Brentwood Family Lawyer
Family Lawyer Brentwood, TN
If you’re going through a divorce in Brentwood, fighting over custody, or dealing with any other family law issue, the choices in front of you right now carry weight for years. Patterson Bray PLLC has been representing Tennessee families for over 20 years. Our Brentwood, TN family lawyer works on divorce, custody, alimony, property division, and the full range of domestic relations matters. We provide free consultations, and we’ll tell you honestly whether your situation requires legal representation at all.
Why Choose Patterson Bray for Family Law in Brentwood, TN?
A Dedicated Family Law Division
Austin Rainey leads our family law division as a partner at the firm. Before law school, Austin studied civil engineering at Clemson University, graduating in 2009. He went on to earn his J.D. from the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law in 2012. That technical background shows up in the way he handles property division cases, business valuations, and retirement account analysis, where the math matters just as much as the law.
The 27th through 32nd editions of Best Lawyers in America recognized Austin for Personal Injury Litigation, and the 30th through 32nd editions for Commercial Litigation. In 2017, he received the Tennessee Supreme Court Attorneys for Justice Pro Bono Service Award. The National Academy of Family Law Attorneys named him a Top 10 Under 40 attorney in both 2017 and 2018. Austin holds memberships with the Memphis Bar Association, the Tennessee Bar Association, and the Mississippi Bar Association, and he serves on the Board of Directors for the Tennessee YMCA Center for Civic Engagement.
Whether your case involves a high-conflict custody battle or a relatively cooperative divorce that just needs good legal drafting, Austin and our family law attorneys know how to handle both ends of that spectrum in Brentwood and across Tennessee.
Results That Matter
U.S. News & World Report named us a Tier 1 law firm, which is a recognition based on peer evaluation and actual case outcomes. When a divorce involves a business, multiple properties, or a complicated asset structure, you want attorneys who have litigated these problems before a judge and not just negotiated them over email.
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“A great experience working with the attorneys and staff at Patterson and Bray. They exceeded our expectations throughout the process.”
— Mike Farnsworth
Read more reviews on our Google Business Profile.
Types of Family Law Cases We Handle in Brentwood
Family law is not one thing. A prenuptial agreement for a business owner looks nothing like a custody modification for a parent who just lost a job. Our Brentwood family attorneys handle a wide range of domestic matters, and we approach each one based on what the client actually needs, not a template. Here’s what we work on:
- Divorce. Tennessee has both fault-based and no-fault divorce. Contested cases involving real estate, business ownership, or disagreements over the children demand an attorney who can navigate property division rules and hold their own at trial. But even an uncontested divorce should be reviewed by a lawyer, because what feels fair today can become a serious problem two years from now if the agreement has gaps.
- Child custody. Courts in Tennessee decide custody using a best-interest-of-the-child standard. They weigh each parent’s living arrangement, how involved each parent has been in the child’s daily life, the mental and physical health of everyone in the household, sibling relationships, and the child’s own wishes if the child is old enough to express them. Both parents are required to submit a proposed parenting plan before the court will rule.
- Alimony and spousal support. How long the marriage lasted, what each spouse earns, the lifestyle the couple maintained, and each party’s financial obligations all factor into an alimony determination. Tennessee allows transitional alimony, rehabilitative alimony, and in some situations, long-term support.
- Property division. Tennessee follows equitable distribution, which people often confuse with a 50/50 split. It isn’t. The court looks at who earned what, how long the marriage lasted, whether one spouse sacrificed career advancement for the household, and a number of other factors. The goal is fairness, not arithmetic equality, and the outcome varies widely from case to case.
- Prenuptial agreements. If you’re bringing a business, real estate, or children from a prior marriage into a new relationship, a prenuptial agreement saves both parties from having to litigate those issues later. We draft new agreements and review existing ones to make sure they’ll actually hold up if challenged in court.
