Tennessee Child Custody Legal Questions

If parents' rights were not terminated then they still have them. The only way to (possibly) keep kids out of their custody is by a petition for custody, or the higher level case could be a petition to terminate the parental rights. Both would involve the children's best interest but the legal standards are different. If parents are not currently fit parents you may find you have to file one or the other.... Read More

In my experience, judges will say methadone treatment is better than illegal using, but it's still an active opioid addiction. I am not an addiction specialist, if you can get to treating your disease with an opioid agonist, that's probably ok, but methadone is still an opiate. Good luck. Stay on your sobriety path and the custody will come back. ... Read More

So, the court is required by law to favor the parents, but only until they are not. I know that sounds vague or strange, but my point is that at some point, the court may give up on the birthparents, and so custody could remain with a third-party, such as grandparents. That's the good news I guess, but the bad news is you will definitely need an attorney to convince the court that is the point that's been reached. Ultimately the court is supposed to go with a child's best interest, but the burden of proof will rest on whoever it is claiming that the birth parents are not currently fit.... Read More

If you're operating under an Order giving father supervised visits, you shouldn't stop those without getting permission from the Court. Is there another supervisor who can make sure the visits are safe but maybe without triggering his anger/abuse issues with you? You don't have to sit and just take verbal abuse, but you need to document it. If the verbal abuse includes specific threats, especially if there's a history of physical abuse, those threats could support an Order of Protection. In some counties OP's seem harder to get. ... Read More

I'm sorry for your loss. If the father never had his rights established, then mom had sole custody at her death and so her family would be, legally, the child's only family. Father's family could Petition the Court for rights, including more time or even possibly custody. I think along the way the families might reach an agreement, so long as everyone is thinking about the child's best interest.... Read More

It is unlikely the attorney is making up the Rules, but it's almost certain he knows the Rules. The Tennessee Rules of Court book is several inches thick, and a new one comes out every year with changes. Plus, each Circuit has local rules, and within circuits, each judge may have their own chamber rules. The attorney knows all of those.   The people who operate this website say I am not really supposed to answer with "you need a lawyer," but it's a fact. Legal aid will help some folks, but only in some cases. Otherwise, lawyers get paid. If someone has quoted you $1500 as an initial retainer, that's a good quote to get started in a contested custody case. I understand in some circumstances fifteen hundred may as well be fifteen million, but if there's things you can sell, sell them. The reality is a good lawyer can and will devastate a person representing themselves.   It's not that the judge may not want to hear both sides, but just like you can't play basketball with a croquet mallet, there's super specific Rules of Evidence, Procecure, etc., and if you dont' follow each rule, even the best, strongest, evidence will not be considered. The Court simply may not consider evidence not properly introduced. Pro se individuals almost never manage to get their evidence into evidence, meaning it is not ever actually evidence. ... Read More

To take custody from biological parents, she would have to prove to a Court you and the father were not able to safely raise the child. As you can imagine, quite a lot of proof goes into a case like that. Your post suggests there is not any proof; if that is true, she would not succeed in an action to take the child. If you have a place to live, a job, and are drug free,, with no history of violence or criminal record, it seems unlikely she could win a case like that.   Now, to be fair, I suspect she must at least think she has proof of something, or she is just trying to scare you. Only you know what information could be out there. If she can prove that you and/or father are not in fact able to safely raise the child in a safe home, it is possible a third party could get temporary custody, until you fix whatever issues might exist.... Read More

I'm sorry your question is a little confusing. I think it says biological father has custody of your nieces, and he wants to move with them to Michigan. I don't know much about bio father, but if he is a fit and proper parent, he can probably live where he wants. Your sister, if she has parental rights left, could file an action to oppose the relocation, but under her current circumstances of not having custody, I don't know how far she would get. There's a lot of facts that go into relocation cases. As a relative, unless Father and Mother are both unfit, you would not have any grounds that I know of to file for custody. I know that's not what you're looking for but Father has the strongest rights in this scenario. Mother comes in second, but it sounds like her rights have been limited by the Court. You probably don't have much of any rights at all. I'm sorry.... Read More

You will need to file a Petition for Parenting Time, and tell the Court you are subject to an OP as to mother, but you want to see the kids. If the OP is also on the kids, that battle will be a lot tougher. If it's just on mother, you just have to have a parenting plan that guarantees you won't be able to contact or see mother in any way. You don't want seeing your kids to send you to jail on an OP violation. Having your mother speak with her may also be a 'third party contact' which violates your OP also. Be very careful. Now that the Court is involved, it will have to stay involved to the end. Serving a Petition for Parenting Time, through proper service, is not a violation, but any other contact probably is. At any court date, you'll need to let the officers know about the OP and sit as far from her as physically possible.... Read More

No honest lawyer can really say there's no way a judge would consider this fact or that fact, but I will say that the fact you've mentioned, by itself, for an otherwise good father, would probably not be a huge thing. If the child has some diagnosed learning deficiency, that might change things, but the state of TN requires kids to start school at 5. If dad doesn't want to start before 5, I don't think a Court will get too involved in that. If you separate, nothing would prevent you from getting tutoring during your parenting time.... Read More

