TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Stacey Shrader Joslin on Feb 21, 2024

Two bills proposed by the TBA passed in legislative committees this week. Today, the House Civil Justice Committee passed a bill drafted by the Tennessee Probate Study Group and sponsored by Rep. Johnny Garrett, R-Goodlettsville, in the House and Sen. John Stevens, R- Huntingdon, in the Senate. HB2710/SB2254 allows a medical or psychological report, required by the court to appoint a conservator, to be either notarized or declared under penalty of perjury as set forth in Rule 72 of the Tennessee Rules of Civil Procedure. The reasoning behind the bill is that doctors’ offices do not always have access to a notary public. This bill would make the process of setting up a conservatorship faster and less expensive.

On Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee passed a bill drafted by TBA adoption law attorneys and sponsored by Sen. Ferrell Hail, R- Gallatin, in the Senate and Rep. Tom Leatherwood, R-Arlington, in the House. HB2644/SB2633 was amended by the TBA and those changes passed as the new bill. The TBA Adoption Law Section’s Executive Council drafted HB2644/SB2633 to ensure that changes made to the adoption code last session work better in practice and to clean up sections of the code addressing putative fathers and child witnesses. These changes will result in expediting adoptions, saving court resources, creating uniformity across the state in courts that hear adoption cases and avoiding delays in permanency.