Lost a CDL trial? You get 10 days to appeal, or risk losing your livelihood.
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A judgment against a commercial driver in Memphis City Court is not the end of the case. It can be appealed to Shelby County Circuit Court, and the appeal is de novo, which means the case is tried over again from the beginning rather than reviewed for mistakes.
Attorney Mitchell Wood has been very successful at winning these appeals and getting commercial drivers back on the road. Call before anything else happens. (901) 578-1515
The Problem
Three clocks run at once after a commercial driver loses in Memphis City Court, and they do not line up.
Memphis City Court does not use the time it is given. Tennessee allows a court five days to report a CDL holder’s conviction under Tenn. Code Ann. § 55-50-409. Everyone without a commercial license gets thirty days under § 55-10-306.
One violation does not take a commercial license away. What it does is sit on the record for the better part of a year while the appeal runs, where carriers and their insurers can see it. Premiums move with what is on a driver’s record, and companies make their own decisions about who they keep. Why a CDL ticket is different →
Your Attorney
Mitchell Wood · Traffic & CDL Citations
Attorney Mitchell Wood has practiced in Memphis and Shelby County courts since 2012 and has tried hundreds of citations in Memphis City Court and Shelby County General Sessions. He takes these cases to Circuit Court when the City Court result is worth appealing, and he has been very successful at winning them.
That matters because an appeal is not paperwork. It is the same case tried again, with the same officer on the stand, in front of a different court. Somebody who has never cross-examined that officer the first time is not in a better position the second.
CDL tickets → · What a CDL ticket costs → · About Mitchell Wood →
What an Appeal Is Here
Most people hear appeal and picture lawyers arguing over what went wrong the first time. That is not this. An appeal from a municipal court judgment goes to Circuit Court de novo, and Circuit decides the case as though the first court had never heard it.
This is the part that gets overlooked. Circuit Court runs on the full rules. Discovery applies. The rules of evidence apply. The proceeding is conducted the way a trial is conducted, with everything that entitles a defendant to before and during it.
The officer testifies again. The proof comes in again. There is no transcript to pick apart and no error to assign, because nothing from the first trial carries over. A weak case does not get stronger on the way up, and a case that was tried badly the first time is not stuck that way.
The City Court judgment is vacated and a not guilty is entered. There is no conviction left to report and nothing left on the record from the original case.
The same route runs from the municipal courts in Bartlett, Germantown and Collierville. All three try commercial citations rather than negotiating them away, which is how a driver ends up with a judgment to appeal in the first place.
What It Costs
Most firms will not publish this. Ours is below.
| Court | Attorney fee | Costs |
|---|---|---|
| Memphis City Court | $1,250 | About $300 |
| Shelby County General Sessions | $1,250 | Plus costs |
| Bartlett, Germantown, Collierville | $4,000 | Plus costs |
| Outlying counties | $7,500 | Plus costs |
That number is published because somebody will ask for it, not because it gets used. Shelby County General Sessions citations have been resolving by dismissal, so a commercial appeal out of that court has not come up. Memphis City Court is where these appeals come from, because Memphis City Court is the one that will not negotiate. How the courts differ →
There is a separate argument that can be made in Circuit Court: because the appeal is de novo, ask the court to set the original judgment aside while the appeal is pending rather than leaving it on the record for the length of the case. That motion is $1,000 on top of the appeal fee, in any of these courts.
If the retainer is the obstacle, financing is available. How financing a retainer works →
Common Questions
Yes. A judgment in Memphis City Court can be appealed to Shelby County Circuit Court, and the appeal is de novo, meaning the case is tried again from the beginning rather than reviewed for error. The same route runs from the municipal courts in Bartlett, Germantown and Collierville.
Ten days. That window does not pause and it does not extend because something else is happening in the case.
No. The violation is reported either way and stays on the record until the appeal is resolved. Tennessee requires a court to report a CDL holder's conviction within five days under Tenn. Code Ann. section 55-50-409, and Memphis City Court reports in about three. A driver without a commercial license gets thirty days under section 55-10-306.
Yes. Circuit Court is a court of record and the case runs on the full rules. Discovery applies, the rules of evidence apply, and the proceeding is conducted the way a trial is conducted. The case is heard from the beginning rather than reviewed, so nothing from the first trial carries over.
The City Court judgment is vacated and a not guilty is entered in its place. There is no conviction left to report and nothing from the original case remains on the record.
Six months to a year in Circuit Court, sometimes longer. The violation sits on the record for that whole stretch, which is the practical cost of the delay.
One violation does not take a commercial license. The exposure is employment rather than licensing. Carriers and their insurers can see what is on a driver's record, premiums move with it, and companies make their own decisions about which drivers they keep.
In practice they have not needed to be. Citations in Shelby County General Sessions have been resolving by dismissal rather than going against the driver, so a commercial appeal out of that court has not come up. Memphis City Court is where these appeals come from, because it is the court least willing to negotiate.
A Memphis City Court appeal is $1,250 plus about $300 in costs, and Shelby County General Sessions is the same. Bartlett, Germantown and Collierville are $4,000 plus costs, and the outlying counties are $7,500 plus costs. A separate motion asking Circuit Court to set the original judgment aside while the appeal is pending is $1,000 on top of the appeal fee in any of those courts.
It can be asked for. Because the appeal is de novo, Circuit Court can be asked to set the original judgment aside rather than leave it on the record for the length of the case. Whether that is granted depends on the judge. The fee buys the argument being made, not a particular outcome.
On a commercial license that is not a win. Federal law prohibits masking a CDL citation, so a dismissal with court costs is reported the same as a finding of guilt. The only outcome that keeps a commercial record clean is a win.
Memphis City Court is the strictest of these courts on commercial enforcement and the least willing to negotiate, so cases that might resolve elsewhere get tried there. The officers working commercial citations at the eastern city limits are trained to put every element of the offense on the record themselves, which means these cases are won on cross-examination or they are not won.
Ten days is the whole window. Call today, not next week.