Dad Gets Parenting Time, Mom Not Allowed to Introduce Photos

Tennessee child support case summary in divorce and family law.

Dad entitled to more parenting time, Facebook photos not admitted into evidence.

Carrie M. Thompson v. Stephen Matthew Thompson

The child in this Rutherford County, Tennessee, case was born in 2013, and under the original parenting plan, the mother was named primary residential parent with 233 days per year of parenting time.  The father was granted 132 days.  Both parties returned to court asking for a modification, and the evidence showed that both parents had poor skills when it came to communicating with one another.  For example, the mother complained that the father failed to reimburse her for expenses such as medical, but she never supplied the father with receipts for those expenses.

The court found that a number of factors favored the father, and that the mother was somewhat lacking in credibility.  It did find that the child had a strong bond with both parents.  The court did grant father more parenting time, and allowed him more flexibility, such as being allowed to bring the child to his job sites.  The mother than appealed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals.

The mother argued that the lower court erred in excluding Facebook photos showing the son participating in flag football, which she had forbidden.  The lower court had excluded these due to lack of authentication.

The appeals court agreed with the lower court.  The mother had no personal knowledge to authenticate the photos, nor any evidence to show that they were taken after the parenting plan went into effect.  Therefore, it agreed with the lower court that it was proper to exclude these photos.

The appeals court then looked into the merits of the case, and found that the evidence did not preponderate against the lower court’s findings.  The appeals court noted that the crafting of a parenting plan is a particularly fact-intensive process.  Particularly in light of the lower court’s credibility determinations, it found that the parenting plan was supported by the evidence and the relevant statutory factors.

Finally, the appeals court found that since the father had prevailed on all issues in the case, he was entitled to his attorney’s fees on appeal.  Therefore, the Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court, but remanded the case for determination of those fees.

No. M2023-00572-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. Nov. 26, 2024).

See original opinion for exact language.  Legal citations omitted.

To learn more, see Child Custody Laws in Tennessee and our video, How is child custody determined in Tennessee?

See also Tennessee Parenting Plans and Child Support Worksheets: Building a Constructive Future for Your Family featuring examples of parenting plans and child support worksheets from real cases available on Amazon.com.