News
April 14, 2016
The Tennessee State Library & Archives recently launched a new online ordering system for Supreme Court cases. The new system will allow researchers to request cases dating back to the early 1800s in hard copy or digital scans. It also allows searching the cases for names of ancestors…
April 12, 2016
Sen. Steven Dickerson (R-Nashville) and Rep. Harold M. Love, Jr. (D-Nashville), along with leaders in the judicial and legal communities announced an initiative today to improve awareness of and access to expungements in Tennessee.A key component of the initiative is information that has been…
April 8, 2016
The Tennessee Supreme Court has held that customers of a sewer service provider in Hamilton County may file a lawsuit to challenge their rates without first going through administrative proceedings. The Hamilton County Water and Wastewater Treatment Authority (Hamilton County Authority)…
April 7, 2016
The Tennessee Supreme Court has denied a request by a death row inmate to have a hearing to determine whether he is eligible to be executed because he is intellectually disabled, concluding that the procedural avenues he sought to use in this case do not entitle him to such a hearing.Pervis Tyrone…
April 1, 2016
The Tennessee Supreme Court has appointed former judge and Williamson County attorney Robert E. Lee Davies to the position of senior judge.Davies practices family law, personal injury, and business litigation in Williamson County. He served from 2000-2008 as a circuit court judge in the 21st…
March 23, 2016
The Tennessee Supreme Court has upheld a decision by the Tennessee Department of Revenue to impose a tax variance on the parent company of Verizon Wireless. The Court held that the Commissioner of Revenue was within his authority to impose the variance, in order to keep the company from avoiding…
March 17, 2016
The Tennessee Supreme Court has ruled that the Metro Nashville Police Department is not required by the Tennessee Public Records Act to release investigation records requested by a group of media organizations in a rape case involving four former Vanderbilt University football players. In June…
March 16, 2016
The Tennessee Supreme Court has reinstated convictions for especially aggravated kidnapping charges and affirmed multiple other convictions arising out of a home invasion in Memphis. In July 1999, two armed men forced their way into a residence and demanded money and other property from those…
March 7, 2016
The Tennessee Supreme Court has reversed a trial court’s dismissal of a professional negligence lawsuit against a law firm, concluding that the claim was timely filed under Tennessee’s savings statute.In 2010, Circle C Construction, LLC, hired the Louisville, Kentucky law firm of Furman, Nilsen…
March 2, 2016
The Indigent Representation Task Force, appointed by the Tennessee Supreme Court to review practices regarding how attorneys are compensated for work with individuals who are unable to afford legal counsel, has launched a series of webpages.The resources now online include research materials, such…
February 23, 2016
In a historic first, Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Roger Page has been confirmed by the Tennessee General Assembly for a seat on the Tennessee Supreme Court.In a unanimous vote during a joint convention of the House and Senate, Justice Page was confirmed Monday night by the 109th Tennessee…
February 11, 2016
In two cases involving motorists crossing roadway markings – one a double yellow centerline and another the right lane “fog line” – the Tennessee Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of the officers’ seizures of the vehicles’ drivers, both of whom also were charged with DUI.In one case…
February 9, 2016
The Tennessee Judiciary has released its 2015 Annual Report.Below is Chief Justice Sharon Lee's introductory letter to the report, which is available in full here.As Judges, we see people at difficult times in their lives. They are involved in a disagreement with a neighbor or a business partner.…
February 4, 2016
The Supreme Court has decided to increase the punishment recommended by a hearing panel to discipline an attorney for sexual misconduct involving a client that he was appointed to represent in a criminal matter and for revealing confidential information of another client to a judge in a different…
February 3, 2016
The Tennessee Supreme Court will hear five cases on its February docket in Nashville, including two cases that will be presented at Nashville School of Law.Three civil cases will be heard during a morning session at the Supreme Court building. Those cases are:Edward Martin v. Gregory Powers, et al…
January 29, 2016
In an opinion filed today, the Supreme Court held that parents’ constitutional right to fundamental fairness in termination proceedings does not require adoption of a separate procedure that allows parents to further appeal termination orders based on ineffective representation by appointed counsel…
January 28, 2016
The Tennessee Supreme Court has upheld the conviction of a Hornsby man for 37 counts of sexual battery by an authority figure, ruling that an error in the trial did not deprive the defendant of his constitutional right to a unanimous jury verdict.Jimmy Dale Qualls was charged with using his…
January 26, 2016
The Tennessee Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Wednesday in the direct appeal of Lemaricus Davidson, the man sentenced to death for his role in the 2007 murders of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom in Knoxville. Mr. Davidson was tried in October 2009 and convicted of two counts of…
January 14, 2016
The Tennessee Supreme Court has upheld the conviction of a man for facilitation of aggravated robbery and facilitation of the first degree murder of a Knox County man.In February 2002, the victim, Gary Lindsay, was robbed and murdered in the home of the defendant, Thomas Hutchison. After a trial, a…
January 7, 2016
Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam today appointed Roger Amos Page of Madison County to the Tennessee Supreme Court, replacing Justice Gary R. Wade, who retired in September.Page, 60, has been a judge on the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals since his appointment by Haslam in December 2011, writing more…