Criminal Court Clerk Vince Dean announced that the office will not be turning any delinquent fines cases over to their contracted collections agencies for the foreseeable future. A case is deemed as “delinquent” six months after adjudication. Following an additional six months of inactivity, where no payments are made on outstanding fines, cases are typically referred to one of two collections agencies. He said, “While our offices rely heavily on the fees and fines we collect, we want to take a humanitarian approach during this extraordinary time.”
He also said, "Due to the functions of the Criminal Court Clerk’s Office within the criminal justice system, our office is remaining open; however, we are doing so with minimal staffing.
The Deputy Clerks on duty are there primarily as support staff for the Criminal and General Sessions-Criminal Division Courts that we work with and not necessarily for the convenience of the citizens at this particular time. We strongly urge citizens to utilize our online services rather than attempting to make personal appearances in our offices. Links to most services provided by our offices may be found online at
www.hamiltontn.gov . Here you can find dockets for each court and find pay by phone instructions. Utilizing the website will certainly prove to be more efficient than calling our office, which is minimally staffed."
Brad Tucker, chief of staff for the Criminal Court Clerk’s Office, asks that citizens be patient during this time. “As the crisis we are facing is unprecedented, so too are the changes we are being forced to make in our offices. With decreased staffing to protect our employees, yet increased workload, inevitably there will be some delay in our normal services. The health and well-being of our employees is my number one concern, so we will be following the guidelines from the CDC as well as our local, state, and federal authorities, to every extent possible.
"As a reminder, our office does not handle jury subpoenas and cannot change a court date. For a court date change, we would recommend that defendants contact their attorney."