National Recognition

for the Shelby County Environmental Court

Judge Larry Potter is considered a national authority on environmental law. He has traveled around the country making presentations and assisting other cities in forming their own environmental courts.  Judge Potter's work has also been the subject of numerous articles, one of which, written by Elder Witt, is presented below:

A COURT FOR THE BAD AND THE UGLY

Reprinted from Governing Magazine, July 1989

Whether their problem is as smelly as sewage or as revolting as rats, Memphis residents can find relief in the Tennessee city's Environmental Court.  "Entire neighborhoods will come to court" seeking prompt attention and effective enforcement of health, housing, fire safety and zoning ordinances, says Judge Larry Potter, who has presided over the Environmental Court since its creation in 1983. 

Expansion of its Friday afternoon sessions seems inevitable, he says. "We're going to have to go to one full day a week soon, and then a separate court down the road." 

Memphis' court was one of the first in the country; now there are at least 20. Judge Potter, who is also the administrative head of the city courts and spends the rest of his week on other types of municipal cases, says he's talked to people coast to coast, from San Diego, California, to Rock Hill, South Carolina, about setting up environmental courts of their own.

It can often be done, as it was in Memphis, at little or no extra cost to taxpayers. There, the cases were already on the municipal docket, mixed in with other matters.  They were consolidated, to be heard at one time each week by the same judge, Potter, who could then specialize in these subjects. 

Locally, citizens are calling in more complaints to the Mayor's Action Center.  If the complaint cannot be resolved by the appropriate city agency, it ends up in Judge Potter's court.

The judge can't order anyone to fix defective plumbing, exterminate rats or clean up the yard.  "All I can do is assess fines," he says, but that tool gets the same results.

"I had a young lady here crying," Potter recalls, "after she found her two small children playing in raw sewage in the front yard of her rented house.  The landlord had refused to repair the plumbing.  The health department had tried to get compliance; he had refused. Our code permits the imposition of fines for every day that a condition exists.  The landlord repaired the plumbing within two days after I assessed a daily fine," he says.

"Some of these fines can be rather strong, $10,000 or $12,000 against an individual," he says.  "When they hear the amount of the fine, they usually almost have a stroke in front of you.  So then I ask them, 'Do you want to save yourself some money? just clean it up, and bring the inspector back to court with you, and I can reduce the fine.'  They see a way to save $8,000 or $9,000, and usually they will clean up."