Public Acts of 1968 Chapter 528

SECTION 1.  A court, to be styled the "Third Division of the Criminal Court of Hamilton County" is established.

SECTION 2.  The Third Division of the Criminal Court shall be held in the City of Chattanooga and shall have concurrent jurisdiction with the First Division of the Criminal Court of Hamilton County, and the Second Division of the Criminal Court of Hamilton County, and its terms shall begin on the same days as those of the said Divisions of the Criminal Court of Hamilton County.

SECTION 3.  The Third Division of the Criminal Court of Hamilton County shall have the same jurisdiction, power, and authority as is conferred on the above said Divisions of the Criminal Court of Hamilton County in all and every particular.

SECTION 4.  All laws now in force applicable to the process, pleadings, and course of procedure in the said Divisions of the Criminal Court of Hamilton County shall be equally applicable to the process, pleadings, and course of procedure of the said Third Division of the Criminal Court; and the Sheriff and other Officers of the State shall execute all process of the Third Division of the Criminal Court, and be liable for defaults in respect thereto, in like manner and to the same extent as in the case of similar process of the said Divisions of the Criminal Court of Hamilton County.

SECTION 5.  No appointment shall be made to fill the office created by this Act prior to the August 1968 elections, but a Judge for the said Third Division of the Criminal Court of Hamilton County, shall be elected by the qualified voters of said County on the first Thursday of August, 1968, who shall hold said office from the first day of September, 1968, until the first day of September, 1974, and until his successor is elected and qualified; and at the August election of that year, and thereafter every eight years, there shall be elected by the qualified voters of the said County a Judge of the said Third Division of the Criminal Court.  The Judge of the Third Division shall be an Attorney, duly licensed to practice law in the Courts of the State of Tennessee, not less than thirty (30) years of age, and he shall receive as compensation the same salary, payable in like manner, and shall have the same dignity of office, as the Criminal Judges of this State, and shall interchange with any of the Criminal Court Judges of this State when such a request is made of him for the purpose of hearing criminal cases.

SECTION 6.  The business of the said Third Division of the Criminal Court of Hamilton County shall be equalized with the business of the above said Divisions of the Criminal Court of Hamilton County, in the same manner and subject to the same provisions as are now applicable to equalizing the business of the above said Divisions of the Criminal Court of Hamilton County.

SECTION 7.  The Clerk of the First and Second Divisions of the Criminal Court of Hamilton County shall also be the Clerk of the Third Division of the Criminal Court of Hamilton County; but he shall keep separate books, give separate bonds, and in all respects keep the business of the Third Divisions of the Criminal Court separate from the business of each of the other two Divisions of the Criminal Court of said County.

SECTION 8.  Such number of jurors as may be required to try the jury cases in the said Third Division of the Criminal Court, whose qualifications shall be the same prescribed by law for jurors in criminal causes in said County, shall be selected in the same way and manner as is now provided by law for the selection of jurors in the said Divisions of the Criminal Court of Hamilton County.

SECTION 9.  It shall be the duty of the Sheriff of the said County, or such Officers as the Judge of the Third Division of the Criminal Court may appoint, to attend the sessions of the said Court and preserve order.  Such Officers shall receive the same compensation, to be paid in the same way, as that now paid to the Officers who attend the said Divisions of the Criminal Court of said County.

SECTION 10.  The County of Hamilton shall provide suitable rooms, with necessary appurtenances and conveniences, for holding the said Third Division of the Criminal Court, and for the use of its Clerks, in the City of Chattanooga.

SECTION 11.  This Act shall take effect upon becoming a law, the public welfare requiring it.

Passed:  April 3, 1968.

COMPILER'S NOTE: The following act is a public act of special application and is not codified in Tennessee Code Annotated.