 |
| Monday, May 05, 2008 |
|
| |
| |
Online CLE tackles ethics issues for criminal defense
Knowing what information is confidential and when it loses its confidential protection can be crucial to serving your clients. A new interactive online CLE from Knoxville lawyer and former U.S. Attorney W. Thomas Dillard will teach you when confidential information must be disclosed, when it may be disclosed, and when it must not be disclosed. Sign up now for Dillard's "Ethical Concerns from the Criminal Defense Perspective" to learn about these topics and more.
https://www.tnbaru.com/CLE/catalog_course_details.php?course=54
|
TODAY'S OPINIONS
Click on the category of your choice to view summaries of today’s opinions from that court, or other body. A link at the end of each case summary will let you download the full opinion in PDF format. To search all opinions in the TBALink database or to obtain a text version of each opinion, go to our OpinionSearch page. If you have forgotten your password or need to obtain a password, you can look it up on TBALink at the TBA's Membership Central.
01 - TN Supreme Court
00 - TN Worker's Comp Appeals
00 - TN Supreme Court - Rules
03 - TN Court of Appeals
02 - TN Court of Criminal Appeals
00 - TN Attorney General Opinions
00 - Judicial Ethics Opinions
00 - Formal Ethics Opinions - BPR
You can obtain full-text versions of the opinions two ways. We recommend that you download the Opinions to your computer and then
open them from there. 1) Click the URL at end of each Opinion paragraph below. This should give you the option to
download the original document. If not, you may need to right-click on the URL to get the option to save the file
to your computer. 2) Do a key word search in the Search Link area of TBALink. This option will allow you to view
and save a plain-text version of the opinion.
|
|
|
|
|
|
SUPREME COURT DISCRETIONARY APPEALS Grants & Denials List
Court: TSC
http://www.tba2.org/tba_files/TSC/2008/certlist_050508.pdf
DONALD W. MCCUTCHEON, ET AL. V. TND ASSOCIATES, L.P., ET AL.
CORRECTION
Court: TCA
Attorneys:
Christopher D. Heagerty, Knoxville, Tennessee, for the appellants, TND Associates, L.P., and TND, Inc.
Robert H. Green and Catherine E. Shuck, Knoxville, Tennessee, for the appellees, Donald W. McCutcheon and Sue K. McCutcheon.
Judge: LEE
The trial court awarded the plaintiff homeowners judgment against their residential building contractor for damages sustained by the plaintiffs when the slope upon which their home was constructed failed. The defendant contractor appeals, arguing that the trial court abused its discretion by allowing an expert witness to testify outside his area of expertise and by allowing another witness to testify as an expert when the plaintiff had failed to identify him as a witness before trial. Upon careful review of the record, it is our determination that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in the admission of the testimony of these witnesses. Accordingly, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.
http://www.tba2.org/tba_files/TCA/2008/mccutcheond_CORR_050508.pdf
CARL WILLIAMS ROGERS, M.D. v. STATE VOLUNTEER MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY
Court: TCA
Attorneys:
Matthew R. Zenner and Malcolm L. McCune, Nashville, Tennessee, for the appellant, Carl Williams Rogers, M.D.
L. Webb Campbell, II and Phillip F. Cramer, Nashville, Tennessee, for the appellee, State Volunteer Mutual Insurance Company
Judge: BENNETT
This case involves an endorsement to a medical malpractice insurance policy. The physician insured under the policy brought a declaratory judgment action seeking rescission of the endorsement based upon a mutual mistake of fact. We affirm the decision of the trial court dismissing the physician's case for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.
http://www.tba2.org/tba_files/TCA/2008/rogersc_050508.pdf
SCARLETT REAGAN ASLINGER SAMPSEL v. JOEL LEE SAMPSEL
Court: TCA
Attorneys:
Joe R. Judkins, Wartburg, Tennessee, for the Appellant, Scarlett Reagan Aslinger Sampsel.
John McFarland, Kingston, Tennessee, for the Appellee, Joel Lee Sampsel.
Judge: SWINEY
Scarlett Reagan Aslinger Sampsel ("Mother") and Joel Lee Sampsel ("Father") were divorced in 2005. Mother was designated as the primary residential parent of the parties' son ("the Child"), who currently is 14 years old. Approximately eight months after the divorce was granted, Father filed a petition for a change in custody claiming there had been a material change in circumstances and that designating Father as the primary residential parent was in the Child's best interest. Following a trial, the Trial Court determined that due to the Child's post-divorce
behavioral problems and decline in grades, there had been a material change in circumstances and that it was in the Child's best interest to designate Father the primary residential parent. Mother appeals claiming the Trial Court erred in both of these determinations. We affirm.
http://www.tba2.org/tba_files/TCA/2008/sampsels_050508.pdf
TOMMY LEE NORWOOD V. STATE OF TENNESSEE
Court: TCCA
Attorneys:
Tommy Lee Norwood, Edgefield, South Carolina, Pro Se.
