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RESIDENCY REQUIREMENTS:

In order to file for Divorce in Tennessee you must meet one of the following requirements:

1. The plaintiff or the defendant has resided in this state six (6) months next preceding the filing of the complaint; or

2. Any person in the armed services of the United States, or the spouse of any such person, who has been living in this state for a period of one (1) year or longer shall be presumed to be a resident of this state.

GROUNDS

The most common ground is for irreconcilable differences between the parties.

Other grounds allowed may require proof or additional testimony, which are:

(1) Either party, at the time of the contract, was and still is naturally impotent and incapable of procreation;

(2) Either party has knowingly entered into a second marriage, in violation of a previous marriage, still subsisting;

(3) Either party has committed adultery;

(4) Willful or malicious desertion or absence of either party, without a reasonable cause, for one (1) whole year;

(5) Being convicted of any crime that, by the laws of the state, renders the party infamous;

(6) Being convicted of a crime that, by the laws of the state, is declared to be a felony, and sentenced to confinement in the penitentiary;

(7) Either party has attempted the life of the other, by poison or any other means showing malice;

(8) Refusal, on the part of a spouse, to remove with that person's spouse to this state, without a reasonable cause, and being willfully absent from the spouse residing in Tennessee for two (2) years;

(9) The woman was pregnant at the time of the marriage, by another person, without the knowledge of the husband;

(10) Habitual drunkenness or abuse of narcotic drugs of either party, when the spouse has contracted either such habit after marriage;

(11) The husband or wife is guilty of such cruel and inhuman treatment or conduct towards the spouse as renders cohabitation unsafe and improper, which may also be referred to in pleadings as inappropriate marital conduct;

(12) The husband or wife has offered such indignities to the spouse's person as to render the spouse's position intolerable, and thereby forced the spouse to withdraw;

(13) The husband or wife has abandoned the spouse or turned the spouse out of doors for no just cause, and has refused or neglected to provide for the spouse while having the ability to so provide;

(14) Irreconcilable differences between the parties; and

(15) For a continuous period of two (2) or more years that commenced prior to or after April 18, 1985, both parties have lived in separate residences, have not cohabited as man and wife during such period, and there are no minor children of the parties.

CHILD CUSTODY

The court will award joint or sole custody in accordance with the best interests of the child. Joint legal custody gives both parents the right to contribute to the decision-making process concerning the child's development and well-being. You can have joint legal custody and still have one parent as the primary residential parent with the other parent having a parenting time schedule. Joint legal and joint physical custody is when both parents have joint legal custody and the child or children reside equally with each parent.

CHILD SUPPORT

Tennessee’s child support guidelines apply in virtually every case, unless special circumstances are present. Both parents’ gross incomes and certain child related expenses are taken into consideration when calculating the child support obligation. In Tennessee, the duty to support continues until the child is emancipated. If the child is 18 and still in high school, the duty to support continues until the child graduates, or the class of which the child is a member when he/she turns 18 graduates, whichever occurs first.