(a)

Terms Used In Tennessee Code 68-3-313

  • Department: means the department of health. See Tennessee Code 68-3-102
  • File: means to present a vital record provided for in this chapter for registration by the office of vital records. See Tennessee Code 68-3-102
  • 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.
  • Record: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in a perceivable form. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
(1) All legal documents pertaining to the adoption, legitimation or order of paternity, together with the certificate of birth in the original name, shall be placed in an envelope and sealed following the preparation of the new certificate.
(2) These sealed documents shall be preserved in a fireproof vault in the department and shall not be removed from that office, except by order of a court of competent jurisdiction.
(3) The sealed documents shall be opened by the state registrar for the purpose of issuing a copy of the certificate in the name at birth, upon receipt of a certified copy of an order of the court that granted the adoption, legitimation, or order of paternity or in legitimations by subsequent marriage of the parents or upon receipt of a directive from the department of human services consistent with § 36-1-126 or § 36-1-127.
(4) Upon receipt of a certified copy of an order from the court of competent jurisdiction ordering the annulment of an order of adoption, legitimation, or order of paternity or the replacement of a certificate of birth in the original name on file, the state registrar shall open the sealed documents, replace the certificate of birth in the original name in the volume of births in which originally filed, remove the new certificate, and place it under seal with the legal documents and the certified copy of the court order.
(b) When a new certificate of birth has been filed by the state registrar, all copies of the record of birth in the original name in the custody of any other party shall be forwarded to the state registrar upon receipt of the state registrar’s request.