CHAPTER NO. 696

SENATE BILL NO. 2621

By Haynes

Substituted for: House Bill No. 2656

By Hargrove

AN ACT To amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 10, Chapter 7 and Title 18, Chapter 1, relative to the disposition of court records.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE:

SECTION 1. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 18-1-202, is amended by designating the existing language as subsection (a) and by adding the following new subsection:

(b) In civil cases, a judge may order the clerk to destroy discovery materials, briefs, cost bonds, subpoenas and other temporary records three (3) years after the final disposition of the case or three (3) years after records sealed by order of the court have been unsealed. When such order is entered, the court clerk shall notify the parties of the three (3) year disposition schedule for temporary records, and that the parties may remove temporary records filed by the party during the three (3) year period. "Final disposition of a case" for the purpose of this subsection means the time when judgment has been entered and the appeal times have lapsed for all parties. This subsection shall not apply if any party is a minor.

SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon becoming a law, the public welfare requiring it.

PASSED:

March 19, 1998

APPROVED this 1st Day of April 1998