Tennessee Bar Journal

Jan 2013

Cover Story

By: Elizabeth Todaro

Karla McKanders

Volunteer lawyers in Tennessee are having a profound impact on the lives of young people who are eligible for a narrow but significant category of immigration status relief. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy offers relief that is temporary and can be revoked at any time. Eligibility is narrow and the application process can be time...

Feature Story

The NLRB’s Expanded Agenda

By: Frank Day

Congress enacted the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) in 1935 to protect the rights of employees and employers, to encourage collective bargaining, and to curtail certain private sector labor and management practices, that Congress felt could harm the general welfare of workers, businesses, and the U.S. economy.[1] Despite the fact that the law...

President's Perspective

Collateral Source Rule Should Not Be Changed

By: Jacqueline Dixon

Some of you may not have thought about the Collateral Source Rule since the bar exam. Others of you give it consideration on a regular basis as part of your practice. The December edition of this publication brought it to everyone’s attention with the thought-provoking cover story, “Time to Examine Tennessee's Collateral Source Rule?”

Letters of the Law

Collateral Source Rule Is Fair, Just and Necessary

By: Letters of the Law

The following letter was written in response to an article in the December 2012 Tennessee Bar Journal, “Time to Examine Tennessee’s Collateral Source Rule?” by William S. Walton.

Paine on Procedure

Expert Opinion and the Insanity Defense

By: Donald Paine

The insanity defense has come a long way since 1843, the year Daniel M’Naghton shot British Prime Minister Robert Peel’s secretary Edward Drummond by mistake. Under the M’Naghton Rule, an accused could escape conviction if a mental disability either prevented the accused from knowing the nature and quality of an act or prevented the accused from...

Day on Torts

Tenn. Code Ann. §§55-10-311(a): What Does It Mean?

By: John Day

Pick up a complaint in any automobile wreck case where the defendant driver was not the owner of the vehicle operated at the time of the wreck and you will almost certainly see a reference to Tenn. Code Ann. § 55-10-311(a). This article will discuss the benefit of this statute and its limitations.

The portion of Section 311(a) that is...

Family Matters

Helping Children Endure Divorce

By: Marlene Moses

When in the midst of a divorce, it is understandable for a party to become entrenched in what is felt to be a personal battle and preoccupied with details such as where to live, how to maximize the financial settlement, and how to pay the legal fees. Sometimes, this preoccupation leads to losing sight of what is going on with one’s children, who are...

News

Judiciary Museum Opens to Public

Original handwritten copies of the state’s three constitutions were unveiled together in December at the new Tennessee Judiciary Museum in Nashville at a celebration attended by all five members of the current Supreme Court, three former chief justices, judges, legislators and many lawyers. Former Chief Justice Robert Cooper attended with his son,...

Disciplinary Actions

Licensure & Discipline

REACTIVATED

The following attorneys returned to the active practice of law during the month of November: James Walter McDonnell Jr., Memphis and C. Allen Yates, Lawrenceville, Ga.

But Seriously, Folks

Will Scott County Secede Again and Will the Lost State of Franklin Be Found?

By: William Haltom

On June 8, 1861, the voters of Tennessee went to the polls for a special referendum, and by a vote of 108,339 to 47,233, decided to secede from the United States of America. But the good people of Scott County were having nothing of this nonsense. They had voted overwhelmingly against secession. And so when the Volunteer State left the Union, Scott...