News
April 1, 2021
The reprieve issued by Governor Bill Lee in the capital case matter of Pervis Payne is scheduled to expire on April 9, 2021. Upon expiration of the reprieve, the Tennessee Supreme Court has the authority to reset the execution on a future date. The execution would not take place on April 9, 2021.
March 31, 2021
Judge Bernice Donald, who sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, recently co-wrote an article in the Commercial Appeal highlighting the powerful contributions of women to the Shelby County bench.Judge Donald is an integral part of that legacy, having become the first African…
March 29, 2021
The Tennessee Supreme Court has two cases set for its March 31, 2021 docket. One case will be heard using livestream video conferencing and can be viewed at www.youtube.com/tncourts/feature, starting at 9 a.m. The other case will be submitted on briefs. The details of the cases are as follows…
March 26, 2021
The Tennessee Supreme Court ruled today that a sentence imposed in accordance with a statute that is later declared unconstitutional is voidable, not illegal, within the meaning of Tennessee Rule of Criminal Procedure 36.1.Tennessee Rule of Criminal Procedure 36.1 allows the defendant or the state…
March 26, 2021
In honor of Women’s History Month, we are looking back at some of the historic trailblazers who became Tennessee’s first female judges.While young people today know only a world where female judges are a regular part of the judicial system, it was not so long ago that women on the bench were a…
March 8, 2021
The Tennessee Supreme Court has affirmed the Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility’s assessment of costs from a disciplinary proceeding to Memphis attorney Larry E. Parrish and ordered him to pay the costs within 45 days.Effective January 1, 2014, Tennessee Supreme Court Rule 9, which…
March 2, 2021
Several Tennessee Supreme Court justices and intermediate appellate judges joined other state leaders in a processional as the three State of Tennessee constitutions made their way to the new State Library and Archives on Bicentennial Mall. The three priceless documents were meticulously moved by…
March 1, 2021
The Tennessee Supreme Court today reinstated a jury’s verdict finding a Davidson County woman, Shalonda Weems, guilty of aggravated child neglect. The Court concluded that the evidence at trial could have led a reasonable jury to determine that the State successfully proved all of the necessary…
February 24, 2021
The Tennessee Supreme Court ruled today that a lawsuit filed by Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc. against the City of Memphis, Shelby County, and Memphis Basketball involving the construction of a 6,200-seat theater is not barred by the legal concept of res judicata. The case was remanded to the…
February 23, 2021
The Tennessee Supreme Court has three cases set for its February 24, 2021 docket. The first case will be heard using livestream video conferencing. It is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. CST at: https://www.youtube.com/user/TNCourts/featured. The second and third cases will be submitted on…
February 23, 2021
In a unanimous opinion released today, the Tennessee Supreme Court held the inevitable discovery rule, an exception to the exclusionary rule that applies when tainted evidence would have been inevitably discovered regardless of police misconduct, does not apply to a case when law enforcement merely…
February 12, 2021
The Tennessee Supreme Court today issued an Order that will ease the current restrictions on in-person proceedings starting in March. This is the ninth Order the Court has issued related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Court’s December 22, 2020, and January 15, 2021 Orders, issued during the height…
February 5, 2021
Today, the Tennessee Supreme Court, based on legal errors and insufficient evidence, unanimously reversed a Shelby County Chancery Court’s decision to terminate a father’s parental rights and dismissed the petition for termination filed by the mother and stepfather.In Tennessee, a court may…
January 26, 2021
In an opinion released today, the Tennessee Supreme Court ruled that Tennessee’s Health Care Liability Act (“HCLA”) requires defendants to provide plaintiffs with written notice when plaintiffs sue the wrong defendant but does not provide a penalty or a remedy when defendants fail to comply with…
January 22, 2021
In a case it called a “cautionary tale,” the Tennessee Supreme Court held for the first time today that lawyers who make unethical statements may receive harsher discipline if they choose to post the statements publicly on social media. In this case, a Nashville attorney posted comments on Facebook…
January 15, 2021
The Tennessee Supreme Court today issued an Order extending the suspension of most in-person hearings to March 31, 2021. Court clerk offices remain accessible, the Order provides a list of exceptions for emergency situations, and courts across the state are encouraged to continue and…
January 14, 2021
The Tennessee Supreme Court today upheld one conviction of a defendant for money laundering charges stemming from a drug deal. However, the Court reversed a second conviction, holding that acceptance of payment for fronted drugs, standing alone, was not sufficient to uphold that conviction.A…
January 7, 2021
The Tennessee Supreme Court today dismissed the wrongful termination lawsuit of a Williamson County tenured teacher. The Court held that the teacher cannot claim wrongful discharge under Tennessee’s Teacher Tenure Act because she quit her job. The Court also dismissed the teacher’s…
January 5, 2021
The Tennessee Supreme Court has two cases set for its January 6, 2020 docket. The cases will be heard using livestream video conferencing. Cases will be livestreamed to the TNCourts YouTube page at: https://www.youtube.com/user/TNCourts/featured. The first case is set to begin at 9 a.m. CST, and…
January 4, 2021
The Tennessee Supreme Court has determined that, under the language of the Tennessee Products Liability Act, a manufacturer is not liable for injuries resulting from products it did not make or sell.This products liability action was brought by Mr. Donald Coffman and Mrs. Carolyn Coffman as a…