Steve Darden Explains Why He Is Running To Serve A Busy Tennessee Court

A courtroom can’t pause when life gets messy, and in Northeast Tennessee, the volume is only climbing. We’re joined by longtime attorney, Rule 31 mediator, and judge candidate Steve Darden for a frank look at what general sessions court really is: the place where misdemeanors move, felonies begin their path, juvenile matters surface, and everyday civil disputes up to $25,000 get decided often with people representing themselves.

Steve breaks down what it means to be the finder of fact with no jury, how a judge sets the tone for fairness, and why the basics matter more than most people think: start on time, end on time, expect lawyers to prepare, and treat every person with dignity and respect. We also talk about the “team” behind the bench, especially court clerks, and why keeping cases from piling up is not just an efficiency issue, it’s a trust issue.

Then we zoom out to problem-solving courts and the bigger question of community impact. Steve shares why mental health court and dependency court are steps in the right direction, and why he believes a veterans court deserves serious attention in a region with a large veteran population and a top VA nearby. We also discuss the safe baby court idea and how local support networks can help families get stable during the most crucial early years.

You’ll also hear how local history at Sycamore Shoals and a lifetime of public service shape Steve’s “why,” plus the key voting details: the Republican primary is May 5, with early voting from April 15 through April 30. If you find the conversation useful, subscribe, share it with a neighbor, and leave a quick rating and review.

To help you to navigate the home buying and mortgage process, Jonathan & Steve are currently licensed in Tennessee, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Virginia, contact us today at 423-491-5405 or visit www.jonathanandsteve.com. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

This is Benchmark Company. Brought to you by Jonathan and Steve from Benchmark Home Loan. Northeast Tennessee. Johnson City, Kingsport, Bristol, the Tri-City, one of the most beautiful places in the country to live. Tons of great things to do and awesome local businesses. And on this show, you'll find out why people are dying to move to Northeast Tennessee. And on the way, we'll have discussions about mortgages and we'll interview people in the real estate industry. It's what we do. This is Benchmark Happenings, brought to you by Benchmark Home Loans. And now your host, Christine Reed.

SPEAKER_01 0:45

Welcome back, everybody, to another episode of Benchmark Happenings. And and I just uh, you know, we always do something a little bit different. You kind of never know what we're gonna come up with, but this episode's gonna be all about here comes the judge.

SPEAKER_02 1:01

Chase of Flip Wilson. Yes, that's where I heard that.

SPEAKER_01 1:08

Probably not many.

SPEAKER_05 1:10

Yeah, Geraldine and Flip Wilson. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:14

Back in the good old days, um, the star of our show today is uh Steve Darden. So, Steve, thank you for joining us.

SPEAKER_02 1:22

Thank you so very much. Glad to be here.

SPEAKER_01 1:24

Well, we are glad to have you, and then I also have my awesome co-host with me, uh, the number one husband, love of my life, Steve Reed.

SPEAKER_05 1:32

But I'm the number two Steve today. So it's the number one Steve is Judge Darden. That's right. The future judge.

SPEAKER_01 1:39

Candidate for general.

SPEAKER_02 1:41

Candidate for judge, and that that that was a great line. How long did you work on that? Well, this kind of come up on the fly here, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:49

He stays in my good graces, Steve. So yeah, we've been we've been married almost uh over 25 years now.

SPEAKER_02 1:56

So yes, we have. Well, I'm um pleased and honored to be here. I'm glad we crossed paths on Saturday at the Home Depot. You saw me there picking up supplies because I was on my way to meet my sign man and put up some more signs, and that's always good when you have have have demand that's outstripped supply when you're in this realm that I am. But uh but you all have a an amazing operation here, and uh I'll I'll I'll give you a shout out. You cater to veterans and to those who are looking for ways to own their own home. That's right. And do so in an affordable way, and that's such a priority here or needs to be. So thank you for what you do in the community.

