BREAKING COURT NEWS
The Supreme Court of Tennessee has put down an Order Suspending In-Person Court Proceedings. This Order is in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and it suspends all in-person proceedings in all state and local courts in Tennessee, with several notable exceptions for certain criminal, domestic violence, child custody, and other emergency proceedings. Please take care to review the order in detail for these exceptions. The Order includes an extension of certain deadlines, statutes of limitations, and statutes of repose, stating:
Deadlines set forth in court rules, statutes, ordinances, administrative rules, or
otherwise that are set to expire between March 13 and March 31, 2020 are hereby extended through April 6, 2020. Statutes of limitations and statutes of repose that would otherwise expire during the period between March 13 and April 6, 2020 are hereby extended throug April 6, 2020. See Tenn. Code Ann. § 28-1-116 (2017). Deadlines, statutes of limitations, and statutes of repose that are not set to expire between March 13 and April 6, 2020 are not extended or tolled by this order.Court Clerks are charged with ensuring that court functions continue. It does not prohibit court proceedings by telephone, video, teleconferencing, email, or other means that do not involve in-person contact.
The Order also extends Orders of Protection and Temporary Injunctions set to expire between March 13 and March 31, until April 6, 2020.
Under the Order, the courts of Tennessee remain open.
