Responding to a Petition to Terminate Parental Rights
If you or one of your clients have been served with a petition to terminate parental rights, you should be aware of the statutory requirements for responding to this type of petition in T.C.A. § 36-1-117. Generally, almost all filed pleadings are signed by an attorney instead of the represented party themselves. However, T.C.A. § 36-1-117(o) requires that the response or answer to a petition to terminate parental rights shall be signed by the respondent personally, sworn to and verified, and filed with the clerk of court. So T.C.A. § 36-1-117(o) requires that the respondent personally sign and swear to their answer or response to a petition to terminate parental rights. If a responding party is represented, the party themselves will still need to sign the response or answer in addition to their attorney, or they could be subject to a default judgment.
The Court of Appeals of Tennessee has upheld that a default judgment in a termination of parental rights case can be granted for a failure to comply with T.C.A. § 37-1-117(o). In In re Connor, the respondent filed her answer to the petition to terminate parental rights. 603 S.W.3d 773, 777 (Ct. App. Tenn. 2020). However, the respondent did not personally sign her answer, and only her attorney personally signed the answer. Id. The Court of Appeals upheld the trial court’s grant of a default judgment for the respondent’s failure to personally sign her answer to the petition to terminate parental rights under T.C.A. § 36-1-117(o). Id at 784.
This pleading requirement could be easily overlooked by self-represented parties or by attorneys who are not aware of the special pleading requirements in T.C.A. § 36-1-117(o). You should always check for special statutory pleading requirements or other procedures when involved in a termination of parental rights case, a dependency and neglect case, or another matter that concerns the custody of children and parent’s rights. There could be small, but very important details in the applicable custody laws that could derail your case if you are unaware of special requirements in the laws you are operating under.
