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Terms Used In Tennessee Code 36-1-149

  • Adoption: means the social and legal process of establishing by court order, other than by paternity or legitimation proceedings or by voluntary acknowledgment of paternity, the legal relationship of parent and child. See Tennessee Code 36-1-102
  • Adoption record: means :
    (A)
    (i) The records, reports, or other documents maintained in any medium by the judge or clerk of the court, or by any other person pursuant to this part who is authorized to witness the execution of surrenders or revocations of surrenders, which records, reports, or documents relate to an adoption petition, a surrender or parental consent, a revocation of a surrender or parental consent, or which reasonably relate to other information concerning the adoption of a person, and which information in such records, reports, or documents exists during the pendency of an adoption or a termination of parental rights proceeding, or which records, reports, or documents exist subsequent to the conclusion of those proceedings, even if no order of adoption or order of dismissal is entered, but which records, reports or documents exist prior to those records, reports, or documents becoming a part of a sealed record or a sealed adoption record pursuant to §. See Tennessee Code 36-1-102
  • Record: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in a perceivable form. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105

Notwithstanding §§ 36-1-102, 36-1-125, 36-1-126, 36-1-127, 68-3-313, or another law to the contrary, all adoption records, sealed adoption records, and unsealed adoption records deemed to be confidential pursuant to this part will be a public record and open to inspection when one hundred (100) years have elapsed since the date the adoption was finalized. If an adoption was not finalized, or the date the adoption was finalized is not clearly indicated in the adoption record, then the adoption record will be a public record and open to inspection when one hundred (100) years have elapsed since the creation of the oldest dated item in the adoption record.