Family law is an area of the law that deals with family-related issues and domestic relations including the nature of marriage, civil unions, and domestic partnerships; issues arising during marriage, including spousal abuse, legitimacy, adoption, surrogacy, child abuse, and child abduction; the termination of the relationship and ancillary matters including divorce, annulment, property settlements, alimony, and parental responsibility orders (in the United States, child custody and visitation, child support and alimony awards).
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a major hub for the health care, music, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home to a large number of colleges and universities. Nashville has a consolidated city-county government which includes seven smaller municipalities in a two-tier system. The population of Nashville-Davidson County stood at 626,144 as of 2008, according to United States Census Bureau estimates. This makes it the second most populous city in the state after Memphis. However, the 2008 population of the entire 13-county Nashville Metropolitan Statistical Area was 1,550,733, making it the largest metropolitan area in the state. The 2008 population of the Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Columbia combined statistical area was estimated at 1,632,671.