Sycamore Shoals Liberty And History

SPEAKER_01 2:42

Well, thank you. Yeah, we uh Steve has been kind of um a lot of work behind all this, and uh just you know what? Uh necessity always is the mother of invention, and there's a huge need for affordable housing. So that was the birth of Land to Homes, right? Providing manufactured homes for people. So, all right. So we're here to talk about you. So um kind of tell us a little tell our audience a little bit about Steve Darden and and uh who you are, and and I know you from the Sycamore Shoals drama. Right. It's so cool.

SPEAKER_05 3:18

And uh by the way, if you haven't seen that, everyone needs to see that. Everybody needs to see the history of the area. Yes, the over mountain men.

SPEAKER_02 3:28

Yeah, it's it's really we have a we have a very rich history here. We do. I think it's not well enough known, it's not well enough told. But but Liberty is is really a great production, and uh it tells about the human drama that the that the frontier folk faced. It tells about the human drama of the people who were already living here, uh the Native Americans and how they interacted with one another sometimes in a commercial way, and then ultimately um there were obviously major differences, and and um some of the some of the Cherokee sought to live to coexist, and some of those uh uh didn't think that was the way to survival. So it's a great, great production. The storyline is is phenomenal, and uh it's it's our history.

SPEAKER_05 4:24

Well thank you for doing that. I know it probably your contract to do that acting service probably didn't pay six figures. So we appreciate you serving the community and getting the history out to all of us that didn't know the history.

SPEAKER_02 4:39

Well, and the the friends of Sycamore Shoals State Park are um they do yeoman's work, and so anyone who hasn't seen it, I would invite you to come out in June. Uh all of the that's right. There are ten performances every weekend in June, and it's uh it's a it's a great uh way to to to understand our history, and of course, culminating as Steve said with the march on um Kings Mountain.

SPEAKER_01 5:05

Yeah that's right. That's right.

Legal Career And Why Run

SPEAKER_05 5:07

Well, we can speak to that. Christine and I would highly recommend seeing that. So we can back you up on that. So thank you for what you do there. And I don't know how you keep up with everything and full-time job running for judge and being in a place. So tell us a little bit about that. Tell us a little bit about your why behind running.

SPEAKER_02 5:27

Well, I've been an attorney for four decades, and I've been a mediator, uh Rule 31 listed mediator for a couple of decades, and I've had a really a charmed life with my firm, Hunter Smith and Davis. It's a 110-year-old firm based in Kingsport, but we have an office in Johnson City as well. And uh our firm was started basically when Kingsport didn't yet exist. So we were retained to lay out the plats for Kingsport and did that because George Eastman wanted to create a second factory for his chemical company and primarily the photographic supplies that were made in Rochester.

SPEAKER_01 6:08

Kodak.

SPEAKER_02 6:08

Kodak, exactly. So um, but uh Judge Rob Lincoln, you know, retired last year, and that left four years and a few months on his term. So the way that works is someone is appointed to serve until the next election. And the next election is May 5th. That's the Republican primary, and it will be the election in this race.

SPEAKER_04 6:35

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 6:35

So whoever prevails will win the Republican nomination and will have to stand for the election in the in the general, which occurs in August, but there won't be an opponent. At least no one is qualified to do that. So um it just uh really coincided with my uh season of life, if you will. And like I said, I've had a wonderful career and continue to do so. But I also earlier in my career, as you know, I was on the city commission here in Johnson City, I was mayor. Uh, there's just a tremendous amount of fulfillment in rendering a public service. And to be able to do that on a full-time basis with with the remaining years that I have in my career is very uh very appealing, and I think it will be rewarding. I'm not entirely sure what all rewards I'll take from it. It'll be a challenge. Sure.

SPEAKER_05 7:30

So you would leave your day job when you do this in a full-time position.

