The Tennessee Divorce Process

You have made the most important step: deciding to proceed with a divorce in Tennessee. What comes next can be confusing, costly, and contentious – let us remove those three “c’s” and give you just one: clarity!*

Before You Begin: Be sure of your residency status – either you or your partner must have been a resident of Tennessee for the past six months or more.

Step One: You’ve decided to get a divorce. This decision can go one of two ways: uncontested or contested.

Uncontested means that both you and your husband/wife agree to get a divorce and agree on all of the terms of that divorce (grounds, child support, child custody, alimony, division of assets, etc.). Uncontested divorces are labeled “no-fault” divorces, meaning that the grounds for divorce will be listed as irreconcilable differences with neither party at fault.

Contested means either that one of you disagrees to getting a divorce or that one of you disagrees with one or more of the terms of the divorce. Contested divorces usually are on grounds other than irreconcilable differences, like adultery or inappropriate marital conduct.

Step Two: Retaining an attorney (or not) is a decision that we know is comprised of several factors (money, time, need, and more).

If you have decided that an uncontested divorce is the best route for you to travel, it is possible to forego the use of an attorney. Keep in mind, though, that you will need to make sure that your documents are carefully crafted to protect both parties now and in the future, especially where some of those terms of the divorce come into play.

If matters are already heated and you know the situation will be contested we strongly recommend retaining an attorney to navigate the complicated legal avenues available to you. An outside party that has both legal knowledge and an impartial viewpoint is extremely valuable to save you money and time throughout the divorce process.

Step Three: It’s time to gather information to construct the Complaint for Divorce. You will need information like the full names, addresses, birthdays, and social security numbers of all parties involved (husband, wife, and kids), the couple’s employer information, the date of the wedding and of the separation, along with various other pieces of information. You will also need to have decided upon which grounds (click here for a list of those grounds) you are divorcing on. If you list “irreconcilable differences” your divorce will be uncontested; other grounds will result in a contested matter. The Complaint must be signed by you in front of a Notary Public. We offer notarization here in our office for your convenience.

Step Four: Next is the drafting of the Marital Dissolution Agreement and, if there are children involved in the divorce, the Permanent Parenting Plan. Both documents contain many possible points of contention – they cover everything from division of property to child custody and support. This is the point in the process that may involve the most collaboration between the two parties, between you and your attorney, and between the two attorneys if necessary. There is a great deal of information that needs to be exchanged here, so expect to be gathering documentation and providing information to your attorney as needed. Prompt response and action is crucial to keeping your divorce process forward-moving in this section. Once these documents are drafted, they need to be signed by both parties in the presence of a Notary Public. We also recommend attending court-required Parenting Classes at this point, as the attendance of those classes by both parties is required for the divorce to ultimately be finalized (of course, this is only if there are children involved).

***At this point in the process, contested divorces take their own path. For contested divorces in Tennessee, mediation is encouraged to reach agreements calmly and logically before submitting the Marital Dissolution Agreement or Permanent Parenting Plan to the courts, enabling the parties to proceed without a trial. If you find yourself needing a trial to settle all of the contested points, the following steps are not applicable to you and your attorney will explain the process to you.***

Step Five: Filing in court involves the submission of your Complaint for Divorce, a Confidential Information sheet containing names, addresses, birthdays, and social security numbers of all involved parties, the Marital Dissolution Agreement, and (if applicable) the Permanent Parenting Plan. There are two courts that handle divorces in Shelby County: Chancery and Circuit. Shelby County charges filing fees to file these documents: for a divorce without children, the fee is $301.50, and for a divorce with children the fee is $376.50. That fee is paid to your attorney, who in turn pays it to the court upon filing.

Step Six: Wait. No, really, that is the next step! In Shelby County, once you have filed your documents with the court you have either a 60-day waiting period (for divorces with no children) or a 90-day waiting period (for divorces with minor children). As your attorney, we record the date that your waiting period is up, so that we can initiate the next step.

Step Seven: The day the waiting period is up, it is time to schedule the final hearing. If the divorce was filed in Circuit Court, the hearing is able to be scheduled by phone. If the divorce was filed in Chancery Court, it must be placed on the 10-Day Rule Docket in person – from there, the court or your attorney will contact you about the date they have chosen.

Step Eight: For the final hearing you will need a Final Decree of Divorce drafted, which summarizes the points of the divorce and grants the divorce as final – the judge will sign this at the final hearing.

Step Nine: The party that filed for divorce will appear in court at the appointed date and time, answer a few brief questions, and the judge will sign your Final Decree of Divorce. At this point, the parties are divorced but the divorce is not officially final for thirty days following the judge’s order, so you may not remarry during this 30-day period.

As you can see, the amount of paperwork and information to keep straight is immense, even in the simplest of uncontested divorces. It is for this reason that we do recommend retaining a lawyer as counsel for your divorce – there is no predictor for when calm discussions turn angry, or when circumstances become too complex.

*Please be aware that this divorce process is generalized and simplified. Any number of external factors can arise during the process, making each and every divorce a unique situation – by providing this generalized process to you we hope to give you a rough outline of what to expect as you proceed, not an exact timeline of what you specifically will experience.