Fifth Circuit Court
Judge Joe P. Binkley, Jr. is a native Nashvillian. He attended high school at Montgomery Bell Academy and graduated in 1962. He received his B.A. from Vanderbilt University in 1966. He received his J.D. from Vanderbilt University School of Law and was admitted to the Tennessee Bar in 1969. During nearly 40 years of law practice, Judge Binkley was a sole practitioner trial attorney representing Plaintiffs in all types of simple as well as complex workers’ compensation and personal injury cases, representing individuals in all types of simple and complex domestic relations matters as well as defendants in all types of simple and complex criminal cases from 1969 through early 2008 in the state trial courts, federal trial courts and all appellate courts. He is a member of the Tennessee and Nashville Bar Associations and the Tennessee Trial Lawyers Association. He is a Trustee of the Nashville Bar Foundation as well as a former Board Member of the Nashville Bar Association for two separate terms. He is also an Emeritus member of the Harry Phillips American Inn of Court and a Fellow of both the Nashville and the Tennessee Bar Foundations. He is a Judge member of the American Board of Trial Advocates since 2014, and was the recipient of the Law Day USA Liberty Bell Award from the Nashville Bar Association in 2019.
Judge Binkley has served as the Fifth Circuit Court Judge since his appointment by Governor Phil Bredesen in March of 2008 and subsequent election in August of 2008 and reelection in August of 2014. He hears predominantly civil cases; however, he also hears DUI criminal cases as well as other misdemeanor and felony criminal cases, divorce cases, Chancery cases and Probate cases. As of 2020, he is serving his tenth consecutive term as the Presiding Judge of the 18 State Trial Court Judges in the 20th Judicial District.
Judge Binkley has been married to Suzanne Griffith Binkley since 1967. They have one son, Jay Binkley (Joe P. Binkley, III), who resides in Dallas, Texas with his wife Kristen and their son J.P. (Joe P. Binkley, IV), and two daughters, Holly Binkley Higgins along with her husband Mike and their two sons, Will and Jack, who live in Glenview, Illinois, and Ellie Binkley Fromherz along with her husband Bernard and their sons Joseph and Robert and daughter Claire who reside in Madisonville, Louisiana.