Two different appeals, two different rules, and one of them requires a court reporter.
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Read This First
Something worth understanding before you walk into one of these hearings.
Judges have been told that a significant share of denied orders of protection are followed by an act of violence. We have heard a Shelby County judge say from the bench that this was presented to judges at a judicial conference, with a figure somewhere around forty percent.
There is no mechanism that follows a denied petition and records what happened to that person afterward. Not in Shelby County, and as far as we can tell not anywhere else. A petition gets denied and the file closes. Whatever happens next is not connected back to it by anyone.
A judge who grants an order that was not needed has inconvenienced somebody. A judge who denies one and reads about it in the paper six weeks later has a different kind of problem entirely.
That is not corruption. It is risk aversion, and from where they sit it is rational. But it is worth knowing that it is in the room.
It means these hearings are not decided purely on the strength of the evidence, and anyone walking in believing the proof will carry the day is not prepared. We have lost hearings where the evidence was overwhelmingly on our side.
Start Here
People say “appeal the order of protection” as though it is one thing. It is two, and which one you are in changes everything about what is possible.
The First One
General Sessions courts hold concurrent jurisdiction to issue orders of protection under Tenn. Code Ann. § 36-3-601(3). Because of that, an appeal from a General Sessions order of protection goes to the circuit or chancery court of the county rather than to the Court of Appeals.
Tenn. Code Ann. § 27-5-108(c) says any appeal shall be heard de novo in the circuit court. A de novo trial is an entirely new trial on the entire case, conducted as if there had been no trial in the first instance.
The notice of appeal is due within ten days of the judgment. That period is uniform in every county in Tennessee regardless of any local rule, and it is not extendable. An appeal bond is required to perfect the appeal.
The ten days come from Tenn. Code Ann. § 36-3-601(3)(F), which says an appeal from a final ruling on an order of protection by a general sessions court shall be to the circuit or chancery court of the county, shall be filed within ten days, and shall be heard de novo.
In New v. Dumitrache, 604 S.W.3d 1 (Tenn. 2020), a Memphis case, the respondent did not file within ten days. He filed forty-two days later, styled as an appeal in the nature of a writ of error.
That ten-day period applies in every county in Tennessee regardless of any private act to the contrary.
A General Sessions order of protection stays in effect while the appeal is pending. Filing an appeal does not suspend it, and violating it in the meantime is still a violation with the same consequences.
Because the appeal is de novo, the General Sessions transcript is not the record on appeal. There is no record on appeal. The circuit court hears the case fresh.
That does not make a transcript worthless. It makes it a different tool.
Witnesses testify twice in these cases, months apart, and stories move. A petitioner who described one thing in General Sessions and describes something else in circuit court has a problem, but only if somebody wrote down the first version.
It also tells you what is coming. You get the other side’s entire case, under oath, before you try it the second time. That is worth more than most discovery.
The Second One
If the order of protection was entered in circuit or chancery court, the appeal is to the Tennessee Court of Appeals as an appeal of right under Rule 3 of the Tennessee Rules of Appellate Procedure. The notice of appeal is due within 30 days of the final order.
This is where people are caught off guard. The Court of Appeals does not hear witnesses. It does not take new proof. It reads what happened in the trial court and decides whether the trial court got it right.
Every argument you make has to point at something in that record. If the record does not contain it, for the purposes of the appeal it did not happen.
The Part That Decides It
Circuit and chancery courts do not provide a court reporter. If you want one, you hire one, and you decide that before the hearing rather than after you lose.
Without a reporter there is no transcript. Without a transcript there is generally no record of what any witness actually said, which means there is nothing for the Court of Appeals to review.
Read that last part again. Not a presumption you can argue against. A conclusive one.
A court reporter is hired separately and billed separately. It is not part of the attorney fee, and it is money on top of what you are already spending. Saying otherwise would be dishonest.
This is the part nobody mentions. A judge who knows the proceeding is being transcribed runs it differently. Findings get stated on the record. Elements get walked through out loud. Boxes that might otherwise be assumed get checked.
Nobody on the bench enjoys being reversed, and the prospect of a written appellate opinion with their name on it focuses the mind.
An order of protection follows a respondent onto background checks, affects firearms and carry permits, and turns up in custody cases for years. Against that, a reporter is the cheapest insurance in the case.
If money is genuinely tight there are places to economize in a case. This is not one of them. If money is not the issue, hire the reporter every time.
If It Is Already Too Late
If the hearing already happened and nobody recorded it, there is one route left, and it is worth knowing about before you give up.
Rule 24(c) of the Tennessee Rules of Appellate Procedure allows a statement of the evidence when no transcript is available. It is prepared from the best available means, including the appellant’s own recollection, and it has to convey a fair and accurate account of what happened on the issues being appealed.
The statement is filed with the trial court clerk. The other side gets an opportunity to object. The trial judge then approves it, and if the judge does not act within the time allowed, it is deemed approved and the appellate court treats it as the record.
A transcript or a statement of the evidence is due within 60 days after the notice of appeal is filed, unless the court extends that. Missing it can get the appeal dismissed on the appellate court’s own motion.
