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The Short Answer
Concrete Harm — Already Done, or About to Be
There are two situations that get emergency relief, and both of them are specific.
If the problem is not danger to the child but a decision the other parent is about to make, such as a tattoo, a medical decision, or a school change, the filing is a temporary restraining order instead. It is heard fast and it runs fifteen days.
Harm that has already occurred
A missed medical appointment because the other parent showed up and disrupted it. A scene at the child's school. A specific act that put the child somewhere she should not have been. A court can look at these and see that a child has already lost something. The strongest sentence available in an emergency motion is that the harm is not speculative — it has already happened.
Harm that is about to occur
You do not have to wait for the damage. If you have reason to believe something is about to happen to your child, that is an emergency too. Mom has been drinking all day and is about to put the child in a car. Dad has said he is going to shave the child's head. A parent has announced they are leaving the state with the child tonight.
What both situations share is specificity. It is a particular thing, involving this child, happening now or in the next few hours. What does not qualify is conduct that is dishonest, harassing, or maddening but has not touched the child and is not about to. That is difficult to hear when you are living it, and it is the thing most people calling about an emergency motion have backwards.
The Rule
What the Court Is Actually Looking For
Emergency relief in juvenile court runs under Rule 108 of the Tennessee Rules of Juvenile Practice and Procedure. The rule is narrower than most people expect in one way and far more forgiving in another.
Two grounds, and you only need one
A court may act ex parte when it finds either that a child may abscond or be removed from the court’s jurisdiction, or that there is a danger of immediate harm to a child such that a delay for a hearing would be likely to result in severe or irreparable harm.
Those are the two doors. Everything else, however bad, goes on the regular docket.
The standard is probable cause
Not clear and convincing evidence. Probable cause, the same standard that gets a search warrant signed.
And the court may consider a motion, a petition, a sworn affidavit, sworn testimony, or reliable hearsay.
That last part matters more than anything else in the rule. You do not have to have witnessed the thing yourself. A report from a school, a doctor, or a neighbor can carry an emergency filing.
Who signs it, and how long it lasts
A judge or any magistrate serving the court can enter one. An ex parte restraining order runs 15 days, and it can only go longer if the court extends it after the other side has had a chance to be heard, or if they consent. Every request also has to state whether any court has already refused the same relief.
If the problem is a decision rather than danger
If the other parent is about to do something to the child rather than harm them, that is the same rule aimed at a different target. Temporary restraining orders involving children →
The Distinction That Decides It
Harm to the Child, Not Harm to You
Emergency relief in juvenile court turns on the best interest of the child. Tennessee courts look to the factors at Tenn. Code Ann. § 36-6-106, and to § 36-6-406 on restricting parenting time. Neither statute asks how badly one parent is behaving toward the other. Both ask what is happening to the child.
That reframe matters because it changes what you should be telling an attorney. The story of everything your ex has done over two years is not the motion. What happened Tuesday, to your daughter, in front of witnesses — or what is going to happen to her at five o'clock this afternoon — that is the motion.
If the conduct is aimed at you rather than at the child, you may still have a case. It is probably a contempt petition or a modification rather than an emergency motion, and it runs on a different timeline.
What the Court Can Do
Relief Is Specific to the Conduct
An emergency motion is not a request for the court to fix everything. It asks for particular orders addressing particular behavior, which is part of why specificity matters so much.
Depending on the facts, a court can suspend a parent's parenting time pending further orders. It can prohibit a parent from appearing at the child's medical, dental, or psychological appointments. It can prohibit a parent from appearing at the child's school or contacting school personnel. It can prohibit interrogating the child about the other parent's household. It can prohibit misrepresenting parental authority to third parties like doctors and teachers.
Attorney's fees can be requested as well, on the theory that the filing was made necessary by the other parent's conduct.
Timing
The Court Can Move Immediately. It Will Not Move on Its Own.
Shelby County Juvenile Court can hear a properly presented emergency motion on very short notice. That is the good news, and it is genuinely fast.
What does not happen automatically is anything else. A motion has to be drafted, verified, filed, noticed, and then physically pushed in front of the court by someone who knows how to do that. A motion sitting in a file is not an emergency motion, no matter what it says at the top.
This is the part that separates outcomes. The court's calendar is not the constraint. Whether your attorney treats it as an emergency is.
If there is parenting time scheduled in the next few hours or days that you believe will harm your child, call now. (901) 578-1515. Waiting until tomorrow can cost you the relief.
Before You Call
Have the Specifics in Front of You
Emergency motions are built from dates and documents, not from summaries. What is useful:
The existing order, and which paragraphs of it were violated. Dates of each incident, as precisely as you can give them. Names of any third party who witnessed the conduct — a physician, a teacher, a school administrator. Call logs and text messages. Any record showing an appointment was cancelled or missed.
