Tennessee Pleading Paper Template
Tennessee court filings follow Supreme Court Rule 36: 8.5x11 white paper, one side, top margin of at least one inch, type no smaller than 12 points in a face equivalent to Times New Roman or Helvetica, and lines at least 1.5 spaced.
Introduction
Tennessee is not a numbered-line pleading paper state. Its court documents use plain paper with a caption, formatted under the rules below. Tennessee court filings are governed by Tennessee Supreme Court Rule 36, the Standard Paper Size rule for Tennessee state courts, which sets several concrete specifications at once. Documents must be on letter-size, 8.5 by 11 inch, opaque, unglazed white paper, printed on one side of the page only, with a top margin of at least one inch. Text must be clearly and legibly handwritten in blue or black ink, or typewritten or printed in black ink, in type no smaller than 12 points in a typeface essentially equivalent to Times New Roman or Helvetica. The lines on each page must be at least 1.5 spaced, except that descriptions of real property, quotations, footnotes, and similar items may be single spaced and indented. Tennessee is not a numbered-line pleading-paper state, so there are no consecutive line numbers down the left margin. The distinctive demands here are the named typeface equivalence and the 1.5-line-spacing floor. A filing in a non-equivalent font, single-spaced body text, or on the wrong paper can be returned by the clerk, which costs time and can jeopardize a deadline. This page covers what Rule 36 requires, with the caption governed by Tenn. R. Civ. P. 10.01. DocDraft drafts your document on properly formatted Tennessee court format from your facts, with attorney review available before you file.
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Key Things to Know
- 1
Documents must be on letter-size, 8.5 by 11 inch, opaque, unglazed white paper, on one side of the paper only, with a top margin of at least one inch (Tenn. Sup. Ct. R. 36).
- 2
Text must be in type no smaller than 12 points in a typeface essentially equivalent to Times New Roman or Helvetica, printed in black ink, or clearly and legibly handwritten in blue or black ink (Tenn. Sup. Ct. R. 36).
- 3
The lines on each page must be at least 1.5 spaced, except that descriptions of real property, quotations, footnotes, and similar items may be single spaced and indented (Tenn. Sup. Ct. R. 36).
- 4
Documents of more than one page must have each consecutive page numbered at the bottom center (Tenn. Sup. Ct. R. 36).
- 5
Pre-printed court forms may be single-spaced, double-sided, and use smaller type if legible (Tenn. Sup. Ct. R. 36).
- 6
The caption format is governed by Tenn. R. Civ. P. 10.01, which requires the name of the court, the title of the action, the file number, and a Rule 7.01 designation, not by Rule 36.
- 7
Tennessee is not a numbered-line pleading-paper state, and Rule 36 states no separate left, right, or bottom margin dimension; only the at-least-one-inch top margin is fixed, so the other margins follow local court rules.
Key decisions before you file
Before you file a Pleading Paper in Tennessee, a few decisions shape the document: which option to choose and what each one means. The Pleading Paper guide walks through them.
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Tennessee Requirements for Pleading Paper
Letter-size white one-sided paper
Use letter-size, 8.5 by 11 inch, opaque, unglazed white paper, printed on one side of the page only, under Tenn. Sup. Ct. R. 36.
One-inch top margin
Provide a top margin of at least one inch under Tenn. Sup. Ct. R. 36. The rule does not fix left, right, or bottom margins, so those follow local court rules.
12-point Times or Helvetica equivalent
Use type no smaller than 12 points in a typeface essentially equivalent to Times New Roman or Helvetica in black ink, or clearly and legibly handwrite in blue or black ink (Tenn. Sup. Ct. R. 36).
At least 1.5 line spacing
Space lines at least 1.5; real-property descriptions, quotations, footnotes, and similar items may be single spaced and indented (Tenn. Sup. Ct. R. 36).
Consecutive bottom-center page numbers
For documents of more than one page, number each consecutive page at the bottom center under Tenn. Sup. Ct. R. 36.
Caption block
Head the first page per Tenn. R. Civ. P. 10.01 with the name of the court, the title of the action, the file number, and a Rule 7.01 designation.
Electronic filing
E-filing is adopted court-by-court by local rule of the individual clerk under Tenn. R. Civ. P. 5B and Tenn. Sup. Ct. R. 46; it is permissive at the state level rather than a statewide mandate, so confirm the practice in your court.