No, Administrative Judges hear a wide variety of cases.  Judges have experience with the multi-faceted issues presented by each individual case filed with APD.  This approach allows for the greatest amount of flexibility with scheduling and assignment of cases ensuring that hearings and mediations proceed in the most expeditious manner possible.  The one exception to this practice involves State Board of Equalization cases which are primarily assigned to a subset of judges with additional specialized training in that area of the law.

An Administrative Judge is also known as an Administrative Law Judge or ALJ. The Administrative Judge rules on cases involving administrative disputes (or disputes regarding the administration or implementation of government laws and rules).

Administrative Judges are hired through a competitive interview process by the Secretary of State.  Open positions for a new Administrative Judge are publicly posted by the Secretary of State’s Human Resources division.

No. The titles Administrative Judge, Administrative Law Judge, and ALJ are used interchangeably.

The Safe at Home Address Confidentiality Program is a statewide address confidentiality program administered by the Office of the Tennessee Secretary of State. It is open to all victims of domestic abuse, stalking, human trafficking, rape, sexual battery, or any other sexual offense who satisfy eligibility and application requirements at no cost. Once a participant has been approved, they are provided with a ‘substitute’ address that can be used by them and their children as their official mailing address for all state and local government purposes, including public school or public benefits enrollment, subject only to a few limited exceptions.

The program does NOT:

• Help participants change their identities or relocate.
• Remove or delete existing public records.
• Offer legal advice.
• Relieve participants of their legal or financial responsibilities.

Under the Tennessee Public Records Act, T.C.A. § 10-7-501 et. seq., all state or local government records are considered public and are available for public inspection and copying, unless specifically protected by other law. This means that any member of the public can request that a state or local government official allow them to inspect and/or take a copy of certain records, which may contain an another individual’s name, address, or phone number. This means that an abuser may be able to track or discover the residential address of a victim through public records. The primary goal of the Safe at Home Address Confidentiality Program is to prevent this from happening and provide victims of domestic violence and other crimes with a sense of security in their own homes and freedom from intimidation or further abuse.