Tennessee Women's Political Caucus
2007 Legislative Highlights

Child Custody and Support – Worked successfully to help pass legislation that would prohibit courts from   determining that a parent who is partially or completely unemployed in order to care for a child under six years of age is willfully or voluntarily unemployed or underemployed for the purpose of determining child support. Determination of the income of that parent shall not be attributed any income other than income the parent actually earned during the time period being considered by the court in determining the income of each parent. Full bill is expected to be passed into law in 2008.

Victim’s Rights – Payment of Forensic Sexual Assault Examinations – Worked successfully to pass legislation that  authorizes payment of costs for forensic sexual assault examinations (for the purpose of gathering evidence of sexual assault) from the Victim’s Compensation Fund for sexual assault victims and establishes a “Sexual Assault Examination Fund” to reimburs victims for these expenses that are not compensable under the victim’s compensation fund. 

Mandatory Joint Custody – Worked successfully to defeat two separate pieces of legislation filed for mandatory joint custody.  This legislation would take away the discretion of judges to make child custody decisions based on the best interest of each individual child. This legislation would presume that all children of divorce should automatically be placed in a mandatory joint custody situation. We fully believe that each case of child custody should be looked at separately and a ruling made which will be most beneficial to that child.  We expect this issue to be back again next year.

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