General Sessions Court Judge Andrew Jackson VI’s resignation last year created an opening in Knox County’s most diverse court. 

General Sessions Court sees a diverse array of civil and criminal cases, and is often a person's introduction to the justice system.

Knox County Commission filled the General Sessions Court Division IV seat on a temporary basis in December, selecting Assistant District Attorney General Andrea Kline over County Commissioner and attorney Rhonda Lee on an 8-2 vote.

Kline and Lee are on the ballot in the Republican primary in the race to complete Jackson’s term, which ends in 2030. The winner will face Ben Houston II, who is unopposed in the Democratic primary, in the August general election.

The five General Sessions Court judges hear both criminal and civil cases. They issue orders of protection, conduct preliminary hearings for misdemeanors and felonies, hear DUI cases, conduct arraignment hearings and more — in excess of 60,000 cases collectively each year. The judges rotate through the caseload, so they have to be adept at all types of proceedings. 

The court also provides a mediation program and administers a state-funded inpatient alcohol- and drug-addiction program for indigent defendants convicted of DUI offenses.

Kline has the advantage of incumbency, though she’s been on the bench for only four months, and an endorsement from Jackson. She also has a fundraising advantage. She’s raised more than $108,000 during the entirety of the election, mostly from attorneys, and loaned her campaign $23,000. 

Lee has raised $42,163 from a broad spectrum of Republican donors, including business owners and developers. While that’s less than Kline has amassed, Lee has one advantage — she has run for office before and emerged triumphant.

Kline also fared well in a Knoxville Bar Association survey of members. Two-thirds of the 363 respondents recommended her for the job, with 44.6 percent giving her a strong recommendation. Only 9.6 percent recommended Lee. Fifty-two percent did not recommend Lee, with 36 percent saying they “strongly” did not recommend her.

Unlike other elected officials, judges don’t make policy or pass legislation. Instead, they campaign on experience, temperament and legal acumen.

Andrea Kline

Kline, who took office on Jan. 1, said that the transition from the District Attorney General’s Office to General Sessions Court has gone smoothly.

“I’ve been working in those courts for almost 30 years, so I’m very familiar with the courts,” she said. “Each courtroom has its own kind of personality because they’re dealing with different types of cases, but you also have to speak the language. … I speak that language fluently, so it’s been an easy transition.” 

Kline has called General Sessions Court a “gatekeeper” for the judicial system. She hears felony cases, which can be serious and often involve injured victims and families of deceased victims, but also traffic cases and arraignments that have much lower stakes. Those cases give her the opportunity to interact with the public in a different way, to encourage someone whose license has been suspended to get their driving privileges reinstated, for example. People are often in court for the first time, frequently without attorneys to represent them, and they’re scared.

“That’s the good part of being able to interact with the public in those types of courts and situations that you don’t always get as a prosecutor or even as a defense attorney,” she said.

Kline outlined her judicial philosophy during County Commission’s appointment hearing in December.

“I believe strongly in personal accountability, the rule of law, and the fair and consistent administration of justice,” she told commissioners. 

“My personal opinion should not matter as a judge,” she continued. “The rule of law requires us to listen to the facts, apply those facts to the law and apply the law.”

Kline said she was honored by the positive results of the Bar Association survey, particularly because many of the respondents were defense attorneys she had been opposing for 25 years as a prosecutor. “It’s humbling to me that we can fight in court and disagree and do our respective jobs but still maintain respect for each other,” she said.

Kline, 58, grew up in several Tennessee communities and moved to Knoxville to attend the University of Tennessee. At UT, she earned a degree in psychology in 1991 and a law degree in 1995. Following law school, she was a solo practitioner for four years before then-District Attorney General Randy Nichols hired her as an assistant district attorney in 2000.

She said she’s prosecuted thousands of cases and managed heavy caseloads, both criminal and civil, which has prepared her for the General Sessions bench. Kline built the first elder-abuse special prosecution team in the state and helped craft state legislation to protect elderly and vulnerable adults.

While the transition to the bench has been smooth, she said, becoming a political candidate for the first time has been challenging — especially since she has had to do both at the same time.

“I’ve learned so much about Knox County and Knox County government and politics,” she said.

Kline said she’s discovered she often needs to educate voters about General Sessions Court (that’s a good thing, she said, because it means they likely haven’t had contact with the justice system). After making sure voters are familiar with the court, Kline said she emphasizes her background and experience. 

“I’ve been practicing law for 30 years and I’ve been on both sides of the aisle,” she said. “Obviously, I was a prosecutor for longer than I was a defense attorney, and now I’ve filled in as a judge, so I’ve literally been on all sides of the courtroom.”

Rhonda Lee

“The General Sessions Court is the people’s court,” Lee told her colleagues during December’s appointment hearing, “and one thing I know is people.” 

Lee said the court is often people’s first exposure to the justice system, which can be terrifying. Judges, she said, need to treat everyone who enters the courtroom with respect.

“It’s important, as a judge, to be fair, to not have any biases coming in and making sure that everybody’s rights are protected,” Lee said.

Lee, 66, has decades of experience outside the legal system. Her parents did not graduate from high school and she didn’t go to college until she was in her 40s after starting a family — she has six children — and working in real estate and with a construction company. She worked in law firms and in prosecutors’ offices through college and law school and went into private practice once she earned her license. 

“I think I’m the real American story,” said Lee, an eighth-generation Tennessean. “My dad was the smartest man I’ve known. My dad taught me (that) working hard and treating people good and having integrity was the most important thing in life.”

Lee graduated from Pellissippi State Community College with an associate’s degree in paralegal studies in 2004, added an undergraduate degree in legal studies from UT four years later and earned her law degree from Nashville School of Law in 2012.

She initially thought she’d become a prosecutor, but no jobs were open when she got her license so she started a solo practice. Lee said her first case as an attorney had a profound impact on her. A single mother of three had been accused of a crime and lost her children and her home while the case made its way through the system. Lee got the charges dismissed by reviewing evidence that had been overlooked. 

“I worked with a lot of people who cannot afford counsel,” she said. “I found out (that) those are the ones who fall through the cracks.”

In 2022, the longtime Powell resident won election to Knox County Commission’s District 7 seat, representing the Powell, Halls and Heiskell areas of North Knox County. She has earned a reputation as a passionately partisan conservative. When Jackson announced his retirement, Lee declared her intent to run for his seat and to abandon a reelection bid for her County Commission post.

Lee said running a solo practice for the past 13 years has prepared her for the judgeship. “I do it all,” she said. “I don’t have a secretary, I don’t have a paralegal … I can handle a large caseload.”

Lee said candidates for public office hate having to ask for money, but fundraising seems to be going well. “Of course,” she added, “we always would like to have more.”

Lee was dismissive about the relatively low marks she received in the Bar Association survey, noting that there are about 2,000 members of the Knoxville Bar but only 363 — less than 20 percent of the membership — responded. 

“Anybody that knows me knows that I’m a trial lawyer,” she said. “Most of the lawyers in this county, and probably almost all counties, don’t do trial work.”

And it’s that experience as a trial lawyer that Lee emphasizes when talking to voters. “Being a trial lawyer, you’re going to be very familiar with evidence, suppression issues or constitutional issues, which I think is important for a judge to have,” she said.