A few months ago, I warned you all that Tennessee judgments are only enforceable for ten years and, if you have a file of uncollected judgments, you might need to check your drawers. If you do a lot of creditors rights law work (like me), then you have about ten drawers full of unpaid judgments, so this is a big deal.
The Tennessee legislature may saw this issue coming, because, in 2016, they simplified the process by which a judgment creditor can renew (extend) the life-span of a judgment. The revisions to Tenn. R. Civ. P. 69.04 provide that the creditor:
Within ten years from the entry of a judgment, the creditor whose judgment remains unsatisfied may file a motion to extend the judgment for another ten years. A copy of the motion shall be mailed by the judgment creditor to the last known address of the judgment debtor. If no response is filed by the judgment debtor within thirty days of the date the motion is filed with the clerk of court, the motion shall be granted without further notice or hearing, and an order extending the judgment shall be entered by the court. If a response is filed within thirty days of the filing date of the motion, the burden is on the judgment debtor to show why the judgment should not be extended for an additional ten years. The same procedure can be repeated within any additional ten-year period.
So, long story short, now, it’s done by Motion and without the prior “show cause” process used in the past (and, notably, in the same case docket as the original action).
The Tennessee Court of Appeals discussed this new process in a recent opinion, at Trina Scott v. Sharfyne L’Nell White, No. M2015-02488-COA-R3-CV, July 14, 2017). You’ll note that the underlying matter in this case was decided prior to 2016, but Judge McBrayer (himself, once a well known debtor-creditor lawyer) discusses both the new and old laws in issuing the opinion.
Creditors Rights 101 