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State guide · TN

Tennessee Family Court: Custody and Parenting-Time Guide

Plain-language Tennessee information for a custody or parenting-time route, including filing, official forms, free help, fee waivers, and legal-cost context.

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This page provides general legal information, not legal advice. State law, court rules, forms, and local procedures can change. Confirm current requirements with the court handling the case.

State laws, court rules, and forms can change. Automated link checks will run every week once the monitoring job is deployed. Please check each cited source before relying on it. Report a broken link or changed law.

Find the right family court

The custody or parenting-time route described in this guide is handled through the Tennessee Juvenile Courts. Other family-law matters can follow a different court or procedure.

Find the court for your area.

  • The Administrative Office of the Courts says juvenile courts handle custody issues, establishment of parentage, and visitation; court administration and procedures vary by community.Sources:About Juvenile & Family Courts

How Tennessee courts decide custody

This draft does not state a Tennessee custody decision rule. The Administrative Office of the Courts identifies juvenile courts as handling custody issues.Sources:About Juvenile & Family Courts

Key legal sources

Parenting time

This draft does not state a statewide parenting-time rule. The Administrative Office of the Courts says juvenile courts address visitation for non-custodial parents.Sources:About Juvenile & Family Courts

  • The Administrative Office of the Courts lists establishing visitation for non-custodial parents among juvenile-court jurisdiction areas.Sources:About Juvenile & Family Courts

Key legal sources

How to file

This draft is limited to an initial Tennessee juvenile-court matter seeking to establish parentage and address custody or visitation. It does not cover divorce, modification, enforcement, emergency relief, protection orders, adoption, guardianship, interstate matters, or a complete filing-packet instruction.Sources:About Juvenile & Family Courts, Court Forms

  1. Identify the local juvenile court and clerk

    The Administrative Office of the Courts says juvenile courts are county-based and their administrative practices vary. Its court-clerk finder provides county contact information; confirm the handling court and local requirements there.Sources:About Juvenile & Family Courts, Find a Court Clerk

  2. Do not treat the statewide parenting-plan forms as an initiating packet

    The Administrative Office of the Courts lists Permanent and Temporary Parenting Plan forms, but its statewide materials do not label either form as an initial parentage complaint or identify a complete initial parentage, custody, and visitation packet.Sources:Court Forms, Parenting Plan Forms

  3. Obtain the current local initiating documents before filing

    This statewide draft does not identify a required initiating document set for this route. Do not infer one from the parenting-plan forms; obtain the handling juvenile court's current requirements from its clerk before filing.Sources:About Juvenile & Family Courts, Find a Court Clerk, Court Forms, Parenting Plan Forms

Official forms

Open the official forms portal.

  • The statewide forms catalog links to divorce, general-sessions civil, and parenting-plan materials. The parenting-plan page lists Permanent and Temporary Parenting Plan forms, but it does not identify a complete initial parentage, custody, and visitation packet.Sources:Court Forms, Parenting Plan Forms

Free court self-help

Find court self-help near you.

  • Help4TN

    Area served: Tennessee

    A statewide free phone line provides legal information and referrals for low-income Tennesseans with civil legal needs.Sources:Guide to free or reduced-rate legal services

    Eligibility: The court guide identifies the service for low-income Tennesseans; it is an information and referral resource, not a promise of representation.

  • Legal Aid of East Tennessee

    Area served: 26 East Tennessee counties

    Provides free civil legal services to qualifying people, including family matters.Sources:Who We Are

    Eligibility: Applicants must qualify, and submitting an application does not ensure assistance.

Fee waivers

Tennessee Supreme Court Rule 29 provides that a resident may commence a civil action without prepaying security for costs and litigation taxes by filing the statutory poverty oath and the prescribed affidavit of indigency.Sources:Rule 29: Uniform Civil Affidavit of Indigency

Who may qualify

  • Rule 29 says a person meeting the Legal Services Corporation poverty guidelines is presumed indigent, but the rule does not prevent a court from finding another person indigent under the pauper's-oath statutes.Sources:Rule 29: Uniform Civil Affidavit of Indigency

What to do

  1. Complete the Uniform Civil Affidavit of Indigency if it applies

    Rule 29 adopts the Uniform Civil Affidavit of Indigency for covered civil cases. The form requests financial information; the court can determine nonindigency, so confirm filing practice with the clerk.Sources:Rule 29: Uniform Civil Affidavit of Indigency

Official fee-waiver forms

Key statute or rule

Attorney cost benchmark

Lawyer fees vary by county, experience, services, and the facts of a case. This state benchmark is context for planning, not a quote.

State and local details to confirm

  • The Administrative Office of the Courts says juvenile-court procedures and administrative practices vary widely by community. This draft therefore does not present local document requirements as statewide rules.Sources:About Juvenile & Family Courts

Part of Family Law in Your State.