Practice Ready Litigation Research: Local Rules

Here are some options to find Tennessee local rules. 

• Administrative Office of the Courts website 
• Always check the web page for the court and judge you are dealing with as local rules are likely posted there as well.
• Call the clerk of the court or the judge's clerk to find out if there are local rules (or if the judge has any additional rules for his/her courtroom)
• For a case already in progress, check the case file. If a judge or courthouse has their own rules, they may return a copy of the rules with the initial filing. 

Local rules for Davidson, Hamilton, Knox, and Shelby Counties are included in volume 2 of the softbound “Court Rules” volumes included with the official, LexisNexis version of the Tennessee Code Annotated (Call Number: KFT30 1955 .A2). 

For other states, follow the same steps as described above. Also, check an in-state law library web page or call a legal reference librarian. 

• Federal local rules can often be found on the court’s website.
  • Local Rules of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee
• If not, federal local rules are also compiled in the 10 volume looseleaf set Federal Local Court Rules  (Call Number: KF8820 .A195 4th). It is also available on Westlaw.  
• 

Lexis

You can also find federal local court rules on Lexis through the following steps (using Tennessee as an example): 

Homepage --> State --> Tennessee --> Statutes & Legislation --> TN - Tennessee Local, State & Federal Court Rules 

Federal Court Rules are located at the bottom of that page. 

Bloomberg

To find federal local court rules on bloomberg law, follow these steps:

 Browse All Content --> All Legal Content Search --> (in the popped up box) Select Sources by Content Type --> Select Options --> U.S. Courts --> Court Rules --> Federal Court Rules --> U.S. District Court Local Rules --> Choose your jurisdiction 

Westlaw 

To access local rules on Westlaw, go to Browse -- State Materials --> Tennessee --> Statutes & Court Rules -- Rules Selected from West’s Tennessee Rules of Court --> [scroll down to find rules organized by judicial district].

 You do want to exercise caution in jumping in to browse or run complex searches on Westlaw if you don’t need to, particularly depending on your pricing plan. 

Lexis 

Using Geogia as an example: 

Homepage --> State --> Georgia --> Statutes & Legislation --> GA - Georgia Local, State & Federal Court Rules  --> click the "Table of Contents" to browse available rules

Bloomberg

Browse All Content --> All Legal Content Search --> (in the popped up box) Select Sources by Content Type --> Select Options --> U.S. Courts --> Court Rules --> State Court Rules -->  Choose your jurisdiction --> Click on "T.O.C" to browse available rules