Tennessee does not have a single statute called “emotional abuse,” but the emotional abuse laws in Tennessee are built from several overlapping provisions that let you seek an order of protection, press criminal charges under stalking, assault, or harassment statutes, and sue for emotional distress damages in civil court. Which path fits your situation depends on your relationship to the abuser and whether the conduct put you in fear of harm, followed a pattern, or caused serious psychological injury you can document.
Order of Protection: The Fastest Legal Distance
If someone’s threats, intimidation, or harassment have made you fear harm, an order of protection is usually the quickest tool. A judge can bar the abuser from contacting you, approaching your home or workplace, or continuing the behavior that brought you to court.
Tennessee’s order-of-protection code defines “abuse” more broadly than the criminal statutes. It covers placing someone in fear of physical harm or physical restraint, causing malicious property damage, and financial abuse.1Justia. Tennessee Code 36-3-601 – Part Definitions That means conduct that would not support a criminal charge can still support a civil order.
Who Can File and Where
Any victim of domestic abuse, stalking, or sexual assault who has been subjected to, threatened with, or placed in fear of such conduct can petition.2Justia. Tennessee Code 36-3-602 – Petition – Venue File in the county where the abuser lives or where the abuse occurred. If the abuser lives outside Tennessee, file where you live. An unemancipated minor’s petition must be signed by a parent, guardian, or an authorized caseworker from a domestic violence prevention organization.
Emergency Orders and Hearings
When a judge finds immediate risk, an emergency ex parte order can issue the same day without the abuser present. Within fifteen days of service on the abuser, the court holds a hearing. If you prove the abuse by a preponderance of the evidence, the judge can extend the order for up to one year, and either party can request further hearings to continue it in additional one-year increments.3Justia. Tennessee Code 36-3-605 – Ex Parte Protection Order
What Happens If the Abuser Violates It
Violating an order of protection is a Class A misdemeanor carrying a fine of $100 to $2,500, and any jail time runs consecutively to sentences for other offenses from the same facts.4Justia. Tennessee Code 39-13-113 – Violation of an Order of Protection Anyone arrested for a violation must be brought before a magistrate without unnecessary delay, and the contempt hearing must be scheduled within ten working days.5Justia. Tennessee Code 36-3-612 – Contempt Hearing A first violation can push the order up to five years; a second or subsequent violation can extend it to ten, and you do not have to file a new petition.3Justia. Tennessee Code 36-3-605 – Ex Parte Protection Order
Criminal Charges That Fit Emotional Abuse
No Tennessee crime is called “emotional abuse,” but prosecutors use three statutes to reach the behaviors most people mean by that term.
Stalking
Stalking is the criminal law most directly aimed at sustained psychological torment. It covers a willful pattern of repeated or continuing harassment that would cause a reasonable person to feel terrorized, frightened, or threatened, and that actually causes the victim to feel that way.6Justia. Tennessee Code 39-17-315 – Stalking, Aggravated Stalking, and Especially Aggravated Stalking Basic stalking is a Class A misdemeanor carrying up to eleven months and twenty-nine days in jail and a fine up to $2,500.7Justia. Tennessee Code 40-35-111 – Authorized Terms of Imprisonment and Fines It becomes aggravated stalking, a Class E felony carrying one to six years, when the offender has a prior stalking conviction within seven years or knowingly violates a protective order while stalking.
Assault by Fear of Imminent Injury
Tennessee’s assault statute reaches beyond physical contact. Intentionally or knowingly causing another person to reasonably fear imminent bodily injury is assault even when no one is touched.8Justia. Tennessee Code 39-13-101 – Assault When the target is a current or former spouse, someone the abuser lives with or has dated, or a family member by blood or marriage, it becomes domestic assault.9Justia. Tennessee Code 39-13-111 – Domestic Assault Repeated verbal threats in person or by phone can satisfy the “fear of imminent bodily injury” element without any physical act.
Harassment
The harassment statute covers two types of conduct: communicating a threat the sender intends as a threat and a reasonable person would perceive as one, and making repeated communications with no legitimate purpose that are intended to annoy, offend, alarm, or frighten the recipient.10Justia. Tennessee Code 39-17-308 – Harassment Relentless calling, texting, or messaging usually fits the second category.
Suing for Emotional Distress
Criminal cases punish the abuser. A civil suit compensates you for therapy bills, lost income, and the psychological harm itself. Tennessee recognizes two theories, and the standards are strict.
Intentional Infliction (Outrageous Conduct)
To win, you must show the abuser’s behavior was so extreme and outrageous it would not be tolerated in civilized society, the abuser acted intentionally or recklessly, and you suffered serious mental injury. The Tennessee Supreme Court set a high bar in Bain v. Wells, 936 S.W.2d 618 (Tenn. 1997), rejecting ordinary insults, indignities, and petty cruelty. The conduct must be severe enough that an average person hearing the facts would call it outrageous. In practice, successful claims involve prolonged, systematic abuse rather than isolated incidents.
