Juvenile Court Records. The records included in this schedule are those specific to the Juvenile Court. For more general court records, see the retention schedules for the Circuit, Criminal or General Sessions Courts. Records that may be kept in the same format by several county offices (such as employment records, purchasing records, etc.) will be found listed under topical retention schedules in this manual. To a certain extent, the records kept by county offices vary from county to county in either the format of record kept, the name given to the record ,or the frequency of its occurrence.  This is particularly true of court records which may vary according to local rule and practice and especially confusing concerning the varying forms of docket books that courts may have utilized over the years. The fact that a certain record is listed in this schedule does not necessarily indicate that you should have it in your office. It may be a format for record-keeping that was never utilized in your county, or you may keep the record under a different name. If you have records in your office that are not listed in this schedule by name, check the descriptions of the records to see if we may have called it by a different term. If you still cannot locate any entry relative to the record, contact us at the County Technical Assistance Service for guidance in determining the proper disposition of the record and so that we can make note of that record’s existence to include it in future revisions of this manual.

There are a number of special considerations that should be kept in mind with records of juvenile proceedings. First of all, a juvenile court is a court of record, even when a general sessions court is exercising juvenile jurisdiction ( T.C.A. § 37-1-159). It is important that a good record is maintained for the purpose of appeals (T.C.A. § 37-1-159), for transfer of the case to the county of the child’s residence (T.C.A. § 37-1-112), and for hearings to determine whether a juvenile charged with delinquency should be transferred to the jurisdiction of the criminal court to be tried as an adult (T.C.A. § 37-1-134).

The second important point to keep in mind is that many juvenile records are confidential under the law. Except for juvenile traffic offenses, files and records of the court in proceedings under Title 37, Chapter 1, Part 1 are open to inspection by certain parties. Those parties are,  the judges, officers and professional staff of the court exercising juvenile jurisdiction; the parties to a proceeding and their counsel and representatives; public or private agencies or institutions providing supervision or having custody of the child under order of the court; a court and its probation and other officials or professional staff and the attorney for the defendant for use in preparing a pre-sentence report in a criminal cases for defendants who were previously a party to a proceeding in juvenile court; and, with the permission of the court, any other person or agency or institution having a legitimate interest in the proceeding or in the work of the court ( T.C.A. § 37-1-153). Under certain circumstances, the records may be open to public inspection. See T.C.A. § 37-1-153(b) for details. Inspection of the law enforcement records regarding the child is similarly restricted  (T.C.A. §§ 37-1-154–155).

This listing of juvenile records is short and is only intended to include those records that are specific to the juvenile court and do not appear in other court retention schedules. Where juvenile records mirror those in civil or criminal courts, consult the appropriate retention schedule for the proper period to retain the record.

* In 2019 the general assembly amended T.C.A. § 18-1-202 to provide that the clerks of the juvenile courts are empowered and authorized under the direction and order of the judges of their respective courts to dispose of original pleadings, process, opinions, records, dockets, books, ledgers, and all other documents in delinquent and unruly juvenile court cases after a period of ten (10) years following the juvenile reaching eighteen (18) years of age. Prior to ordering the clerk to dispose of original documents, the court must notify the district attorney general of the proposed order and provide the district attorney general reasonable time to file a notice of opposition to the proposed order.