The Coffee County Court Calendar
Coffee County puts its official setting lists on the Court Dockets index. Think dated PDF files, not a single interactive calendar. Each file covers one court docket group. General Sessions Criminal lists split into Preliminary, Additional, Special Set, and Add-On dockets. Circuit criminal files carry Judge Lockhart Preliminary, Final Arraignment, Criminal Docket, and Judge Carter Preliminary lists. Circuit civil PDFs are broken out by Judge William A. Lockhart and Judge Robert T. Carter.
Recurring court days point you toward the right Coffee County court calendar. The dated PDF governs the actual setting. General Sessions criminal work usually runs Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. Part I sits Tuesday and Part II on Monday and Thursday. General Sessions civil sessions land on Wednesday plus the third Friday of each month. Always confirm against the current PDF before relying on a pattern.
The county index itself shows how these dated docket groups are organized for public use.
Those grouped links turn the court, division, judge, and hearing category into the key parts of any Coffee County docket search.
Coffee Calendar PDFs, Not One Feed
A docket PDF is a schedule snapshot. It may list a case, setting type, courtroom, judge, and time. It is not a full case file. Someone checking TNCRTInfo alone can miss a current date when the result lacks a next-hearing field. Someone reading only a PDF sees the event without the filings behind it. Answer what is set on a day with the PDF. Then use the Coffee County case search to pull the matching Circuit or General Sessions record.
The county has published several September 2026 files across General Sessions and Circuit categories. That reflects an active publishing routine, not a claim about case volume. New files replace old ones, and links shift with them. Start at the index instead of saving one stale PDF address. A heading like Preliminary or Status names the setting list. It is not a conviction or a final outcome.
How to Find Your Court Date
Begin with the court named on your citation, notice, pleading, or earlier docket entry. Coffee County runs separate routes for Circuit, General Sessions, Chancery, Juvenile, and municipal matters. Three courts share the Circuit Court Clerk. Those are Circuit, General Sessions, and Juvenile. Chancery records sit with the Clerk & Master. Manchester and Tullahoma city citations stay in their city courts. Only a move into state court changes that.
- Open the county docket index and choose the correct court, civil or criminal group, judge, and dated PDF.
- Use Coffee TNCRTInfo by party name or case number to identify a Circuit or General Sessions case, then compare its number with the PDF.
- Call the Circuit Court Clerk at 931-723-5110, or visit the Justice Center counter, when the date is unclear. Chancery settings go to 931-723-5132.
- For Manchester city citations call 931-728-4652; for Tullahoma city matters call 931-455-2648.
- Check the current printed docket or docket call at court and confirm the setting with counsel if represented.
The clerk also answers written questions by mail or fax. Coffee County's TPRA form lets you request an open record that already exists, though it will not build a calendar for you and carries no promised turnaround. The courthouse offers no public self-service terminal for docket lookups.
Coffee County Court Docket Alerts
Coffee County can email you when new dockets post. The Coffee County Notify Me service covers Circuit Court Dockets, General Sessions Civil Dockets, and General Sessions Criminal Dockets. Signing up takes a simple form with email and mobile-phone fields, an HTML preference, profile details, and unsubscribe controls.
Treat it as a notice service only. It does not search cases, and an old alert may not be the final word on a hearing. The county's subscription page lays out these alert controls.
An alert is a nudge, not an answer. When one arrives, confirm against the newest docket PDF and the proper clerk. Together, they settle any Coffee County hearing date.
No similar alert exists for Chancery, Juvenile, Manchester Municipal Court, or Tullahoma City Court. Those settings call for the responsible clerk or the city route. If an email and a fresh PDF disagree, keep both. Call with the exact case number in hand.
Reading a Coffee County Setting
A Coffee County docket puts most of its clues around each setting. Read the header, not just the case line. The header can name the court, date, time, judge, floor, courtroom, and page. Below it, an entry may list the case number, style, attorneys, and hearing type. Criminal schedules go further, showing charges, statute numbers, agency, and bond data.
