How to Fill Out and File the Tennessee Petition to Establish Paternity

A Tennessee petition to establish paternity is a court filing that asks a judge to legally recognize a man as a child’s father when the parents were not married. You file it in juvenile court (or, in some counties, circuit or chancery court) in the county where the mother, the father, or the child lives, and the statewide base court cost is $100 before service fees.¹ Once the judge signs an Order of Parentage, the same order can set child support, custody, and visitation, and direct the state to add the father’s name to the birth certificate.

Who Can File

Tennessee law limits standing to four groups: the child’s mother, a man claiming to be the father, the child (through a guardian or next friend if a minor), and the Tennessee Department of Human Services or its contractor.² If the mother or the alleged father is a minor, a parent or guardian can file on that person’s behalf. DHS commonly files when the child is receiving public assistance.

You do not have to prove biology before you can file. A man who is presumed to be the father, including one married to the mother during the relevant window around the child’s birth, files under the same “man claiming to be the father” category.³

Where to Get the Petition Form

Tennessee has no single statewide parentage form. Each juvenile court clerk provides its own version, and the layouts vary slightly, though the core information is the same. Pick up a blank petition at the juvenile court clerk’s office in your county. Some counties post their forms online: Davidson County (Nashville) and Rutherford County (Murfreesboro) both offer downloadable PDFs on their clerk websites.⁴

While you are at the clerk’s office, ask for the summons and any statistical data sheet (sometimes labeled “Exhibit A”) the county requires. All of it gets filed together.⁵

What the Petition Asks For

The form asks for identifying information about three people. Gather this before you start:

For the mother and the alleged father: full legal name, current residential address, date of birth, and Social Security number. A missing date of birth or SSN for the other party will not block filing, but you need a valid address, because the court cannot proceed without proper service.⁵
For the child: full name, date of birth, Social Security number if available, and the county and state of birth.

The body of the petition states that the mother and alleged father were never married to each other, that intercourse occurred during the period of conception, and that the child was conceived as a result.⁴ You also identify the county with jurisdiction, which can be where the father, the mother, or the child lives.⁶

Ask for All the Relief You Want Now

Most county forms include a section for the specific relief you are requesting. Beyond a declaration of parentage, you can ask the court for child support, custody, visitation, health insurance coverage for the child, reimbursement of pregnancy and delivery expenses, and attorney fees.⁷ Request everything up front. Adding claims later means filing an amended petition.

If you already have documents that show the child’s current legal status, attach copies. A birth certificate or a previously signed Voluntary Acknowledgment of Paternity helps the court see the starting point.

Where and How to File

Tennessee gives jurisdiction over parentage cases to juvenile court and to any trial court of general jurisdiction, which in practice means circuit or chancery court.⁶ Most petitioners use juvenile court, where the clerk’s staff handles these cases routinely and often has resources for people filing without a lawyer.

Take the completed petition, summons, and any required data sheets to the clerk and pay the filing fee. The statewide base is $100 for parentage proceedings in juvenile court.¹ Local surcharges typically bring the total to roughly $107 to $130 before service.⁸ In-state service by the sheriff usually adds about $42, so budget around $150 to $175 total in most counties.⁹

If you cannot afford the filing fee, ask the clerk about filing as indigent. Davidson County, for example, charges only $25.75 in taxes for indigent petitions, plus the service fee.

Serving the Other Parent

After the clerk accepts your petition and issues a summons, both papers have to be formally delivered to the respondent. You cannot hand them over yourself. A sheriff’s deputy or a licensed private process server does the delivery; private servers generally charge $20 to $100 depending on the situation.

The summons must be served within 90 days of the date it is issued.¹⁰ If the respondent cannot be located despite genuine effort, you can ask the court for service by publication, which requires printing notice in a newspaper for four consecutive weeks.¹¹ Judges treat publication as a last resort and expect proof you tried to find the other parent first.

Once served, the respondent has 30 days to file a written answer with the clerk.¹² If no answer comes in, you can ask the court for a default judgment.