Negligent Infliction
This claim applies when careless rather than intentional conduct causes severe emotional harm. In Camper v. Minor, 915 S.W.2d 437 (Tenn. 1996), the Tennessee Supreme Court applied general negligence elements but added two safeguards: the emotional injury must be serious or severe, meaning a normally constituted reasonable person would be unable to cope with the resulting mental stress, and you must support the injury with expert medical or scientific evidence.11Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts. Camper v Minor Opinion Without that expert testimony, the claim will not survive summary judgment.
What You Can Recover
Damages can include therapy and medical treatment, lost income tied to the abuse, and compensation for the psychological suffering itself. Plan for real costs: county filing fees range from roughly $50 to several hundred dollars, and forensic psychological evaluations and expert witnesses, which are practically essential, can run into the thousands per case.
The Filing Deadline Is Short
Civil claims for emotional distress are personal injury actions and must be filed within one year of the date the cause of action accrued.12Justia. Tennessee Code 28-3-104 – Personal Tort Actions Miss it and the court will almost certainly dismiss the case regardless of how strong the evidence is.
Two things can give you more time. If criminal charges are brought against the person who caused your injury within one year, the civil deadline extends to two years.12Justia. Tennessee Code 28-3-104 – Personal Tort Actions Tennessee courts also apply a discovery rule that starts the clock when you discovered or reasonably should have discovered the injury, which matters in prolonged abuse cases where the psychological damage builds gradually.
Evidence That Actually Works
Emotional abuse is harder to prove than a physical injury, and courts look for patterns rather than single incidents. The stronger your contemporaneous record, the more credible your case.
Written and Digital Records
Save every abusive text, email, voicemail, and social media interaction. Screenshots should capture the sender’s name, date, and time. Save public posts too; they can show intent to humiliate or isolate. Keep a journal with dates, what happened, and any witnesses present. Courts give significant weight to records created near the time of the events.
Recordings
Tennessee is a one-party consent state. You can legally record a conversation you are part of without telling the other person, as long as you are not recording for the purpose of committing a crime or tort.13Justia. Tennessee Code 39-13-601 – Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance You cannot record a conversation between two other people that you are not part of.
Expert and Witness Testimony
Given the Camper requirement, a mental health professional’s evaluation is close to mandatory in a civil emotional distress case.11Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts. Camper v Minor Opinion Testimony from family, coworkers, or friends who saw the abuse or its effects also strengthens protective order petitions and criminal cases. In criminal matters, law enforcement can subpoena phone and internet records to corroborate your account.
Where to Report
Where you report depends on who was abused and in what setting.
- Children. Call the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services Child Abuse Hotline at 1-877-237-0004, or file online. Reports can also go to the local sheriff, police chief, or juvenile court judge. The child welfare statute defines abuse to include a mental condition caused by brutality, neglect, extreme or repeated cruelty, or other harmful actions by a parent, guardian, or caregiver. Tennessee law requires any person with knowledge of suspected child abuse to report it immediately; the duty is not limited to professionals.14Tennessee Department of Children’s Services. Report Child Abuse15Justia. Tennessee Code 37-1-102 – Chapter and Part Definitions16Justia. Tennessee Code 37-1-403 – Reporting of Brutality, Abuse, or Neglect
- Elderly or vulnerable adults. Contact Adult Protective Services through the Tennessee Department of Human Services. The adult protective services code defines abuse to include a caretaker inflicting mental anguish on an adult, depriving them of necessary services, or creating a situation where the adult cannot obtain those services themselves.17Justia. Tennessee Code 71-6-102 – Part Definitions
- Domestic abuse. Call local law enforcement or go to the courthouse to file for an order of protection. The National Domestic Violence Hotline (1-800-799-7233) offers 24/7 confidential support, live chat, and referrals. You can also text START to 88788.
Workplace and Interstate Limits
Two boundaries are worth knowing. First, Tennessee has not enacted a general workplace bullying law. Emotional mistreatment at work gives you a legal claim only when it is tied to a protected characteristic such as race, sex, age, religion, color, creed, or national origin under the Tennessee Human Rights Act, and when the conduct is severe or pervasive enough to create a hostile work environment.18Justia. Tennessee Code 4-21-101 – Purpose and Intent Garden-variety bullying with no discriminatory link falls outside that reach.
Second, when abuse crosses state lines or runs through interstate communications, federal law adds reach. The federal stalking statute makes it a felony to use the mail, internet, or any other interstate communication tool in a course of conduct that places someone in reasonable fear of death or serious bodily injury, or that causes or would reasonably be expected to cause substantial emotional distress, with up to five years in federal prison.19Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 2261A – Stalking A Tennessee order of protection also travels: if you move or your abuser crosses state lines, the federal Violence Against Women Act requires every state, tribe, and territory to enforce the order as if issued locally, though registering it in the new jurisdiction can speed enforcement.