Stay current with legal news in Tennessee. This page features the latest news for and about the Tennessee legal community, either produced by the Tennessee Bar Association or collected from news sources.
Members of the Leadership Blount Class of 2013 are creating a youth court program in the county as their class service project. Under the youth court model, nonviolent, first-time offenders who admit guilt are able to avoid court costs and keep offenses off their records by submitting to peer sentencing. Class members, including Knoxville attorney Lynn Peterson with Lewis, King, Krieg & Waldrop, who is spearheading the project, hope it will be up and running by the start of the next school year. Blount County Juvenile Judge Terry Denton has signed off on the program and an editorial in the Daily Times calls on county residents to “jump at this opportunity” to “steer wayward young people back on path before compiling a record of misbehavior that follows them into adulthood.”
NORTHLAND INSURANCE COMPANY v. MICHAEL BURTON AND DONALD BURTON d/b/a BURTON BROTHERS TRUCKING
Court: TN Court of Appeals
Attorneys:
B. Timothy Pirtle, McMinnville, Tennessee, for the appellants, Michael Burton and Donald Burton d/b/a Burton Brothers Trucking.
Samuel A. Baron, Nashville, Tennessee, for the appellee, Northland Insurance Company.
Judge: COTTRELL
Insurance Company provided Trucking Company with a general liability insurance policy that included the MCS-90 endorsement required by the Motor Carrier Act of 1980. A woman who was a passenger in the insured’s tractor made a claim against Insurance Company for injuries she sustained after the tractor turned over. Insurance Company paid the woman’s claim even though she had not filed a complaint or obtained a judgment against Trucking Company/Insured. Insurance Company then filed a complaint against Trucking Company seeking reimbursement for the amount it paid out. Trial court awarded Insurance Company reimbursement. We reverse because no judgment had been obtained against Trucking Company when Insurance Company paid the woman’s claim. The MCS-90 endorsement is not triggered unless an injured member of the public recovers a final judgment against a motor carrier/insured. Therefore, Insurance Company had no right of reimbursement.
Vanderbilt Law School professor Ingrid Wuerth has been elected to membership in the American Law Institute, an indepent non-profit organization made up of lawyers, judges and law professors. Wuerth directs Vanderbilt’s International Legal Studies Program and is a leading scholar of foreign relations and international law. She was recently named as a Fulbright Senior Scholar and a German Academic Exchange Council Fellow, permitting her to work extensively in Berlin, Germany. Wuerth also serves as a member of the Secretary of State’s Advisory Committee on Public International Law and has held a variety of leadership positions within the American Society of International Law.
DLA Piper, one of the world’s biggest law firms, is being sued for overbilling in a case the New York Times notes will not help the public’s opinion of the legal profession. According to a Slate.com article in the Crossville Chronicle, lawyers unfairly earned a bad reputation beginning in the Middle Ages. The perception that lawyers were greedy opportunists continued through the Renaissance and into the early modern age. By the 18th and 19th centuries, lawyers were commonly disparaged in joke books and compared to the devil in literature and drama.
Butler, Snow, O’Mara, Stevens and Cannada PLLC continues its expansion in Nashville by moving into a new space at The Pinnacle Building at Symphony Place. The office is located on the 15th and 16th floors of the city’s newest skyscraper and boasts more than 46,000 square feet of space according to the Tennessean. The firm currently has 44 attorneys, but the new office features space for 70 offices and a capacity to expand to 110.
The Center for Public Integrity released a report stating that 185 federal district and appeals court judges — 11 percent of all federal judges — have attended at least one seminar during the last four and a half years at which foundation or corporations paid for air fare, hotel stays and meals. According to the National Law Journal, the report has restoked the decades-long debate within legal circles about federal judges who accept all-expenses-paid trips for educational seminars and draws connections between them and the corporate sponsors, including those who later appeared before them in court.
A new bill poised for a state Senate vote on Monday would shift voting power for the U.S. Senate primaries from citizens to state lawmakers, Knoxnews reports. The measure’s main sponsor, Sen. Frank Niceley, R-Strawberry Plans, said the bill is aimed at returning the state closer to the system used before 1913, when state lawmakers directly appointed U.S. senators. That system was replaced with direct election by the 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
The Tennessee Court of Appeals has upheld a ruling that properties of Christ Church Pentecostal in South Nashville were not eligible for full tax-exempt status. The Church owns a gym and activities center, café and bookstore, and a lower court had ruled they did not qualiffy for full tax-exempt status because they were not used purely and exclusively for religious purposes, the Nashville City Paper reports. The Court of Appeals ruled the bookstore/café was “nothing short of a retail establishment housed within the walls of the Community Life Center, complete with paid staff, inventory control, retail pricing, and a wide array of merchandise for sale to the general public.”
