Discovery in Tennessee Divorce? I’ve Discovered Plenty Already!

Some recent personal discoveries about your soon-to-be former spouse may be driving you crazy, but that’s not the type of discovery we’re talking about with a Tennessee divorce.

With every divorce complaint filed in Collierville, Germantown, and Memphis, TN, there is a formal legal process known as “discovery.” During discovery, your Memphis divorce attorney will request that your spouse provide information, bring documents and things, and allow certain actions to be taken such as an inspection of property. Discovery is reciprocal, so your spouse will make similar requests of you. All such requests must be relevant to some aspect of the case.

Discovery Involves Sharing Information – Please, No Surprises

Divorce Discovery Process in Tennessee

When spouses divorce, both will be required to make many disclosures and to exchange information about their finances, assets, debts, employment status, educational level, and much more. The purpose of discovery is to eliminate the element of surprise at trial by carrying out a thorough fact-finding mission.No spouse should gain an upper hand in the dissolution simply because he or she “holds all the cards” to specific information, with no intention of surrendering the details. Similarly, a party should not suffer the consequences of being unaware of the extent of their marital assets, for example, when that spouse did not manage the household finances.

Discovery, then, is very much about putting both parties on an even playing field, so no team has an unfair advantage. Once discovery is completed, both spouses can enter into divorce negotiations on equal footing with shared knowledge of the extent and value of all their assets, debts, legal obligations, incomes, retirement accounts, pensions, tax liabilities, business interests, and the like.

What Does a Discovery Request Look Like?

Tennessee has many discovery tools available to the parties. All of these tools are used to produce information pertinent to the divorce, including:

1. Interrogatories.

These are written questions answered by the spouse while under oath (and under threat of perjury for any deliberate falsehoods). Each party will be asked to answer specific questions after swearing to tell the whole and complete truth. A spouse’s answer to an interrogatory may be used as an admission in court.

2. Depositions.

These are questions answered by a party or non-party witness under oath. When the spouse is deposed in person, the deposing attorney has an opportunity to observe demeanor and ask follow-up questions based upon the answers given.

3. Requests for Production of Documents.

A spouse may be asked to produce copies of relevant documents, such as employment pay stubs or rent receipts in an effort to determine income. But requests for production are not limited to documents alone. The party may be asked to produce any tangible thing that he or she has possession of or control over, such as a family bible or valuable coin collection.

4. Requests for Admissions.

This requests that a spouse admit to certain things as being true, so that the matter need not be litigated at trial. One party makes an assertion and the other party is asked to admit, deny, or otherwise object to it (no response at all is deemed to be an admission). A spouse may be asked to admit to a 25% ownership interest in a business enterprise, for example, narrowing the issue to the valuation of that interest as a marital asset.

5. Subpoenas.

By court authority, the subpoena orders the person to provide the testimony, produce the item, permit the inspection, allow the testing, and do what is asked to be done under the discovery request. If a party fails to comply with a proper request made by the other spouse, then the court may sanction that party for noncompliance with the subpoena.

Discovery takes place in every Tennessee divorce. Generally, the more extensive the spouses’ assets and business interests are, the more indepth and expensive the discovery process is likely to be. To learn more about the role discovery will play in your case, visit:

Tennessee Divorce Process: How Divorces Work (Start to Finish)

What Every Divorcing Spouse Needs to Know

Memphis divorce attorney Miles Mason, Sr., practices family law exclusively and is the founding attorney of the Miles Mason Family Law Group, PLC. Discover The Tennessee Divorce Client’s Handbook: What Every Divorcing Spouse Needs to Know, now available on Amazon and Kindle. To schedule your confidential consultation, call us today at (901) 683-1850.