Tennessee Divorce Attorney Blog

The Tennessee Court of Appeals has further emphasized the need for parties to bring forth evidence to support their claims when petitioning to modify a party's parenting rights following a divorce in Tennessee. In Hamilton v. Hamilton, No. M2010-02320-COA-R3-CV, the appellate court denied Mr. Hamilton's request to reverse the trial court's decision not to modify his parenting plan and telephone rights.

Mr. and Ms. Hamilton were married in 1996 and had one child before they divorced in 1999. When the divorce decree was entered, the court named Ms. Hamilton the primary residential parent. Yet Mr. Hamilton did not give up without a fight. The years between 2000 and 2010 were filled with legal disputes regarding modifications to the parenting plan and Mr. Hamilton's child support obligations. When the trial court in 2010 denied Mr. Hamilton's petition to restore his telephone privileges and modify custody, Mr. Hamilton finally appealed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals.

Upon appeal, Mr. Hamilton argued that his basic and fundamental parental rights were denied by the trial judge and requested that his case should be moved to another county. However, he failed to offer any facts to support his allegations. Mr. Hamilton failed to provide a transcript of the proceedings in the court below. The Appeals Court did note that the Husband could have included a Statement of the Evidence pursuant to Tennessee Rules of Appellate Procedure 24(c), which is a narrative record of what transpired in the lower courts when no transcript is provided. The documents that Mr. Hamilton filed were not proper under this rule and only included parts of the case. Since here no proper evidence was presented regarding the trial court's decision, the Tennessee Court of Appeals must presume that the trial court's judgment was correct. The Court of Appeals therefore denied Mr. Hamilton's appeal and affirmed the trial court's judgment.

This case highlights the decision many clients make to not have a court reporter present at their proceedings. Without a court reporter, the record that the Court of Appeals is bound to review may have gaps in evidence presented, objections made, testimony given and exhibits that were produced on the trial court level. Without such a record, the Appellate Court can only review the pleadings filed in the case - motions, orders, etc., and have no method of obtaining the actual substance of what occurred during evidence presentation. This is an issue that all clients and attorneys should discuss prior to attending any hearing or trial regarding child custody or divorce matters in Tennessee.