Also useful: whether the court has warned this parent before. A pattern of escalation after the court has already admonished someone is among the strongest showings available, because it demonstrates that lesser measures have been tried and have failed.
Being Straight With You
What Usually Will Not Get Emergency Relief
Every attorney handling these gets versions of the same calls. Some of them are not emergencies, and it does not help anyone to pretend otherwise.
Late pickups and drop-offs. Disparaging remarks about you to friends or family. A new partner you dislike. Different household rules than yours. Missed phone calls. A parent who is unpleasant, unreliable, or dishonest with you but has not done anything to the child.
None of that is nothing. Some of it may support a contempt petition or a change in the parenting plan. It is simply not the same filing, and packaging it as an emergency tends to cost credibility with the court on the day you actually need it.
The honest version of this conversation happens on the phone in about ten minutes. Call and describe what happened. You will get told which of the two situations you are in.
One that sits on the line: a co-parent who has not returned the child. Whether that is an emergency depends on the risk to the child and on whether an order exists at all. When your ex will not return your child →
Filing It Yourself
The Court Holds You to the Same Standard as a Lawyer
This surprises people, and it is worth knowing before you decide to handle an emergency motion on your own. A party representing himself is held to the same standard as a licensed attorney. You are expected to be familiar with the rules of evidence and the rules of procedure. The court does not apply an easier version of them because you do not have counsel.
The practical consequence is that self-represented parties often harm their own cases. Evidence that would have come in gets excluded because it was not offered properly. A fact that needed to be established never gets established. Material that should never have been put in front of the court goes in and cannot be taken back out.
In an emergency posture that is worse than usual, because there is no time to recover from it. You get one hearing on very short notice, and whatever you did or failed to do at that hearing is what the court acts on.
When There Are Criminal Charges
The Indictment Presumption
If the other parent is under indictment for aggravated child abuse, child sexual abuse, or severe child sexual abuse, the statute does a great deal of the work for you.
Under Tenn. Code Ann. § 36-6-112(c)(2), that parent is presumed to present a substantial risk of harm to the child, and remains a risk for as long as the indictment is pending.
You do not have to prove the risk. The indictment creates it, and the other side has to overcome it.
Under § 36-6-101(a)(2)(A)(v), a court cannot award that parent any form of custody while the indictment is pending unless the presumption is overcome, and the indictment itself constitutes a material change in circumstance for modifying an existing order. Supervised visitation is permitted in that situation. It is not required.
A criminal bond condition is not a visitation order. When a release order says the parent is not to be around minors except for supervised visitation in accordance with juvenile court orders, it is conditioning its own prohibition on whatever the juvenile court allows. It does not create a visitation right.
Common Questions
Emergency Motions — What You Need to Know
What counts as an emergency in Memphis juvenile court?
Concrete harm to the child that has already occurred, or that you have specific reason to believe is about to occur. Already occurred looks like a missed medical appointment or a disruption at the child's school. About to occur looks like a parent who has been drinking all day and is about to drive with the child in the car. What both have in common is that they are specific and immediate. Conduct that is infuriating but has not touched the child and is not about to is usually not an emergency, however unfair it feels.
How fast can an emergency motion be heard in Shelby County Juvenile Court?
Almost immediately. The court can hear a properly presented emergency motion on very short notice. But it does not happen on its own — an attorney has to file it and push it in front of the court. A motion sitting in a file is not an emergency motion.
What can the court order on an emergency basis?
Among other things, the court can suspend a parent's parenting time pending further orders, prohibit a parent from appearing at the child's medical appointments or school, prohibit questioning the child about the other parent's household, and prohibit misrepresenting parental authority to third parties. Relief is tailored to the specific conduct.
My ex is making me miserable. Is that an emergency?
Probably not, and that is a hard thing to hear. Emergency relief turns on harm to the child rather than on how a parent is being treated. Conduct that is harassing, unfair, or infuriating may well justify a contempt petition or a modification, but those are different filings on a different timeline.
What do I need to have ready when I call?
Dates, and anything that documents them. What happened, when it happened, who witnessed it, and what the existing order says. Text messages, call logs, appointment records, and names of third parties who saw the conduct. Emergency relief is built on specifics rather than on a general account of how bad things have gotten.
Do prior warnings from the court matter?
They matter a great deal. A pattern of escalation despite prior admonishment from the court is one of the strongest showings available, because it establishes that lesser measures have already been tried and have not worked.
Can I file an emergency motion myself?
You can, but understand what you are taking on. A party representing himself is held to the same standard as a licensed attorney and is expected to know the rules of evidence and procedure. The court does not grade on a curve. Self-represented parties frequently damage their own cases — by putting inadmissible material in front of the court, by failing to establish what they need to establish, or by not getting the motion heard quickly enough to matter.