SPEAKER_02 7:34

Uh this is a an extremely busy court. It handles juvenile cases of a couple of varieties, and we can get into that if you want. Um, handles criminal cases, arraignments to the to the gent to the uh criminal court for felonies, but misdemeanors are processed right there in the general sessions court. And then civil cases of up to$25,000 in jurisdiction. A lot of people represent themselves in general sessions court, so you don't have to have a lawyer. It's really Tennessee's equivalent of a small claims court. Our economy really depends on people being able to recover, you know, for damages, or if if, say, someone uh is a landlord and they seek back rent. Uh of course there are two sides to that story. So the the secret for someone in that position is to be able to focus and see the person who's testifying at the moment and treat each person with certainly dignity and respect and and justly, and then render a decision uh in favor of one party or the other.

SPEAKER_05 8:43

That would have to be very tough because I didn't realize a lot of them will come in without an attorney. So it's kind of like sounds like a little bit of organized chaos that you may not have in the criminal court or something like that. I mean, just because everybody's representing their self, I'm sure everyone has a different perspective of how to apply the law. Sure. So that'll come with some challenges, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_02 9:10

Absolutely. Well, there are no juries in the sessions court. Yeah. So the judge is both the finder of fact and then you take those facts and apply the law to them. And uh and we're constrained, of course, by what the law says. I'm I'm I'm not a judicial activist. I would follow the law as written. That's the job of the legislature to pass the laws, it's the job of the judges to enforce. And we have leeway with sentencing guidelines or uh discretion. If you if you uh find a matter, you know, a civil case um where where there's merit on both sides. Maybe nobody gets exactly the full range of what they were seeking. But you have to pay attention, you have to keep track, and you have to have some um judgment and the ability to to really uh uh uh determine what the facts are because sometimes the two sides of the story can be very different. Are you a good listener? I'm a super listener.

SPEAKER_05 10:10

That's important because I would be afraid, like I would zone out, you know, like, oh, here comes another case or whatever. I mean, that's a great point you've got because you really have to be on your game all day, every day, or you're gonna miss some things.

SPEAKER_02 10:26

And I think you use the phrase organized chaos, maybe unorganized chaos, and it's up to somebody like me who has organizational skills and really a presence to say um we need to um be orderly, we need to be methodical, and you know, the the people who really make that happen are the court clerks. Um, they are instrumental to processing this volume of cases, and so I would have a tremendously good relationship with them, already have a lot of respect for the job they do, but they're instrumental to keeping things flowing. And really, when you come in, there there is a lot of uh uh of of maybe uh uh a disorder, and you have to have to sort of run the show. I did that a lot in uh in front of the city commit when I was mayor, the city commission meetings back in those those days were wild and woolly affairs sometimes just because there was so much on the docket. So uh I've got some experience with that sort of thing.

SPEAKER_01 11:32

Yeah. We uh I participated in a Johnson City 101 class a few years ago.

SPEAKER_04 11:38

Right.

SPEAKER_01 11:39

It was loved it, it was so helpful. And we went to a commission meeting. Of course, we had to go through security and they checked our bags, the women that carried bags and and stuff. So we went through the meeting and watched how that was conducted. So it is a lot. It's a lot that you have to process and read and prepare for. And I'm thinking about just general sessions and um, you know, these other cases, like how much are you debriefed before you have to listen? Very little.

SPEAKER_02 12:11

Very little. Now, some of the cases, you know, you have some preparation in advance, or some of them are continuation of of prior appearances. But by and large, say on a um on a on a criminal day when um you're you're you're sort of being educated in real time. Now, who else is an ally in that? Well, you should have a criminal defense lawyer who's competent, who has met with the client, and they know what they're seeking. You have uh a prosecutor who um hopefully has has spent time with with reviewing their case and knowing the strengths, the weaknesses. Those two lawyers get together and generally have uh what they would want the judge to to do to put in place as far as a preliminary arrangement or plea bargain, those sort of things. So there are a lot of different people who participate. So you're part of the team and uh need to make sure that everybody's doing their job. Do you know how many cases per day they average? Gosh, it's hard to say um on a on a per day basis, but uh but there are there are thousands of cases that flow through there, and there are three general sessions court judges. So there's only one election on the ballot this time, and that's for Judge Lincoln's unexpired term of four years. Is the original term six years or so it's eight years, okay?

