News
January 22, 2018
On Monday, January 22, Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam announced the state’s new opioid plan – Tennessee Together, a three-pronged initiative to combating the epidemic. This aggressive plan focuses on three approaches: prevention, treatment, and law enforcement. House Speaker Beth Harwell and…
January 18, 2018
The Tennessee Supreme Court set an execution date of August 9, 2018, for Billy Ray Irick, who was convicted of the 1985 murder and rape of Paula Kay Dyer, age 7, in Knox County, Tennessee. The Court received notice from the State Attorney General on January 11, 2018, that the United States Supreme…
January 9, 2018
The Tennessee Supreme Court unanimously reinstated a jury verdict finding a Knox County defendant, LaJuan Harbison, guilty of three counts of attempted voluntary manslaughter and three counts of employing a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony.The convictions arose out of a shootout…
January 5, 2018
The Tennessee Supreme Court will hear four cases on January 10, 2018, in Knoxville. The details of the cases are as follows: Rhonda Willeford, et al. v. Timothy P. Klepper, MD, et al. v. State of Tennessee– The Supreme Court granted the plaintiff’s application for permission to…
December 27, 2017
In a case filed in Monroe County, the Tennessee Supreme Court clarified when Tennessee laws prevent a person who owes child support from receiving money damages from a wrongful death lawsuit. Those laws apply, the Court said, only when the person is a parent of the child who died, and the back…
December 19, 2017
In a case involving the custody of two minor children, the Tennessee Supreme Court determined that Father had established that a material change of circumstances had occurred and that it was in the children’s best interests for Father to be designated as the primary residential parent. The Court…
December 18, 2017
The Tennessee Supreme Court unanimously affirmed a Shelby County trial court’s decision denying relief from a final order of dismissal in a wrongful death case because the party filing the motion waited too long to seek relief.In December 2008, Derek Hussey died after being detained and handcuffed…
December 11, 2017
The Tennessee Supreme Court extensively analyzed when the statute of limitations begins to run in legal malpractice cases. While the Court declined to change current Tennessee law or adopt a new doctrine, it held that both the trial court and appellate court were incorrect as to when the plaintiffs…
December 6, 2017
The Tennessee Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that, when one spouse unilaterally withdraws money from a married couple’s joint bank account and places the funds in a certificate of deposit, the funds are no longer joint property and belong to the spouse to whom the certificate of deposit was…
November 30, 2017
The Tennessee Supreme Court reinstated a life sentence without the possibility of parole that defendant Kevin Patterson received under Tennessee’s three strikes law for his conviction of attempted second degree murder. The defendant argued the State did not provide him with the required pre-trial…
November 29, 2017
The Tennessee Supreme Court ruled the state’s theft statute applies to real property. In the case, the defendant challenged whether Tennessee Code Annotated section 39-14-103 encompassed theft of real property, in this case a house. The Supreme Court affirmed the defendant’s convictions of…
November 27, 2017
The Tennessee Supreme Court will hear oral arguments for two cases on November 30, 2017, in front of hundreds of high school and college students when it brings court to Lane College in Jackson, Tennessee, as part of the Court’s SCALES program – Supreme Court Advancing Legal Education for Students…
November 28, 2017
The Tennessee Supreme Court addressed a certified question from a federal district court on an aircraft maintenance company’s effort to collect its bill for work done on a commercial airplane.AeroCentury Corporation owned a commercial airplane, which it leased to a regional airline, Colgan Air, Inc…
November 22, 2017
The Tennessee Supreme Court concluded that a father’s notice of appeal, signed by his attorney but not the father personally, satisfies the statutory signature requirement for appeals in parental termination cases. The Court remanded the case to the Court of Appeals for consideration of the…
November 22, 2017
The Tennessee Supreme Court reversed previous rulings that dismissed a lawsuit contesting the October 1, 2013 Will (“2013 Will”) of Dr. J. Don Brock, a resident of Hamilton County. Dr. Brock died March 10, 2015, leaving a sizeable estate. He is survived by his wife, seven children he and…
November 21, 2017
The Supreme Court of Tennessee clarified the law of self-defense when the person making the claim is engaged in unlawful activity at the time the need for self-defense occurred. This clarification is important because some trial courts have not allowed defendants to assert self-defense when it…
November 21, 2017
Home inspections are a standard part of the buying process throughout the state, and, in a recent case, the Tennessee Supreme Court determined whether a home inspector’s liability extends to a social guest of the homeowner who was injured when a railing collapsed shortly after purchase.In 2010,…
November 20, 2017
The Tennessee Supreme Court has affirmed the convictions and sentences of death for Sedrick Clayton for the murders of Arithio, Patricia, and Pashea Fisher and the conviction for attempted murder of A’Reco Fisher in Memphis. During the early morning hours of January 19, 2012, a domestic…
November 17, 2017
In a case closely watched by Tennessee lawyers, the Tennessee Supreme Court has declined to change the law on what evidence can be used to prove medical expenses in cases involving personal injury. The Court held that Tennessee law continues to allow plaintiffs to use full, undiscounted…
November 9, 2017
The Tennessee Board of Law Examiners has filed a petition with the Supreme Court of Tennessee to adopt the Uniform Bar Examination (UBE), which would be a major change in the portability of bar exam results for aspiring Tennessee attorneys. The UBE is a nationwide test that has been adopted by 28…