Tennessee Code Annotated
Tenn. Code Ann. § 20-2-101 (2026)
Summons from general sessions court
✓ current as of May 2026
The summons from a court of general sessions shall be substantially the same as the summons from a court of record, but requiring the defendant to appear before the judge on a day fixed, or generally. If no time or place is designated, the officer serving the process shall notify the defendant of the time and place, and make the officer's return accordingly.
Code 1858, § 2817; Shan., § 4522; Code 1932, § 8649; impl. am. Acts 1979, ch. 68, § 3; T.C.A. (orig. ed.), § 20-204; modified.
Notes of Decisions
Cited in 4
cases (1 in the last 5 years), 1996–2022 · leading case: Maras v. Chattanooga News Chronicle (E.D. Tenn. 2022).
Maras v. Chattanooga News Chronicle (E.D. Tenn. 2022). “Maras alleges that Media Matters is “subject to the general personal jurisdiction of this Court pursuant to Tenn. Code Ann. § 20-2-101 et seq. and Tenn.”
Adam Paul Jasinskis v. Don R. Cameron, III (2020). “” The phrase “full costs,” as used in Tenn. Code Ann. § 20-2-101 , does not, however, include attorney’s fees.”
Ratledge v. Norfolk S. Ry. Co., 958 F. Supp. 2d 827 (E.D. Tenn. 2013). “The court reviewed a number of cases since the section’s enactment (in a precursor version to the current version) concluding it is not a limitation on jurisdiction for foreign corporations with an office or agent in Tennessee, but applies only to service of process on traveling…”
James Dale Barnes v. Miller Med. Grp., P.C. Edgefield Hosp., Inc., Dr. Douglas Dorsey, & Dr. J. Shepherd (Tenn. Ct. App. 1996). “§ 20-2-101 et seq., and advances in transportation and communications have increased the feasibility and ease with which personal service can be obtained on non-resident defendants, far beyond anything possible in 1880.”
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