SPEAKER_05 13:44

I didn't realize that.

SPEAKER_01 13:46

So, Steve, if you're elected, so what changes do you think need to be made and and what would be the biggest challenges?

SPEAKER_02 13:53

Well, the biggest challenge is to is to simply make sure you don't fall behind, you know, and uh and that involves all of the things we've talked about thus far. Uh I think that it's vital that you start on time, that you end on time, that you make sure that people understand they're to come there and be prepared. I know, you know, sometimes people look at general sessions court as the and I'm talking about lawyers are are as guilty of this as anybody. They can say, well, it's it's general sessions court. Uh I I don't have to prepare uh extensively beforehand, or I can wing it. I think I would try to discourage that sort of mindset because clients deserve to be treated uh um they they deserve to be represented zealously within the bounds of the law. That's what a lawyer's oath is.

SPEAKER_04 14:50

Right, right.

SPEAKER_02 14:51

And so I think the judge sets a tone. And how you conduct yourself, if you're on time, everybody else can be expected to be on time. If you're not, then it really sends a bad message. Right.

SPEAKER_01 15:04

I would hope that if I was paying my lawyer that they would do their due diligence and prepare, and of course, I'm sure court-appointed lawyers was be totally different.

SPEAKER_02 15:15

Well, I mean they're be they're they're being paid too. They have uh they have they have sought that um ability to represent folks and be paid by the state. You're not gonna get rich doing that. But it is um exp it it comes with the territory. The public defender's office represents a lot of the folks who have been charged with crimes who come there. And they're a they're a an impressive group of uh of attorneys. And so I think that um that there's just some, you know, continuous attention that needs to be paid to staying focused and on time and moving forward.

SPEAKER_01 15:58

So in addition to that, you know, starting on time, ending on time, keeping things moving, um, what are some other things that you would focus on if elected?

SPEAKER_02 16:08

Well, I think that um it's it's it's um been a step in the right direction that we have established a mental health court. We've established a dependency court so that if folks have root causes of of having committed an offense, they can be put on an alternate path, not forgiven of their criminal offense, but but uh enabled to pursue a path that at the end would allow them to not have a criminal record resulting from it. And in the case of the case. Or they want to put forth the effort to do so, right? Big time. Absolutely. Absolutely. And and that means um staying on medication and reporting where and when you're required to do so, checking in with the court personnel who are assigned, for example, the mental health court and uh and dependency issues too. Now, going beyond those, a lot of communities, a lot of counties in our state have implemented veterans courts. And as you know, we have a very large veterans population here. Some of those folks have issues that stem oftentimes from their military service. Right. And to have uh a court that is cognizant of their particular needs and conditions, uh, that's something I think we ought to uh we ought to do.

SPEAKER_05 17:42

So what would that look like? Would that be maybe like just one day a week you would do veterans court, or would that be just a totally separate court that would function on its own?

SPEAKER_02 17:57

It's within the general sessions court. It's just there would be a separate, probably what you've said would be about right, a a day or a a part of a day devoted to the folks who fall into that category. And then that some other communities have adopted safe baby courts. You know, there is so much development of an infant that occurs before the age of two. And so this is a particular focus on that population to try and make sure that mothers are supported and know what services are available so that they get the help they need so that the child can have a chance really and and isn't uh neglected, uh their needs aren't neglected on the in the early early crucial stages of life. So that one needs to be looked at. I'm I'm I'm confident in saying the veterans court is probably something that has been looked at enough to to know that it's uh that its time has come. The safe baby court needs probably a little more study.

SPEAKER_01 19:07

Right. And and for these veterans, would that be to help them with benefits due or was that something completely different?

SPEAKER_02 19:16

It's hard to separate, I'm sure, but mainly it's to enable them to um have a have a uh pathway through the through the criminal justice system that recognizes that, hey, you know, they may have PTSD or some other lingering vestige of their service that's uh um that that needs to be taken into account.