Some Tennessee hospitals may face closure as Gov. Bill Haslam delays a decision on whether to expand the state’s Medicaid program under the federal health care overhaul, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reports. Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey and House Speaker Beth Harwell back Haslam’s decision to continue negotiating with the Obama administration, stating that such things happen in order to operate in a free market.
Libel cases over online comments are on the rise, as judges struggle with balancing freedom of speech with the devastating professional consequences of reckless or unsubstantiated reviews. In an opinion piece for TriCities, president and executive director of the First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University Ken Paulson says that courts have largely found that the First Amendment protects comments that are strictly opinion or hyperbole. Reckless or unsupported statements of fact, such as stating a lawyer is unlicensed or negligent, can lead to liability however.
The ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar released data on law graduate employment outcomes for the class of 2012 nine months after graduation. According to ABA Now, law schools reported that 56.2 percent of graduates were employed in long-term, full-time positions where bar-passage was required and 9.5 percent were employed in long-term, full-time JD Advantage positions. The numbers boast a 1.3 and 1.4 percentage increase from 2011 data, respectively.
Hamilton County Commissioners today unanimously voted to continue Randy Russell and Sharetta Smith as county magistrates, Chattanoogan.com reports. Commisioners had interviewed eight of the 17 applicants for the positions. Commissioners also voted to keep Russell as the chief magistrate.
Heather Hubbard of Nashville’s Waller Lansden Dortch and Davis has been named a 2013 fellow to the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity. The year-long fellowship will allow Hubbard to learn from some of the legal profession’s top general counsels and managing partners. It also includes extensive contact with LCLD’s top leadership as well as in-person conferences, virtual training on the fine points of legal practice, and peer-group projects to foster collaboration and build relationships. The Nashville Post has the story.
The Tennessee Court of Appeals ruled that the city of Brentwood library should be forced to accommodate the Williamson County Election Commission as an early voting polling place, the Nashville City Paper reports. The commission sued the city of Brentwood last year after the library refused to hold early voting during the Republican primary. The Williamson County Chancery Court ruled in favor of the library, citing state law that “obligates the Commission to reasonably negotiate with local governments (or the controlling authority) whose facilities the Election Commission seeks to use.” The appeals court disagreed in its opinion and remanded the case back to chancery court.
The Judicial Nominating Commission has submitted three nominees to Gov. Bill Haslam to fill the Criminal Court vacancy in the 30th district caused by the death of Shelby County Judge W. Otis Higgs. The nominees are Dean Thomas DeCandia, Garland Ingram Erguden and Glenn Wright.
Betty Fowlkes Boner died March 19 at the age of 64. She was a graduate of Nashville School of Law and worked for Shipley and Behm, Metro Legal and TennCare before retiring. Memorial services were held Tuesday at Westminister Presbyterian Church. Donations may be made to Nashville Children’s Alliance or Habitat for Humanity.
The Senate has passed a bill to eliminate hotel allowances for lawmakers who live within 50 miles of the state Capitol. The proposal, sponsored by Republican Sen. Ferrell Haile of Gallatin, would discontinue the $107 per night hotel payment for Nashville-area legislators, saving more than $250,000 annually according to WATE Knoxville. The legislation would continue to provide for mileage and meal allowances for all lawmakers however.
Attorney General Robert Cooper issued an opinion calling a bill banning non-U.S. citizens from poll watching “constitutionally suspect” and likely violating the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment. House Bill 985, sponsored by Rep. Judd Matheny, R-Tullahoma, and Sen. Mike Bell, R-Riceville, would prohibit non-U.S. citizens, regardless of their immigration status, from working at or even entering voting sites. The House opted to delay voting on the bill for one week in the wake of Cooper’s opinion. The Tennessean has the story.
The deadline for voting in the 2013 Tennessee Bar Association election is fast approaching. Ballots must be received by the end of the business day on Monday, April 1. If you have questions, please email Jenny Jones at the TBA.
HARDEMAN COUNTY v. JUDY I. MCINTYRE, ET AL.
Court: TN Court of Appeals
Attorneys:
James I. Pentecost and Melissa K. Van Pelt, Jackson, Tennessee, for the appellants, Hardeman County, Tennessee and Hardeman County Emergency Medical Services.
David A. Stowers and Stephen L. Hale, Bolivar, Tennessee, for the appellees, Judy McIntyre and Billy McIntyre.
Jay G. Bush, Jackson, Tennessee, for the appellee, Judy I. McIntyre.
Judge: STAFFORD
This case concerns the liability for a collision involving a vehicle operated by one of the appellees and an ambulance operated by the appellant county. After a bench trial, the trial court awarded damages to appellee driver against the appellant. After a thorough review of the record, we reverse and remand.
