I was doing some general sessions legal research today. And, no, that isn’t a mis-print.
There are some really interesting legal issues that come up in small claims court.
Today, I found a corollary to Tenn. R. Civ. P. 3, which I blogged about a few years back. Rule 3 says that un-issued and un-served Summonses may not preserve the statute of limitations.
The similar rule in sessions court is Tenn. Code Ann. § 16-15-710, which provides:
The suing out of a warrant is the commencement of a civil action within the meaning of this title, whether it is served or not; but if the process is returned unserved, plaintiff, if plaintiff wishes to rely on the original commencement as a bar to the running of a statute of limitations, must either prosecute and continue the action by applying for and obtaining new process from time to time, each new process to be obtained within nine (9) months from return unserved of the previous process, or plaintiff must recommence the action within one (1) year after the return of the initial process not served.
So, in short, if you want to rely on the date you filed your lawsuit, then you have to make sure you get a new Alias Summons issued within 9 months of your last, unserved warrant.
If you don’t, you may have to re-file your entire lawsuit. Yikes.
Creditors Rights 101 