If the Court’s independent judgment is not clearly evident, the custody determination will be reversed.

Tennessee case summary on the independent judgement of courts in divorce.

A custody ruling must be the court’s independent judgment.

Lisa Sykes v. Paul Cox

The father in this Tennessee case filed a petition for custody in Sullivan County, but when the mother challenged venue, the case was moved to Montgomery County. The father was granted custody by the trial court judge Wayne C. Shelton. The mother appealed the decision to the Tennessee Court of Appeals. The appeals court deemed one of these issues to be of particular concern. It was the fact that the final order did not reflect the independent judgement of the court. The court cited the 2014 Tennessee Supreme Court decision in which an order prepared by the lawyer of a party was essentially a restatement their earlier arguments. In particular, the court had not given the attorney the court’s grounds for the decision.

Likewise, in this case, the appeals court stated that it was unable to discern whether the lower court had made its own independent findings. The trial court had signed the attorney’s order without any modifications. The trial court had also asked the attorney to “mimic and state” as closely as possible the relevant Tennessee statute.

Under these circumstances,

the appeals court ruled that there was serious doubt as to whether the the lower court had exercised independent judgement. The case was further complicated by the fact that Judge Shelton had retired. The Court of Appeals remanded this case to the trial court for a fresh trial. M2022-00970-COA-R3-JV (Tenn. Ct. App. See original opinion for exact wording. Legal citations have been omitted.To find out more, visit The Tennessee Divorce Process – How Divorces Work From Start to Finish.

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