SPEAKER_01 19:46

Okay. I will we're blessed to have uh mountain home here. It's one of the top VAs in the country. Right. Um and I'm thinking about safe baby court. You know, I think about you know, we have agape women's services here that work with young moms from the birth of their baby all the way up to the baby being one year old. Agape's women's services in Johnson City on Walnut Street. I actually volunteer there, that's why I know that. Do a great work um with agape. And then I think about Lisa Tipton with Families Free. You know, she works with women uh drug addicted to help them with their own.

SPEAKER_02 20:25

Women that's been incarcerated, coming out of incarceration and stuff.

SPEAKER_03 20:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:30

That that has been an amazing program, Lisa. Lisa and and and others who work with that are really um they're doing they're doing tremendous work and making major difference in in people's lives.

SPEAKER_01 20:44

Yeah, well, the safe baby one you could work with probably uh Beth Cosack, who's a director of Agape, and you know, she could share what you know we're doing with these moms who decide to keep their babies.

SPEAKER_02 20:58

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 20:59

Because we we place a mentor with them that walks with them through their pregnancy and up to a year till the baby's a year old. And so there's all kinds of programs and education that's provided for those moms that stay with agape.

SPEAKER_05 21:16

So see what I think the what what's the neat thing to me is instead of you going into a court and feeling like it's one size fits all for a court, we do have these segments of the population like like our veterans, like our young moms that could be, I don't know, focused on is the right terminology, but could be treated the that would give them in a way that would give them the best opportunity for success, whether it's a veteran or a young mother or whatever. So the fact that the court can, you know, kind of separate itself out a little bit like that, I think is a pretty cool thing. I've never thought about that. But I like the concept.

Mediation Humanity And Civic Values

SPEAKER_02 21:58

I really do. Well, and that's Honestly, that's what has drawn me to this fact that it's not just calling balls and strikes. You know, you're the umpire, if you will, because you're no longer advocating for one client or the other and asking a judge to rule in your client's way. You're you're the you're the judge who's ruling. You're the umpire. And um but I think there's a lot of flexibility there. I mentioned I was a Rule 31 listed mediator. Well that's that's a skill that helps people to craft their own outcome. And rather than a judge imposing an outcome on them that maybe one side would be happy with and the other be uh very unhappy, you're looking for maybe some some common ground and and even some restorative concepts where people aren't don't walk out out of there as mad at each other as they were when they came in. You know? So that's what's drawn me to this because a lot of humanity flows through that court. There's a lot of need in our community, and a lot of it manifests itself in the general sessions court, and so it's an opportunity really to make a difference and make things better, which I've done in other contexts and would hope to have the chance to do here. When I was a younger lawyer, Judge Jones in Kingsport, who uh was primarily a juvenile judge, but out of this court. Steve Jones, right? You know him?

SPEAKER_05 23:39

Yeah, yeah. He was a legend over here. We grew up in Kingsport. I saw Judge Jones was a legend in in that area.

SPEAKER_02 23:47

Well, and and and then you probably know what I'm getting ready to say. He he saw um that folks, young people were coming to his court who had missed something along the way, and he introduced the character counts program to the King Sports City Schools to try and make make sure people, you know, didn't ever run afoul of the law. And uh there's there's uh there are other judges, uh a judge from Memphis who started a program. Uh basically things that are beyond the courtroom. And so that's what I would hope to have the opportunity to do.

SPEAKER_01 24:27

That's great. Well, I love what you have. Um Darden for Judge on your card, our rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness come from our creator, right not from government.

SPEAKER_02 24:38

Yeah. I didn't write that. You know, I mean it's obviously from the Declaration of Independence, which I think is the greatest sentence ever written, and certainly on North American soil, because it does sort of uh acknowledge the scriptural underpinnings of our nation's founding documents, which I think are gospel in and of themselves, but to to declare that is uh to me it's very fundamental.

SPEAKER_01 25:11

Absolutely. And it's so important, um important that that any elected official, you know, reads the Constitution, understands it, and understands where our rights come from. They come from God. That's right. And it's not from government. And I think when we can have more liberty and less government, less taxes, you know, we're we're much better off uh as a community and as citizens and families.

