(a)

Terms Used In Tennessee Code 36-5-3003

  • Child: means an individual, whether over or under the age of majority, who is or is alleged to be owed a duty of support by the individual's parent or who is or is alleged to be the beneficiary of a support order directed to the parent. See Tennessee Code 36-5-2101
  • Clerk: means the clerk of the transferor or transferee court, or the clerk of any court who has been designated by either of those courts to collect support payments for such court. See Tennessee Code 36-5-3002
  • Court: means , except as provided in §. See Tennessee Code 36-5-3002
  • Department: means the department of human services or its contractor or designee. See Tennessee Code 36-5-3002
  • Filing: means the initiation of judicial action by the completion of a motion or petition seeking to order the alteration of a legal status through the act of sending or bringing the motion or petition to the office of the clerk of the court. See Tennessee Code 36-5-3002
  • Issuing county: means the county in which a court issues a support or custody order or that renders a judgment determining parentage or to which a support or custody order has been previously transferred. See Tennessee Code 36-5-3002
  • Issuing court: means the court that issues a support or custody order or renders a judgment determining parentage or to which a support or custody order has been previously transferred. See Tennessee Code 36-5-3002
  • Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
  • Month: means a calendar month. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Outside this state: means a location in another state or a country other than the United States, whether or not the country is a foreign country. See Tennessee Code 36-5-2101
  • Person: means an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, limited liability company, association, joint venture, public corporation, government, or governmental subdivision, agency, or instrumentality, or any other legal or commercial entity. See Tennessee Code 36-5-2101
  • Request: means a statement of a requesting party seeking transfer of a custody or child support case to the court of another county. See Tennessee Code 36-5-3002
  • Requesting party: means custodial parent, noncustodial parent or, in Title IV-D child support cases, the department or its contractor. See Tennessee Code 36-5-3002
  • State: means a state of the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, or any territory or insular possession under the jurisdiction of the United States. See Tennessee Code 36-5-2101
  • Transfer: means the process by which the transferor court, upon request, moves the case to a court where the child resides thereby conferring jurisdiction on the transferee court. See Tennessee Code 36-5-3002
  • Transferor court: means the court from which a case is transferred to another court. See Tennessee Code 36-5-3002
  • written: includes printing, typewriting, engraving, lithography, and any other mode of representing words and letters. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
(1) Except as provided in § 36-5-3001(b), a case that includes child support or custody provisions may be transferred between counties in this state without the need for any additional filing by the party seeking transfer by the filing of a request by the requesting party if:

(A) The requesting party has served the nonrequesting party with the filing seeking the transfer; and
(B) The nonrequesting party has not filed an objection within fifteen (15) days from the date the notice of the filing was mailed.
(2) If the nonrequesting party files an objection pursuant to subdivision (a)(1)(B), the objection shall be in the form of a motion for review of the request in the transferor court. If an objection has been filed, the transferor court shall determine whether there is good cause for the transfer. If the court finds good cause for the transfer, it shall transfer the case.
(b) Upon receipt of a request, the case must be transferred by the clerk of the issuing court, without order of the court, to a court of competent jurisdiction in the county where the child or children reside if each of the following applies:

(1) Neither the child or children, custodial parent/obligee, nor the noncustodial parent/obligor currently reside in the issuing county;
(2) The child or children who are subject to the support or custody order currently reside in the county to which the case is to be transferred and have resided there for at least six (6) months; and
(3) No objection has been filed pursuant to subdivision (a)(2).
(c) A case may also be transferred for modification of support or custody to any court of competent jurisdiction in the county in which the noncustodial parent/obligor resides in this state with no six-month residency period if both the child or children subject to the support or custody order and the custodial parent/obligee reside outside this state and the custodial parent/obligee does not object after the provision of notice pursuant to § 36-5-3004. If objection is made, or if the requesting party does not seek immediate transfer without the six (6) month residency period, the requesting party may obtain transfer for modification of the order by demonstrating that the custodial parent/obligee and the child or children have resided outside this state for at least six (6) months. A transfer pursuant to this subsection (c) shall be initiated by written request of the requesting party or department pursuant to this part.
(d) If the case has been transferred pursuant to this part, the fact that one of the parties or the child returns to the transferor county does not, by that fact alone, confer jurisdiction upon the previous transferor court. A transfer to the original issuing court requires compliance with the procedures of this part.
(e)

(1) “Custodial parent” for purposes of this part means the person with whom the child resides a majority of the time in a situation where there is an order of joint custody or where there exist parenting plans pursuant to chapter 6, part 4 of this title that address issues of custody.
(2) “Custodial parent” for purposes of this part also includes, in addition to a biological or legal parent having legal custody of a child, an individual to whom legal custody of the child or children has been given by a court of competent jurisdiction.
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