- Modifications and enforcement. Circumstances change after a divorce. A job loss, a relocation, a child’s evolving needs, any of these can justify reopening a custody arrangement or adjusting a support obligation. We also file enforcement actions when the other parent stops following the court’s orders, whether that’s withholding visitation or refusing to pay what they owe.
Tennessee Legal Requirements for Family Law Cases
Tennessee divorce law provides for both fault-based and no-fault grounds. Tenn. Code § 36-4-101 lists the specific fault grounds, which include adultery, cruel treatment, abandonment, habitual drunkenness, and felony conviction, among others. The no-fault route requires both spouses to agree on irreconcilable differences, and if minor children are involved, that mutual agreement is mandatory. You cannot file a no-fault divorce over your spouse’s objection when kids are part of the equation.
There are residency and timing rules. One spouse has to have lived in Tennessee for at least six months before filing. After the complaint is filed, there’s a mandatory 60-day waiting period for couples without minor children and a 90-day waiting period when children are involved. Judges cannot shorten or waive these periods, regardless of how amicable the split may be.
Custody decisions fall under Tenn. Code § 36-6-101 and the related statutes in that chapter. The court goes through a statutory list of best-interest factors: the emotional bond between parent and child, each parent’s willingness to support the child’s relationship with the other parent, any history of domestic violence, and more. Both sides have to file a proposed parenting plan that spells out the residential schedule, who makes decisions about schooling and healthcare, and how future disagreements will be handled.
When it comes to dividing assets, Tennessee courts apply equitable distribution. First the court classifies each asset as marital or separate. Marital property gets divided; separate property, which includes anything you owned before the wedding, inherited assets, and gifts made specifically to one spouse, does not. The problem is that separate property often gets mixed with marital funds over time, and tracing those assets back to their source requires a family lawyer in Brentwood who knows how Tennessee courts handle commingling disputes.
Courts in Tennessee can also order mediation before a contested family case reaches trial. Mediation isn’t binding unless both parties sign an agreement, but it gives you a chance to resolve issues on your own terms instead of handing the decision to a judge who has spent a few hours with your file. We prepare our clients for these sessions the same way we’d prepare them for court.
What Relief Is Available in Brentwood Family Law Cases?
In a divorce case, the court has broad authority. It can award alimony, divide the marital estate, assign responsibility for debts, and put custody and child support orders in place. Tennessee calculates child support using income shares guidelines, which means both parents contribute based on what they earn. The guidelines create a presumptive number, but judges have discretion to deviate from it when the facts of a particular family justify a different amount.
Custody relief goes beyond just naming one parent the primary residential parent. The court establishes a visitation schedule and decides who has final say on major decisions about the child’s education, medical care, and religious upbringing. In cases with serious conflict or allegations of abuse, the court may appoint a guardian ad litem, an independent attorney whose only job is to represent the child’s interests.
If circumstances change after the original order, Tennessee allows modification of custody and support arrangements. But you have to show a material change in circumstances, and you have to prove the proposed modification serves the child’s best interests. The court won’t reopen an order just because you’re unhappy with the original outcome.
Enforcement is the other side of the coin. When a parent ignores a court order by skipping support payments, refusing to return the children on time, or making major decisions without the other parent’s input, a contempt action puts the matter back in front of the judge. Consequences can range from make-up parenting time all the way to fines and incarceration for repeated or willful violations.
And then there are the assets. Retirement accounts, pensions, brokerage accounts, real estate, and business interests all have to be valued before they can be divided. Getting the valuation wrong at the time of divorce creates problems that compound over the years, which is why this part of the process deserves particular attention from your attorney.
Contact Patterson Bray PLLC
If you’re dealing with a divorce, a custody dispute, or any other family law problem in Brentwood, TN, we’d like to talk to you about it. Patterson Bray offers free initial consultations, and we won’t sugarcoat your situation or tell you what you want to hear just to sign you up.
We’ll walk through the facts with you, explain what Tennessee law says about your circumstances, and give you a realistic sense of what to expect. Contact us to set up a free consultation with a Brentwood family attorney who will take the time to understand what you’re going through.