SPEAKER_02 25:43

Sure. I mean, our government was set up to preserve those rights to for us, not to establish them. They were already established.

SPEAKER_01 25:52

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 25:53

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 25:53

That's right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 25:56

You're looking at me. I I would be okay keeping paying the same taxes if we could manage what we have. You know, there's so much fraud, waste, and abuse in the government today that, you know, we're starting to scratch our head at okay, our taxes are going up and they're not even spending what we have honestly. So, hey, leave them the same. Just, you know, balance the budget and you know, wipe out a lot of the fraud and that kind of thing. So, but that's off the topic of general sessions courts.

SPEAKER_02 26:25

Yeah, I'm not gonna be able to make a big dent in that, but I will say this my career has been spent in small business. I'm a small business owner as a partner in the law firm. So, you know, and I was for the last eight years managing partner of the law firm. So not only did I manage a client caseload, but I was the partner who was sort of in charge of making sure that our payroll was getting met, that our employees were being taken care of, and and that we were looking toward the future. So it's very much a business orientation that I would bring to the court too. And so when you talk about things like trying to gain efficiency, trying to root out waste, I've got some experience in that from having been a private business person that I don't think always is is part of uh of of a government operation.

SPEAKER_01 27:23

That's true. That's exactly right. Well, um, Steve, thank you so much for uh being with us today and for what you're doing. Thank you for your um just your role of how you've supported the community um and being a lifelong resident here.

SPEAKER_02 27:40

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 27:41

Uh graduate of Science Hill.

SPEAKER_02 27:43

That's right, go toppers.

SPEAKER_01 27:44

Yeah. NUT, right?

SPEAKER_02 27:47

NUT, yes. Yes, but uh yeah, but you know, I've supported the Bucks my whole life. I guess if I hadn't grown up in Johnson City and wanted to get out of town, I might have gone to ETSU.

SPEAKER_01 27:59

Yeah, yeah. It's a good school. That's where I went to.

SPEAKER_02 28:02

It's a wonderful school. And so we're so lucky to have those sort of built-in economic engines, ETSU, the VA you mentioned, right? Other things too. Um you know, you were asking about statistics earlier about about the number of cases in the court. In 2023, there were about 16,000 filed across the three judges. Now those were all of the all of the type of cases we've talked about. By 2024, that number had gone up to 20,000.

SPEAKER_01 28:36

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_05 28:37

So So you're talking between three judges, 7,000, roughly 7,000 cases per judge. Yes. Per year. Wow. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 28:47

So that's a lot of cases in a five-day work week. For sure. Yeah. So you can see why I I emphasize the fact that a team approach is essential. Without it, it uh it would just it just wouldn't work.

SPEAKER_01 29:01

That's right. And get backed up and just keep going on and on and on. So well, thank you for being here with us today. We've really enjoyed uh getting to know you even better, even from our uh meeting at Home Depot.

SPEAKER_02 29:16

Right. Well, the time has flown.

SPEAKER_01 29:19

It does go by quick.

Voting Dates And Listener CTAs

SPEAKER_02 29:20

It it's it's been great. Well, if I if I might remind everyone of when early voting takes place, the the election day is May 5th, and that's the primary. Uh please uh vote for me, Steve Darden, in the Republican primary on May 5th, or in the early voting period, which started on April 15th and extends through the 30th.

SPEAKER_01 29:41

Yeah. All right. Well, thank you.

SPEAKER_02 29:44

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 29:47

This has been Benchmark Happenings, brought to you by Jonathan Tipton and Steve Reed from Benchmark Home Loans. Jonathan and Steve are residential mortgage lenders. They do home loans in Northeast Tennessee, and they're not only licensed in Tennessee, but Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Virginia. We hope you've enjoyed the show. If you did, make sure to like, rate, and review. Our passion is Northeast Tennessee. So if you have questions about mortgages, call us at 423 491 5405. And the website is www.jonathansteve.com. Thanks for being with us, and we'll see you next time on Benchmark Happening.