News
December 28, 2015
The Tennessee Supreme Court has unanimously affirmed a Board of Professional Responsibility hearing panel’s imposition of sanctions against Williamson County attorney Connie Reguli and the trial court’s requirement that Ms. Reguli pay restitution to a former client.In 2011, the Board of…
December 21, 2015
The Tennessee Supreme Court has approved extensive changes to the rule regulating the licensing of lawyers to practice in the state, including easing provisions for attorneys that may have practiced elsewhere.The Tennessee Board of Law Examiners (BLE), which administers the licensing process for…
December 14, 2015
The Tennessee Supreme Court issued an opinion today addressing when out-of-state businesses may be brought into court in Tennessee. First Community Bank sued several in-state and out-of-state financial service providers after the bank lost millions of dollars in investments involving the financial…
December 11, 2015
In a lawsuit filed to set aside a tax sale of mortgaged land in Hamilton County, the Tennessee Supreme Court has held that a mortgage registry business was not entitled to prior notice of the sale because it did not have an interest in the land that is protected under the Due Process Clause of the…
December 3, 2015
The Tennessee Supreme Court has unanimously affirmed a six-month suspension of Nashville attorney Paul J. Walwyn’s law license for failure to act diligently in his representation of clients. In 2012, the Board of Professional Responsibility filed a petition for discipline against Mr. Walwyn…
December 2, 2015
In two opinions filed today, the Supreme Court has clarified the meaning and purpose of Tennessee Rule of Criminal Procedure 36.1, which sets out a procedure for challenging illegal sentences.Illegal sentences are those that are not authorized by law or that directly conflict with the law. The…
December 2, 2015
The Tennessee Supreme Court has amended the provisions of the Code of Judicial Conduct regarding judges and judicial candidates’ election campaign conduct.The recent changes stem from suggestions made by a joint committee of the Tennessee Judicial Conference and the Tennessee Trial Judges…
November 12, 2015
Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Cornelia A. Clark was the keynote speaker at the Vision 2020’s Conference when the group met recently in Nashville for their Vision 2020 Fifth National CongressJustice Clark noted that she was “energized and uplifted by the goals of the organization and the…
November 10, 2015
A suit filed by the Metropolitan Government of Nashville against the local Board of Zoning Appeals can continue after a Tennessee Supreme Court ruling granting Nashville standing in the case.The dispute stems from a Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) decision in 2012 that overturned the zoning…
November 6, 2015
The Tennessee Supreme Court has adopted a revised Rule 46, which will help pave the way for electronic filing of cases in the state appellate courts.E-filing will allow parties to submit documents via a web-based system, instead of delivering papers manually to the clerk’s offices. E-filing is…
November 5, 2015
The Tennessee Supreme Court has held that a Chattanooga hospital’s lawsuit against a TennCare managed care organization (MCO) involves a challenge to certain TennCare regulations, meaning the hospital must first give the Bureau of TennCare the opportunity to rule on its own regulations before the…
November 4, 2015
In deference to funeral arrangements for the late Sen. Fred Thompson, the Supreme Court-appointed Indigent Representation Task Force has pushed back the start time of their Friday meeting to noon.The Indigent Representation Task Force has been charged with reviewing practices regarding how…
October 30, 2015
The Tennessee Supreme Court has affirmed a trial court ruling denying Bridgestone entities’ request to dismiss a case because of lost evidence and a request for summary judgment in the case in which a woman’s car was totaled in an accident after it appeared that a tire may have failed.The plaintiff…
October 28, 2015
The Supreme Court will travel from Knoxville to Memphis and points in between next week, swearing in the state’s newest attorneys and hearing cases in West Tennessee.Each summer and fall, following the announcement of the results of the bar exam, the Supreme Court welcomes new attorneys to the…
October 27, 2015
The Governor’s Council for Judicial Appointments met today in Nashville to consider nine applicants for the vacancy on the Tennessee Supreme Court created by the retirement last month of Justice Gary R. Wade.After holding a public hearing and interviews of all nine applicants, the council chose…
October 26, 2015
The Tennessee Supreme Court has returned to a summary judgment standard consistent with the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure in an opinion released today in a Memphis health care liability case.Summary judgment is a tool used in lawsuits that allows one or both parties to elicit a ruling from the…
October 21, 2015
The Tennessee Supreme Court has appointed judges, attorneys, and others with ties to the criminal justice system in the state to the Indigent Representation Task Force to review practices regarding how attorneys are compensated for work with defendants who are unable to afford legal counsel.The…
October 21, 2015
The Tennessee Supreme Court ruled today that a void judgment may be challenged at any time, but a trial court need not grant relief from a void judgment if exceptional circumstances exist. A void judgment is one that never had any legal meaning or authority. Exceptional circumstances exist if…
October 20, 2015
The Supreme Court has set aside the decision of a Hamilton County trial court that had ruled a state law putting a cap on certain personal injury damages to be unconstitutional.The case is a negligence lawsuit by Donald and Beverly Clark against several divisions of AT&T and one of its…
October 12, 2015
The Governor’s Council for Judicial Appointments will consider nine applicants when it meets October 27 in Nashville to select nominees for the Tennessee Supreme Court vacancy.The vacancy was created by the retirement of Justice Gary R. Wade on September 8.The applicants are:Matthew P. Cavitch…