What It Costs
We publish fees on most of this site. Not here, because an appeal is not one thing and quoting a number would be misleading.
From General Sessions, the appeal is another hearing. The work resembles the work of trying the case the first time, and it is priced accordingly.
From circuit or chancery to the Court of Appeals, there is a record to obtain, a transcript or statement of the evidence to prepare and get approved, a brief to write, and rules of appellate procedure that control every deadline. It costs more because it is more.
Jurisdiction matters. A hearing in Shelby County and a hearing two counties out are not the same day of work, and the fee reflects that.
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Your Attorney
William Young · Of Counsel
Attorney William Young handles orders of protection on both sides and appeals from them, along with dependency and neglect appeals in juvenile court. He tried Class A and Class B felonies to juries at the Shelby County Criminal Court before moving into family practice, and he knows the rules of evidence cold, which is what builds a record worth appealing.
Common Questions
Tenn. Code Ann. section 36-3-601(3)(F). It says the appeal goes to the circuit or chancery court of the county, shall be filed within ten days, and shall be heard de novo.
You lose the appeal entirely. In New v. Dumitrache, 604 S.W.3d 1 (Tenn. 2020), the Tennessee Supreme Court held that the ten-day period conditions the reviewing court's subject matter jurisdiction, that a late filing cannot be heard at all, and that the old common law writ of error has been abolished and cannot be used to get around it. The late filer was also ordered to pay the other side's attorney fees.
Harder than the evidence alone would suggest. Judges have been told that a significant share of denied petitions are followed by an act of violence, a figure we have heard quoted from the bench at around forty percent. There is no mechanism that tracks denied petitions and records what happened afterward, so the number cannot be verified, but it shapes decisions regardless. The consequences of wrongly granting and wrongly denying are not symmetrical, and every judge knows it.
Yes, and there is an appeal of right from every order of protection. Where it goes and how it is heard depends entirely on which court entered the order.
To the circuit or chancery court of the same county, not to the Court of Appeals. General Sessions holds concurrent jurisdiction to issue orders of protection under Tenn. Code Ann. section 36-3-601(3), and appeals from it run through the ordinary General Sessions appeal statute.
Yes. Tenn. Code Ann. section 27-5-108(c) says any appeal shall be heard de novo in the circuit court. That means an entirely new trial, conducted as though the first hearing never happened. You do not have to show the General Sessions judge made a mistake.
Ten days from the judgment. That period is uniform across every county in Tennessee and it is not extendable. An appeal bond is also required to perfect it.
Yes. A General Sessions order of protection remains in effect while the de novo appeal is pending in circuit court. Filing the appeal does not suspend the order, and violating it during the appeal is still a violation.
The circuit court must affirm the General Sessions judgment. Dismissing your own appeal does not undo the order below, it locks it in.
To the Tennessee Court of Appeals, as an appeal of right under Rule 3 of the Tennessee Rules of Appellate Procedure. The notice of appeal is due within 30 days of the final order.
No, and this is the difference that decides these cases. The Court of Appeals reviews the record made in the trial court. There are no new witnesses, no new proof, and no second chance to put on the case you wish you had put on.
For a different reason than in circuit court. The appeal from General Sessions is a new trial, so the transcript is not the record on appeal. It is impeachment material. Witnesses testify twice, months apart, and a transcript is what lets your attorney read the earlier answer out loud when the story changes.
In circuit or chancery court, yes. The appellate court reviews a record, and without a court reporter there is usually no transcript and therefore no record of what any witness actually said. Hiring one costs a fraction of what losing the appeal costs.
Yes. A court reporter is hired and billed separately from the attorney fee. It is additional money. What it buys is a record for any appeal, impeachment material if the case is retried, and a hearing conducted more carefully, because judges who know a proceeding is being transcribed tend to state their findings on the record rather than assume them.
Rule 24(c) of the Tennessee Rules of Appellate Procedure allows a statement of the evidence prepared from the best available means, including the appellant's own recollection. It is filed with the trial court clerk, the other side can object, and the trial judge approves it. If the judge does not act within the time allowed it is deemed approved.
No. The Court of Appeals has said that where the issues on appeal turn on factual determinations, the absence of a transcript or statement of the evidence is essentially fatal, and that without a record of the evidence there is a conclusive presumption that the evidence supported the trial court's findings. A reconstructed statement is a rescue, not a substitute.
Sixty days after the notice of appeal is filed, unless the court extends it. Missing that deadline can get the appeal dismissed on the appellate court's own motion.
There is no flat fee. A de novo appeal from General Sessions is another hearing and is priced like one. An appeal on the record to the Court of Appeals involves obtaining a record, preparing a transcript or statement of the evidence, and briefing, so it costs considerably more. Jurisdiction affects it as well.
It depends on which appeal you are taking. A de novo appeal from General Sessions is a genuine second chance in front of a different judge. An appeal from circuit or chancery is an argument that the trial court got the law or the record wrong, and it fails without a record.
Free consultation. Call before the hearing if you can, because the hearing is what the appeal is built from.