---
type: "Bill"
title: "Criminal Procedure - As enacted, authorizes general sessions and criminal court judges statewide to suspend court costs and litigation tax for indigent defendants; authorizes court clerk to implement community service program in lieu of full payment of court costs and litigation taxes for indigent defendants, if county legislative body approves such a program. - Amends TCA Section 8-21-401; Title 40, Chapter 25 and Title 67, Chapter 4, Part 6."
description: "Criminal Procedure - As enacted, authorizes general sessions and criminal court judges statewide to suspend court costs and litigation tax for indigent defendants; authorizes court clerk to implement community service program in lieu of full payment of court costs and litigation taxes for indigent defendants, if county legislative body approves such a program. - Amends TCA Section 8-21-401; Title 40, Chapter 25 and Title 67, Chapter 4, Part 6."
jurisdiction: "us/states/tn"
legislature: "Tennessee General Assembly"
session: "110"
identifier: "SB 1504"
citation: "Tennessee SB 1504 (110)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Criminal Procedure"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Briggs", "Dunn"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 36
vote_count: 1
first_action: "2018-01-09"
last_action: "2018-03-13"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/16195dd8-e6d3-40fb-98e4-cc348c383e7d"
source_url: "http://wapp.capitol.tn.gov/apps/BillInfo/default.aspx?BillNumber=SB1504&GA=110"
source_hash: "a0bc516aa401d8d5c7ceeb738b98b7d08ff1f9d16509388081be80d0722bc110"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-tn"]
---

# Tennessee SB 1504 (110) — Criminal Procedure - As enacted, authorizes general sessions and criminal court judges statewide to suspend court costs and litigation tax for indigent defendants; authorizes court clerk to implement community service program in lieu of full payment of court costs and litigation taxes for indigent defendants, if county legislative body approves such a program. - Amends TCA Section 8-21-401; Title 40, Chapter 25 and Title 67, Chapter 4, Part 6.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Current Version** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.capitol.tn.gov/Bills/110/Bill/SB1504.pdf)

## Votes

- SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: Recommended for passage with amendment/s, refer to Senate Calendar Committee Ayes 8, Nays 0 PNV 0 2/13/2018 Passed — **8–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Briggs — primary (person)
- Dunn — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2018-01-09** Filed for intro. `introduction, reading-1`
- **2018-01-10** Filed for introduction `introduction, reading-1`
- **2018-01-10** Intro., P1C. `introduction`
- **2018-01-11** Introduced, Passed on First Consideration `introduction`
- **2018-01-11** P2C, ref. to Criminal Justice Committee `referral-committee`
- **2018-01-16** Assigned to s/c Criminal Justice Subcommittee `referral-committee`
- **2018-01-17** Passed on Second Consideration, refer to Senate Judiciary Committee
- **2018-01-17** Placed on s/c cal Criminal Justice Subcommittee for 1/23/2018
- **2018-01-23** Rec for pass if am by s/c ref. to Criminal Justice Committee `referral-committee`
- **2018-01-24** Placed on cal. Criminal Justice Committee for 1/31/2018
- **2018-01-25** Sponsor(s) Added.
- **2018-01-31** Placed on cal. Calendar & Rules Committee for 2/1/2018
- **2018-01-31** Rec. for pass. if am., ref. to Calendar & Rules Committee `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2018-02-01** H. Placed on Regular Calendar for 2/7/2018
- **2018-02-07** Placed on Senate Judiciary Committee calendar for 2/13/2018
- **2018-02-07** Engrossed; ready for transmission to Sen.
- **2018-02-07** Sponsor(s) Added.
- **2018-02-07** Passed H., Ayes 97, Nays 0, PNV 0 `passage`
- **2018-02-07** H. adopted am. (Amendment 1 - HA0665) `amendment-passage`
- **2018-02-08** Received from House, Passed on First Consideration `introduction`
- **2018-02-12** Sponsor(s) Added.
- **2018-02-13** Recommended for passage with amendment/s, refer to Senate Calendar Committee Ayes 8, Nays 0 PNV 0
- **2018-02-20** Placed on Senate Regular Calendar calendar for 2/22/2018
- **2018-02-22** Sponsor(s) Added.
- **2018-02-22** Companion House Bill substituted
- **2018-02-22** Passed Senate, Ayes 27, Nays 0 `passage`
- **2018-02-22** Amendment withdrawn. (Amendment 1 - SA0584)
- **2018-02-22** Senate substituted House Bill for companion Senate Bill.
- **2018-02-23** Enrolled; ready for sig. of H. Speaker.
- **2018-02-26** Signed by H. Speaker
- **2018-02-27** Transmitted to Governor for his action. `executive-receipt`
- **2018-02-27** Signed by Senate Speaker
- **2018-03-09** Signed by Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2018-03-13** Comp. became Pub. Ch. 542
- **2018-03-13** Pub. Ch. 542
- **2018-03-13** Effective date(s) 03/09/2018

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/16195dd8-e6d3-40fb-98e4-cc348c383e7d`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Tennessee legislature records).