For Leondra Benford, going to court in a school cafeteria on a recent Saturday morning was a big relief.
For Rickie Dibrell, it was one of the best mornings he'd had in a while.
Benford and Dibrell are both parents of Metro Nashville Public Schools students who participated in a program that has two goals: Help parents understand and resolve minor legal issues, and help the justice system take care of cases that could linger for years and bog down the courts — or never get resolved at all.
The program is a collaboration between Metro Schools, the Nashville public defender and district attorney, and the Criminal Court Clerk's Office. By bringing court into Nashville's neighborhoods on the weekend, parents who struggle to make ends meet can resolve cases without choosing between going to work or going to court.
"We started around the idea of thinking, if there was a way we could make the criminal justice system a little easier and less mystifying for families, it would be a good thing," Public Defender Dawn Deaner said.
The schools identify and contact parents who qualify for the program. Typically those parents have old cases with minor charges that can be expunged, need help getting their driver's licenses back or face snowballing fees.
The parents gather in the gym or cafeteria of a school chosen by the district and sit down with assistant public defenders who work with them one on one. Then they go before General Sessions Judge Casey Moreland.
Moreland said he treats those cases the same as any that would come through his courtroom Monday through Friday, though occasionally he does rule from a table built for someone a sliver of his size and wears jeans and a sweater instead of his black robe.
Tennessee law allows judges to waive some court costs for indigent — or poor — people and dictates what charges can be expunged, or erased, from a person's record.