Collierville, Tennessee is a suburb of Memphis located in Shelby County. Because it is outside the Memphis city limits, it has an independent municipal government that includes its own court system. If you are charged with a crime in Collierville, your case will be heard in the Municipal Court located at 101 Walnut Street.
Collierville Municipal Court is a general session court, which means it does not have jurisdiction to hear felony cases. The felonies must be transferred to the Shelby County Criminal Court in Memphis for grand jury review. However, if your case is a misdemeanor or if it is a felony that can be reduced to a misdemeanor, it can be resolved in Collierville.
Some types of misdemeanors handled in Collierville include shoplifting, minor in possession of alcohol, disorderly conduct, simple drug possession, simple assault, domestic assault, and driving under the influence. If you are accused of one of these crimes, you should do everything possible to avoid a conviction and keep the charge from going on your record permanently. A Collierville criminal defense lawyer can help with this.
How the case is resolved will depend on the particular facts of that case. Shoplifting charges in Collierville, for example, carry a sentence of up to 11 months and 29 days. If the defendant qualifies, he or she can be placed on judicial bypass for that period of time and then have the entire case file dismissed and ultimately expunged. Alternatively, the case may be resolved through a shorter process in which the defendant pays restitution to the store instead of prosecution. Your attorney can coordinate with the store and the prosecutor’s office on how to do this.
Collierville domestic battery cases can sometimes be settled without a trial or guilty plea. If the prosecutor’s office agrees, the victim can sign an affidavit stating that she does not want to press charges. The affidavit can be filed in court and the defendant would pay court costs, then the case can be dismissed. Your lawyer can draft the affidavit, get the victim’s signature, and make sure the case is struck from your record.
DUI cases in Collierville are more difficult. If the state feels it has enough evidence for a conviction, it will not dismiss the charge. When contesting a DUI case, some of the things to consider are whether the police had reasonable suspicion to initiate the arrest, how the driver performed on standardized field sobriety tests, and whether they underwent an alcohol content test at the blood and, if so, what was the result. There could be many other factors. A Collierville DUI lawyer can advise you further after reviewing his case.