What Happens After You File

If Both Parents Agree

The court usually sets an initial hearing after service. When both parents agree the man is the father, the hearing can be quick, and the case can wrap in a single appearance. Tennessee law allows the court to enter an order of parentage based on the parents’ agreement, though the judge can still order genetic testing on the court’s own motion.²

If Paternity Is Disputed

When the alleged father denies paternity, the judge orders DNA testing under Tennessee Code § 24-7-112.¹³ Testing must be done by an accredited lab using methods recognized by the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services.¹⁴ Legal-grade tests typically run $350 to $500.

A statistical probability of 95 percent or higher creates a rebuttable presumption that the man is the father.³ The party who requests testing pays up front, and the judge decides at the end of the case who bears the final cost. When DHS requests testing, the agency covers the initial cost and recovers it from the parent the court establishes.¹⁴

What the Order of Parentage Covers

Once the court has enough evidence, whether from an agreement, a default, or DNA results, the judge issues an Order of Parentage. Tennessee law requires that one order address several issues at once:⁷

The child’s name as it will appear on the birth certificate.
Legal and physical custody, decided under the same standards used in divorce cases.
A parenting-time schedule for the non-custodial parent.
Child support, calculated under Tennessee’s Income Shares Model based on both parents’ adjusted gross incomes.
Whether either parent can provide health insurance for the child.
Responsibility for the mother’s reasonable pregnancy, delivery, and recovery expenses.
Responsibility for attorney fees.

The order also records identifying details for enforcement purposes, including addresses, employers, driver license numbers, and Social Security numbers, to the extent known.⁷

Updating the Birth Certificate

The court order by itself does not change the birth certificate. Send a certified copy of the Order of Parentage along with a completed Notification of Order of Parentage form to the Tennessee Office of Vital Records.¹⁵ Vital records staff use the Notification form to locate the original record.

Once processed, the state adds the father’s name and information and updates the child’s surname if the order directs a change. If another man was previously listed as the father, the court order has to specifically address removing that name before vital records can correct the certificate.¹⁶

When You May Not Need a Petition

If both parents agree on who the father is and neither has doubts, they can sign a Voluntary Acknowledgment of Paternity at the hospital when the child is born, or later at a local health department or DHS office. Both parents sign before a notary, and the signed form carries the same legal effect as a court order of parentage.¹⁷ Either parent can rescind within 60 days by written notice to the Office of Vital Records.¹⁶

The voluntary route settles parentage only. It does not set custody, visitation, or child support, so if you need those decided, you will still end up in court, just without the paternity fight. If there is any doubt about biology or the other parent will not cooperate, the petition described above is the path.

When the Other Parent Lives Out of State

You may still be able to file in Tennessee if the alleged father lives elsewhere. Tennessee has adopted the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act, which lets a Tennessee court reach a non-resident parent with a meaningful connection to the state, such as living here during the period of conception or having submitted to state jurisdiction in a prior case.⁶ If that connection is not there, DHS can coordinate a two-state case with the child support agency in the other parent’s state.

1
Justia. Tennessee Code 8-21-401 – Schedule of Fees
2
Justia. Tennessee Code 36-2-305 – Agreement to Establish Parentage – Complaint to Establish Parentage – Parties – When Action May Be Brought – Order of Protection
3
Justia. Tennessee Code 36-2-304 – Presumption of Parentage
4
Juvenile Court Clerk of Davidson County, Tennessee. Petition to Establish Parentage
5
Rutherford County Juvenile Court. Petition to Establish Parentage Tennessee Form
6
Justia. Tennessee Code 36-2-307 – Jurisdiction – Venue
7
Justia. Tennessee Code 36-2-311 – Order of Parentage
8
Rutherford County Juvenile Court Clerk. Fees
9
Metro Nashville Juvenile Court Clerk’s Office. Court Fees and Service Costs
10
University of Tennessee County Technical Assistance Service. How a Dispute Becomes a Lawsuit: The Complaint and Summons
11
Justia. Tennessee Code 21-1-204 – Service by Publication
12
Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts. Tennessee Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 12.01 – When Presented
13
Justia. Tennessee Code 36-2-309 – Tests to Determine Parentage
14
FindLaw. Tennessee Code Title 24 Evidence and Witnesses 24-7-112
15
Tennessee General Assembly. Tennessee Public Chapter 945
16
Cornell Law Institute. Tennessee Code 1200-07-01-.10 – Amendment of Vital Records
17
Tennessee Department of Human Services. Establishing Paternity