There have been several recent changes and newly enacted laws related to family law matters in Tennessee. Here is a brief run-down of some of the changes:
Parental Relocation: Instead of using two different approaches when evaluating a parent’s objection to the other’s relocation, one when the parties exercised substantially equal parenting time and another for when the parties didn’t, the courts will now use one approach: Has the party wishing to move proved that it is in the child(ren)’s best interest to relocate with the moving parent?
Attorney’s Fees: A prevailing party’s ability to recover reasonable attorney’s fees from the other party has been expanded to include criminal contempt actions or other proceedings to enforce, alter, change, or modify an order for alimony, child support, or custody at the court’s discretion.
Termination of Parental Rights: The ground of abandonment for failure to visit or support the child(ren) no longer requires the petitioner to prove by clear-and-convincing evidence that the parents’ failure was willful. Instead the parents must prove by a preponderance as an affirmative defense that their failure to visit or support was not willful.