms cover civil summonses, detainers, and recovery of personal property.
- Post-judgment work includes garnishment, levy, installment-payment, and slow-pay matters.
- Domestic relations and other equitable matters may be in Circuit or Chancery, depending on jurisdiction and filing.
- Appeals from General Sessions, Juvenile, Municipal, or administrative proceedings can reach Circuit Court.
The form list shows a General Sessions civil docket is more than a debt calendar. It covers writs of possession, garnishment and levy requests, motions to quash, and installment-payment motions. The case number and the clerk confirm which file holds the action.
Coffee County Civil Fee Split
Which court you file in changes the fee sheet. The official schedules updated January 1, 2026 put a General Sessions summons, detainer, or recovery-of-personal-property filing at $153.50. On the Circuit side, a new contract, debt, damages, tort, malpractice, health-care-liability, or wrongful-death suit runs $374.50. Those figures are filing charges, not prices for viewing a public docket.
| Item | General Sessions | Circuit |
|---|---|---|
| Ordinary listed new action | $153.50 summons or detainer entry | $374.50 listed contract or damages entry |
| Continuance | $10 | $10 |
| Copy | $0.50 per page | $0.50 per page |
| Certified copy | $5.50 | $5.50 |
| Exemplification | $20.50 | $20.50 |
| Reopen closed case | $75 | $75 |
Confirm the current official schedule before paying anything. Service, counterclaims, appeals, and post-judgment steps can each add fees. Ask the clerk whether certification is charged per document or per request. Also ask whether page fees apply. Chancery keeps its own schedule through the Clerk and Master.
Settings and Hearings on Civil Dockets
Coffee County civil dockets use a short list of setting labels: Motion, Status, Civil Hearing, Show Cause, Trial, Slow Pay Hearing, and Warrant to Recover. Each label signals what the calendar expects to take up. That is all it does. A label alone proves no hearing occurred and no relief was granted, so the filed order remains the sound source for the result.
Check the judge, date, time, room, case number, and hearing type as one package. General Sessions samples vary by room and hearing type. Circuit civil PDFs are split between Judges Lockhart and Carter, so a person opening the wrong judge's PDF can miss a case even with the right date in hand.
A continuation marker can mean the printed docket runs onto another page, or that work was continued, depending on where it sits. Coffee County also warns that Circuit dockets have not been automatically continued since July 1, 2022. Do not roll an old setting forward yourself. Rely on the current docket or call the clerk. The Coffee County court calendar lays out the broader date-check process, and for a live case you should keep the exact case number ready and compare the newest PDF against the clerk's answer.
Coffee County Chancery Boundary
Some civil docket searches come up empty for a simple reason. The case sits in Chancery. Coffee County places divorce and civil jurisdiction in Chancery concurrently with Circuit, except actions for unliquidated damages. Those files live with Clerk and Master Sheila Proffitt, not the Circuit Court Clerk. Her office is on the first floor of the Justice Center.
The public TNCRTInfo form offers boxes for General Sessions and Circuit Court but none for Chancery. For a possible Chancery matter, call the Clerk and Master at 931-723-5132. You can also fax 931-723-8206 or visit 300 Hillsboro Boulevard, first floor, Manchester. Mail goes to 300 Hillsboro Boulevard, Box 8, Manchester, TN 37355.
Portal boundary: Selecting Civil in TNCRTInfo does not turn it into a Chancery search. Confirm the court and custodian before concluding that a case is missing.
Chancery cases in Coffee County have used Tybera e-filing since August 8, 2022. Tybera serves registered filers. It is not a free public docket search, so ask the Clerk and Master about current inspection and copy methods.
Public Access to Civil Dockets
Tennessee Supreme Court Rule 34 recognizes a right to inspect public court records. The right bends to law, sealing orders, protective orders, and other stated limits. Coffee County's FAQ takes the same line. A file is public unless ordered sealed, and juvenile files are confidential. Family-related subject matter does not change the task. You still have to check the exact court and its access rule.
Access framework:
Tennessee Supreme Court Rule 34 covers public case records and preserves statutory, sealed, protected, and judicial-function exceptions.
Coffee County court-record FAQ gives the county's plain statement on open, sealed, and juvenile files.
Coffee County's TPRA request form requests a record type, date range, subject, and key words for existing records.
The form allows inspection or copies. Delivery can be pickup, first-class mail, electronic means, or another route. It promises no processing time. It does not force anyone to create a new record. And it cannot override a court restriction. Send a case-file request to the clerk who maintains that court.
Coffee County Civil Record Channels
Start with the Circuit Court Clerk for Circuit and General Sessions civil files. The office sits at 300 Hillsboro Boulevard, Manchester. Hours are weekdays 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Phone 931-723-5110, fax 931-723-5116, or mail P.O. Box 629, Manchester, TN 37349. Ask for inspection, a plain copy, or a certified copy. Name the exact document you need.
Chancery records go through the Clerk and Master. A Manchester or Tullahoma municipal citation belongs to that city's clerk. Appellate matters run through Tennessee Public Case History. Federal civil matters run through the federal clerk and PACER. The county lists no public self-service courthouse terminal.
When online access fails, fall back to phone, the counter, mail or fax. Then send a detailed TPRA request for an existing open record when appropriate. Give the court level, case number, filing year, and date range. Add party style, document sought, copy type, and delivery choice. With that detail, Coffee County staff can tell a dated docket PDF from the complaint. They can also spot the motion, order, judgment, or full case file behind it.