Learn How to File for a Tennessee Divorce and Prepare for Court

Is your married life on the rocks? Have monumental differences of opinion cropped up between you and your spouse which are threatening to damage your relationship irreparably? If that is indeed the case, it is perhaps time to get a divorce so that further marital mess can be avoided. While it is one thing to make up your mind that a divorce settlement is what you need, it is an entirely different matter to actually initiate and move forward with the legal proceedings.

The State of Tennessee has detailed rules regarding marital separation processes, and they have to be followed to the word in order to ensure that the lawsuit you file is properly accepted and executed by the divorce court of Tennessee. So, what do you need to do to make sure that the petition for separation that you file does not get dismissed in the legal courts?

At the very beginning, you have to make sure that the court where you initiate your case has the required jurisdictional authority, as indicated by the Tennessee divorce laws. At the same time, all the residency requirements of the state need also be fulfilled.

In order to start a TN divorce proceeding, you must be a resident of Tennessee at the time when the incident occurred which led you to move to the divorce court. In case the incident that is acting as the underlying cause for the divorce had occurred outside the state, either you or your wife/husband must be a resident here from beforehand for at least 6 months.

The divorce lawsuit needs to be heard in the court of law of both your own county, as well as the county of your estranged spouse. Title 36 (Chapter 6A) of the Tennessee Code has detailed descriptions of the divorce laws regarding these issues. Once these requirements are met, you can expect that your divorce petition will be safely accepted at the court.

Filing for Divorce – The Grounds On Which You Can File

There are two different alternatives available to you when you file the Petition of Divorce against your partner. These options relate to the grounds of divorce, one or more of which need to be cited to the divorce courts of Tennessee as the main reason why you want the divorce.

Firstly, you and your wife/husband can consult each other and come up with a common ground for your divorce that is to be presented to the court. This is referred to as ‘no-fault’ divorce, wherein the two of you are not blaming each other. You can file for divorce under the ‘no-fault’ grounds if it can be shown that ‘irretrievable problems’ have crept into your married life. In case you and your wife/husband have been living separately (with different sleeping quarters) and do not have any children, then you can file for divorce under these grounds.

Alternatively, you might also bring in charges on your spouse for breaking the marriage on some grounds. You would need to of course prove these grounds to the court when the case comes up. This is known as an ‘at-fault’ divorce. These divorce grounds include adulterous activities on the part of your spouse, him/her being convicted in a criminal case, or willful desertion for more than two years (by taking up a separate place of residence).

You can also use the ‘at-fault’ ground for divorce if you find your spouse to be impotent, excessively addicted to drugs/alcohol, and guilty of mental or physical abuse (which might put your own life in danger). If you happen to find your wife to be bearing the child of another man, this is also recognized as a valid reason for divorce in the Tennessee courts.

For further reference on the grounds of divorce that can be utilized at the divorce courts of Tennessee, you can also refer to Title 36, Volume 6A of the Tennessee Code of Law.

The divorce lawsuit that you initiate against your husband/wife would have its hearings at the family court of the relevant county of Tennessee. For purposes of all future references, you can use the unique case number that would be assigned to your divorce file by the court. The name of the court will be present at the top of all your divorce-related documents.

The divorce court of Tennessee also takes charge of serving a copy of the Petition of Divorce to your spouse (in this case the Respondent). You, as the initiator of the divorce lawsuit, are the Petitioner here. You can rely on the divorce court to take care of all the aspects of your lawsuit in a comprehensive manner.

Thankfully, in the State of Tennessee, you need not handle the entire paperwork of your divorce case on your own. The Court Clerk (also named as the ‘County Clerk’) is the one who formally takes care of all these issues on your behalf. (S)he also would convey to you and your wife/husband information regarding the sessions of hearing of your case, and the papers that you might need to present at any point in time in the court.

Property Distribution and Divorce

When it comes to distribution of the marital property items between your wife/husband and yourself, the authorities of Tennessee recommend an ‘equitable’ division. This should not however be considered equivalent to a 50% share to either of you in the total stock of assets. Rather, the distribution is done in a way such that it is legally ‘justifiable’. The concern of the court is to ensure that the distribution is carried out in a just manner.

There are several factors that the court considers while deciding upon the property redistribution decisions. Chief among such factors are the age of the two of you, your respective health conditions, the length of time for which you had been married, and what the contribution of either of you was toward the value of the property items.

Alimony and Divorce

Divorce lawsuits in Tennessee are not automatically considered a precursor of alimony payments (either by you to your now-divorced partner, or vice versa). Rather, it depends on the judgments of the courts as to whether such alimonies are at all necessary for your particular divorce case.

Even if the alimony arrangement needs to be made, the divorce court will issue directives regarding the duration for which such payments have to be made. For example, alimony payments might be of a short-term nature. Alternatively, such payments might have to be made over a long stretch of time as well.

The need for alimony payment in a divorce lawsuit is determined by the Tennessee authorities by analyzing a combination of several issues. For example, the standard of living required, the tax issues involved, education, qualifications and future employability of both you and your wife/husband are all considered in this regard.

There remains one more crucial aspect that calls for detailed introspection by the divorce court of Tennessee. This is the issue of child custodial rights (in case you and your spouse do happen to have a minor child from your marriage). The two of you can either arrive at a mutual consensus as to who would take over the charges of the child. Alternatively, the court directives on this matter can be taken as binding.

If the court of Tennessee indeed has to allot the custodial right of your son/daughter, the court makes a decision after considering many factors. Some of these factors are the interactions between the child and you, your spouse, how stable the family environment is, and the current and past records of either of you as responsible parents. If your child is more than 12 years old, his/her preferences will also be considered.

The Income Shares Model is used to calculate the approximate costs of supporting your child. These costs can also influence the pattern of property distribution between you and your spouse, as well as alimony issues.