News
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
Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam has appointed Jill Bartee Ayers of Clarksville as Circuit Court Judge for Division IV of the 19th Judicial District, a position created by the Tennessee General Assembly earlier this year. The 19th Judicial District serves Montgomery and Robertson counties. We…
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 14, 2015
The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals visited the University of Tennessee at Martin campus recently to hear cases before UT Martin students as well as area high school students.The court convened in the Boling University Center’s Watkins Auditorium as the students heard oral arguments from the…
October 13, 2015
Judge John Everett Williams, of Huntingdon, received the Distinguished Criminal Justice Alumni Award from the University of Tennessee at Martin Department of Behavioral Sciences during a luncheon Sept. 29. Williams is the first person to receive this honor.The award, sponsored by the UT Martin…
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:…
October 8, 2015
The Tennessee Supreme Court has determined that the Tennessee Health Care Liability Act (the Act) applies to all claims relating to the delivery of health care services by covered health care providers. As a result, the Supreme Court dismissed the claims of Nashville-area parents against a licensed…
October 5, 2015
Court of Appeals Judge Andy D. Bennett spoke recently at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for State and Local History to a gathering of historians interested in legal cases.Appearing as part of a panel entitled, "An Untapped Resource: How to Locate and use Legal Cases at Historic…
October 5, 2015
Former Court Of Criminal Appeals Judge Jerry Smith has been appointed as an adjunct faculty member at Belmont University College of Law in Nashville.Judge Smith, who retired from the bench in 2014, will teach appellate practice at the institution starting in October of 2016. He has been an…
October 2, 2015
In a unanimous opinion, the Tennessee Supreme Court ruled today that the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance must refund more than $16 million in taxes paid by five groups of out-of-state insurance companies.Tennessee, like every other state except Hawaii, has adopted a retaliatory tax…
October 2, 2015
The Tennessee Supreme Court has selected former Circuit Court Judge William Acree to serve as senior judge and preside over cases across the state.Judge Acree, who is from the 27th Judicial District in far northwest Tennessee, replaces Senior Judge Jon Kerry Blackwood, who retired.“We are…
October 1, 2015
The Tennessee Supreme Court heard oral arguments in front of more than a thousand Middle Tennessee high school and college students at Cumberland University in Lebanon as part of SCALES – Supreme Court Advancing Legal Education for Students.Students prepared for the event by studying the cases in…
September 25, 2015
The Governor’s Council for Judicial Appointments met today to consider three applicants for the impending criminal court vacancy in the 9th Judicial District, which serves Loudon, Meigs, Morgan, and Roane counties. The seat will become vacant December 31, 2015, when Judge E. Eugene Eblen retires.…
September 24, 2015
The Tennessee Supreme Court will hear two civil cases, two Board of Professional Responsibility cases and one death penalty case when it sits for oral arguments in Nashville October 1.State v. Howard Hawk Willis –This death penalty case comes to the Supreme Court on a direct appeal. The Supreme…
September 23, 2015
Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Holly Kirby spoke to students at St. Mary's Episcopal School in Memphis last week as part of their Constitution Day celebration. The students sang the Preamble of the Constitution Song from Schoolhouse Rock. Constitution Day is celebrated September 17th and…
September 22, 2015
The Tennessee Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in three criminal cases in front of more than a thousand Middle Tennessee high school and college students when it brings court to Cumberland University in Lebanon September 30.The program is called SCALES – Supreme Court Advancing Legal…
September 21, 2015
The Tennessee Supreme Court’s Access to Justice Commission has released its annual report showing that attorneys in Tennessee have increased the number of hours of free and reduced-rate legal services they are providing to those in need.The report shows that the number of hours of pro bono service…