State Specific Question About: TENNESSEE (TN)

Check with a Real Estate person. They usually have "people": lawyers, fixer uppers, etc.

Call the local court, ask the secretary who files the most eviction in that court.

Thanks for the reply. I have a tenant who is 30 days behind and I gave him the pay or quit notice yesterday. He complained about the leaves were not swiped away in the yard. I can see he is tying to game the system and not paying the rent. I'm not sure he would use this yard thing to against me for eviction or not. We have a maint person doing all the work around the property and she was too busy to take away the leaves last month. Do I need to worry about this?

I would recommend that you go to your local Landlord-Tenant court and sit in and observe. You will notice that there are a few attorneys who seem to know the court personnel (bailiff and clerk) and are on good terms with them. The judge will often know them by name and treat them with respect. (The judge should treat all of the attorneys with respect, but sometimes you can tell which ones he really does respect.) They will be well prepared and present their cases well. They might have several cases before the court that day. These are eviction specialists.

There will also be some attorneys who are competent, but who do not seem to be in their "home court." These might be eviction specialists who are normally in some other courthouse (for example, an attorney who normally works the Van Nuys courthouse, but who is appearing in Norwalk), or they could be attorneys who don't specialize in evictions but who are good at whatever they do.

You will also see some attorneys who fumble about, who are not prepared and who do a poor job. (You have to learn to distinguish between an incompetent guy who is fumbling around, and a very competent guy who is handling 20 things at once. But you should be able to tell the difference easily.)

Watch, learn, and ask the ones who you think are well suited for your needs for a business card. Maybe you need an eviction specialist; maybe you need a general all-around attorney. Either way, get cards from the people who impress you and ask if you call them later to talk. Remember, the attorney might be up to his eyebrows at that time — he might have several clients in the courtroom and hallway that he needs to reassure and discuss settlement with, witnesses he needs to talk with, tenants he needs to talk with (has to show them his exhibits before the hearing, needs to talk possible settlement with them, needs to get signatures on documents, needs to write up the Court's order, ...). So this is likely not a good time for him to talk to you about your problem.

Then, call the ones you liked, and hire one of them.

Visit one of your local big name stores.

Slip and fall.

Close your eyes and pick one.

Either go to court and see who is there doing the evictions cases--it is a specialty usually done in bulk by a few.