All of that describes what was scheduled. It does not prove what happened.
| Date | The date printed on that PDF, compared with the newest posted file. |
|---|---|
| Time | The docket call or session time, not a promise that each case starts at once. |
| Courtroom | The floor or room printed in the heading. |
| Judge | The judge or division assigned to that list. |
| Setting Type | The expected work, such as Motion, Status, Show Cause, Trial, Slow Pay, or Warrant to Recover. |
A hearing type never tells you the outcome. "Status" only means the case was set for scheduling, and "Cont'd" means the matter carried over to a new court date. Coffee County publishes no official glossary of docket codes, so when a label on the criminal docket confuses you, repeat it to the clerk word for word and ask what it means.
Coffee Court Divisions Shape Dates
Coffee County splits its dockets by weekday, and that split can steer a docket search. General Sessions Criminal Part I sits on Tuesday. Part II takes Monday and Thursday. Afternoons are where that court tends to hold trials and preliminary hearings. General Sessions Civil runs on a Wednesday and third-Friday pattern. Treat these as habits of the court, not as a dated Coffee County court calendar. Only a current schedule proves any single date.
Circuit civil work demands one more choice. The index separates Judge Lockhart's cases from Judge Carter's. Pick the right judge before searching. Municipal courts keep their own calendars too. Manchester starts sessions at 8:00 a.m., with arrival by 7:45 to clear security. Tullahoma holds court the second and fourth Tuesday at 2:30 p.m. Federal and bankruptcy settings live outside the county index entirely. The Middle District bankruptcy day calendar shows date, judge, location, room, and attorney. Each has its own filter.
A federal docket like that one is never a Coffee County state-court setting.
Resets, Continuances, and Cancellations
A reset can be hard to spot. Coffee County continues some settings with a “Cont'd” entry or a later list. Circuit dockets, though, have not been automatically continued since July 1, 2022. So a date vanishing from one PDF means nothing by itself. The old date dropping off did not roll the case to the next docket. Only the court can reset a matter. The current docket or the clerk will carry the new date.
Two Tennessee rules frame this. Tennessee Rule of Civil Procedure 40 governs trial settings. It works through rules, notice, or request with notice. Tennessee Supreme Court Rule 18 requires local rules to address settings and continuances. Neither one turns a continuance request into an approved change. Until the court acts, the standing setting is still live.
Coffee Calendar Data Has Limits
State-level statistics are a different animal from hearing dates. The Tennessee Judge Stats portal lets anyone pick a fiscal year, judicial district, and judge to view clerk-reported disposition and appeal data. The portal updates quarterly. Those figures describe workloads, and they cannot predict when a Coffee County hearing will land on the calendar.
Statistics answer broad questions. Coffee County's dated hearing PDFs answer the narrow one: is my case set?
Also, count files with care. The number of PDFs is not a case count. One file can hold many settings, continuation pages, or matters added later. For a Coffee County court date, the reliable order still stands. Start with case identification, then review the current docket, and confirm directly when needed.
Coffee Clerk Closures and Calendars
A docket can stay posted even while the counter is dark. Coffee County's 2026 transition alert lists closures touching administrative offices and the Circuit Court Clerk around August 28 and August 31. Check live office status before a same-day trip.
A closure alert changes how you reach the clerk, not whether a setting stands.
Normal counter hours run Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The counter sits at 300 Hillsboro Boulevard in Manchester. Security screening happens at the Justice Center. The county points to a gravel lot on Madison Street for parking. If access looks doubtful, call 931-723-5110 before you drive over.
What To Do If You Miss a Setting
Act immediately. Call the clerk for the court named on the notice, give the full case number, and ask what the docket shows now. If you have a lawyer, call counsel too. A municipal citation belongs with the city clerk, not the Circuit Court Clerk. Paying through a portal, leaving a message, or filing a records request will not put a case back on the Coffee County court calendar. Only the court can do that.
Missed a Setting? A missed date can lead to court action, and the result depends on the case and court.
Call the responsible clerk promptly and ask for the current status and any court-approved next step.
A licensed Tennessee attorney can advise how to respond to a missed Coffee County setting.
Write down the court, the source you checked, its date, and the answer you received. That brief record can spare you real confusion if another notice arrives.