I am surprised to learn your  divorce does not mention phone calls. Parenting Plans should all include the following language:   Under T.C.A. § 36-6-101 of Tennessee law, both parents are entitled to the following rights: (1)  The right to unimpeded telephone conversations with the child at least twice a week at reasonable times and for reasonable durations. The parent exercising parenting time shall furnish the other parent with a telephone number where the child may be reached at the days and time specified in a parenting plan or other court order or, where days and times are not specified, at reasonable times; It is literally the first right listed in a long list of parental rights in TN.   If you are not allowing at least two unimpeded calls a week, then you are likely violating the other parent's rights, which is never a good look in Court. I would say that by itself, that is not grounds for him to get more parenting time, but if he can convince the court it is a part of an overall attitute on your part to minimize his involvement, that will be a strong factor in a modification case. Depending on your county, and many other factors, it may be the Court will lean towards increasing his time to a 50/50 schedule, or something with at least 120 days, if he does not have that already.  You h=ay very well have a good defense to his action, of course. ... Read More

If the Court of Appeals has made a ruling in your case, unless the Supreme Court has agreed to hear it, that case will be dealt with the way the Court of Appeals says. Before you can go back to court and try to do anything, you will have to show a material change in circumstances from when the original order was entered. Any evidence already presented in prior hearing(s) will not be admissible, since it was already considered and ruled upon. ... Read More

The below is the Tennessee custody law, edited a bit for clarity. It lists everything a Court has to consider. Not sure what 'get custody' means. If you mean you want to go away from the equal time, and be the primary or even sole legal custodian, you will have to prove that is in the child's best interest using the factors below. If she wants to go away from the equal time, she will have to prove the same on the other side. If you have equal time, but you earn more than her, probably you will still pay child support. Not wanting to pay child support is (obviously) not going to be a reason you can give the court why you should have more custody than mother, just like wanting to get more child support would not be a good reason.       https://codes.findlaw.com/tn/title-36-domestic-relations/tn-code-sect-36-6-106.html... Read More

If your husband is served with a subpoena and does not want to submit to the DNA test, he will have to go to the Court and seek an Order relieving him from the subpoena. He cannot ignore it. If the other lady's ex is not the father, and your husband possibly could be, I expect a Court would Order the test. Your circumstances are terrible, but the law will hold a biological father responsible for his child, no matter who the parents may or may not be married to. The tips from lawyers.com tell us we are not supposed to say things like "you should speak with an attorney." Well, sorry, but your husband needs to speak with an attorney yesterday. ... Read More

Unfortunately, if your sister's parental rights were terminated, she has no legal connection with that child anymore. The law would call any relatives of the adoptive parents the child's relatives, and they would go before anyone else. Your sister or you would be legal strangers. If the child is in state custody, it may be that your family could try to get a placement, basically be a foster home. That would require the assistance of someone who spends every day doing cases like that, which I do not. In most counties, there is a core group of attorneys who handle cases like your niece, and your family will need one.... Read More

If the May Order was a final Order, before the court will consider modifying primary custody, you will have to prove a material change in circumstances affecting the children’s best interest. Anything from before May will not be considered. In other words, since May, what has changed that requires changing custody back to you. If the situation today is about the same as in May, the court won’t even hear the case. An attorney can discuss what you’d need to be able to prove in your case, but the bar is set pretty high. For modifications that don’t change custody, but maybe got you more parenting time, it’s a lower standard, but you’ll still need to prove what has changed since May.... Read More

He will first have to get an Order of Parentage, as the children were born to a married woman and so are children of the marriage. At the same time he petitions for parentage he can petition for parenting time. The child support will, of course, switch from husband to bio father, probably back to birth or five years. Whether all this will affect the girls is hard to say. Their parents decided to have outside children while at least one was married to someone else, that’s going to affect them, court case or not. ... Read More

If father’s rights have been established through an Order of Paternity, then father will have superior rights to third parties, including grandparents.   If father has no order of paternity and is not married to mother, then mother has sole legal custody and can delegate that custody. Or, if grandparents actually have some sort of custody order, then that has to be dealt with. In these situations, father needs to begin with an order of paternity to establish his legal rights.... Read More

You need to begin with a lawyer in CO. Because the child is(it seems) in CO because of child neglect/abuse that happened in CO, a separate jurisdictional ground exists for CO to have jurisdiction over the child. Father should “win” against a third party, but may have to appear in CO. It may be, unfortunately, that you need an attorney in each state, at least until the child is back here. A TN attorney can likely get you a custody order, but then you still have to take that order to a CO court, so it may be more efficient to start with that CO court. ... Read More

If you are dealing with a case involving the state where you have lost custody of one or more children, the court should appoint you an attorney.  If they have not done so, it would be and your interest to speak with the clerk, if that does not work at your next appearance you should request counsel.  ... Read More