Tennessee Request

Last Updated: March 2025

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Sample Annotated Request

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Brief Description of this Request

Our partners at the University of Tennessee College of Law shared this open records request as an example. 

 

Bedford County Circuit Court Clerk
1 Public Square, Suite 200
Shelbyville, TN 37160.[1] 

 

To Whom it May Concern:

 

Pursuant to the Tennessee Public Records Act and specifically, Tenn. Code Ann. § 10-7-503[2] , I request all records pertaining to prosecutions in your county:

  1. Under Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-17-107, also known as the Fetal Assault Law between April 28, 2014 and the present[3] , and
  2. Under any other statute during the same period where the case records indicate that that the victim of the crime was a fetus.

For both requests, please include all available information pertaining to these prosecutions including but not limited to the number of cases, names of defendants, dates charged, case status and dispositions, docket numbers, all pleadings, court notes, any other documents filed and, if available, the name and contact information of the attorney assigned to represent the defendant.

For your reference, please find below instructions that may be helpful in locating prosecutions [4] under Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-17-107 requested under the requested listed as 1 above:

As we understand it, in TnCIS[5] , this information is located by running a report. However, note that running a report on the statute defining a fetus as a victim, which is Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-17, 107, will not display the correct information. We believe that you will need to pull reports on Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-13-101 (assault) where a fetus was the victim. To generate a report with this information using TnCIS, we believe the following steps apply:

  1. Enter “Print Reports.”
  2. Select “Case Statistic Report.”
  3. Leave dates on front screen blank to pull all dates.
  4. Go to the “TCA Code” tab, which will look like this:
  5. Make sure that the box for “Select All TCA Codes” is unchecked. .[6] 
  6. Enter 39-13-101 in the TCA Code box, and
  7. Enter “Assault – Fetus As Victim” in the description box, which will look like this:
  8. Check all court divisions, including General Sessions, Criminal and Circuit.
  9. Print the report of cases where a person was charged.

Thank you for your assistance in this matter.

Sincerely,

 

Wendy A. Bach [IH7] 
Associate Professor of Law
University of Tennessee College of Law
[CONTACT INFORMATION REDACTED]

 

H6.Annotations

 

Some agencies may have a specific records request form that you are required to fill out, or may accept requests via on online portal. We recommend contacting the agency before submitting the request to confirm their preferred method of submission. 

 

 

You should also plan to follow up with the agency if you submit a request and don’t receive a confirmation of receipt within a week or two.

 

Sometimes the method of delivery you choose can depend on broader organizing and advocacy strategies.

Include a reference to the TPRA in subject line and/or the first paragraph of your request so the agency knows that it is an open records request. See TN Explainer Part 1.

Providing a date range for your request (or for specific items within your request) can help the recipient identify responsive records and reduce record retrieval/search fees. 

 

It can also make it less likely that the agency will reject your request as overly broad, vague, or burdensome.

This level of detail is not required for your request. However, providing specific information like this in your request can be very helpful in making it clear both what types of records you're looking for, and where or possibly even how an agency might look for them.

This is the specific name of a database the request is asking to be searched. You don't need to know this level of detail before filing your request, but it can be helpful if you do.

Often, you won't know this level of detail when making a request. But if you do have access to - or are able to find on Google - a publicly available form used by a government agency, or including a screenshot from a website form, attaching it or pasting it into your request—as the requester did in the example here—can be very useful.

 [IH7]Make sure to provide specific contact information for one person who will be available to receive any correspondence from the government agency