Robert E. Cooper, Jr., Attorney General & Reporter; Leslie E. Price, Assistant Attorney General; William B. Cox, District Attorney General, attorneys for appellee, State of Tennessee.
Judge: THOMAS
The pro se petitioner, Tommy Lee Norwood, appeals as of right the Hamilton County Criminal Court's summary dismissal of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus. The petition alleges that he is being illegally restrained by federal sentences enhanced as a collateral consequence of his state convictions that are based upon the ineffective assistance of counsel, involuntary guilty pleas and other defects in prosecution. The habeas court summarily dismissed the petition based upon its finding that the petition failed to allege a present restraint on the petitioner relevant to the judgments under attack. Following our review, we affirm the judgment of the habeas court.
http://www.tba2.org/tba_files/TCCA/2008/norwoodt_050508.pdf
STATE OF TENNESSEE v. TROY SOLLIS
Court: TCCA
Attorneys:
Harold R. Gunn, Humboldt, Tennessee, for the appellant, Troy Sollis.
Robert E. Cooper, Jr., Attorney General and Reporter; Lacy Wilbur, Assistant Attorney General; and Larry Hardister, Assistant District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee.
Judge: WITT
The defendant, Troy Sollis, was convicted of two counts of possession of more than .5 grams of methamphetamine with intent to sell or deliver, two counts of possession of drug paraphernalia, one count of felony evading arrest, and two counts of misdemeanor evading arrest. The trial court imposed an effective sentence of 20 years, 11 months, and 29 days to be served in the Department of Correction. In this appeal, the defendant asserts that the trial court's comments during a pretrial conference established bias and that the sentence is excessive. Discerning no error, we affirm the judgments of the trial court.
http://www.tba2.org/tba_files/TCCA/2008/sollist_050508.pdf
|
|
 |
|
| TODAY'S NEWS |
|
Legal News
Legislative News
Your Practice
Upcoming
TBA Member Services
|
| Legal News |
| Court upholds judgment againts Perry March relatives |
| Tennessee's Supreme Court today affirmed a $222,000 judgment against the brother, sister and brother-in-law of former Nashville attorney and convicted killer Perry March. The court refused to hear an appeal of the verdict, which awarded damages to Larry and Carolyn Levine for the defendants' failure to return property that belonged to their murdered daughter. |
NashvillePost.com has the story [subscription required]
|
| 6th Circuit affirms district court ruling in House case |
| A brief opinion from three judges on the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court's order vacating the conviction and sentence of death row inmate Paul House unless the State retried him within 180 days. House has been imprisoned nearly 22 years. Read the full opinion or |
the Associated Press report in the Tennessean
|
| Ex-sheriff Long changes plea to guilty |
| Former Hamilton County Sheriff Billy Long has changed his plea to guilty on 27 of 28 counts of extortion, money laundering, drug and gun charges, the Associated Press reports.
Long, 56, was to have gone on trial May 13. He will be sentenced Aug. 18, and could get 10 years to life in prison. |
The Tennessean carried the story
|
| Students find out about legal profession from Law Day visit |
| Students at a Memphis high school got to interrogate lawyers last Friday, asking questions about the First Amendment, the right of police officers to use force and what to do if stopped by an officer, among other topics.
The lawyers were at Mitchell High School as part of the Law Week schools program sponsored by the Memphis Bar Association and the Ben F. Jones Chapter of the National Bar Association. |
Read more about it in the Commercial Appeal
|
| Explosion rocks Calif. federal courthouse |
| A suspected pipe bomb exploded at the federal courthouse in downtown San Diego early Sunday, damaging a door and blowing out a window, authorities said. No injuries were reported. The explosion is under investigation and no arrests have been made.
No one has claimed responsibility for the blast, authorities said, and no threats were received before the bomb was left. |
Law.com carried this AP story
|
| Legislative News |
| Bill would make missing jury duty harder |
| Legislation scheduled for votes on the floor of both the state House and Senate this week would make it harder to skip jury duty. The new bill proposes to change the current practice that automatically exempts many groups, including lawyers. The pending bill (HB3638/SB3839) would abolish all the current exemptions. Instead, a person called to jury duty would have to explain to court officials why he or she cannot serve, with decisions made on a case-by-case basis. |
The News Sentinel reports
|
| Your Practice |
| Ways to find new clients can be obvious |
| Rainmaking can be complicated or as easy as writing articles about new developments in the law, asking existing clients and, above all, being personable and nice. |
The ABA's online journal tells you more
|
| Company seeks to change 'contract attorney' stereotype |
| Nashville-based Counsel on Call is highlighted in the Boston Globe for fostering work-family balance and flexible hours. "The knock on this industry has always been that a contract attorney is someone who couldn't get a job anywhere," said Chad Schmidt, a spokesman for Counsel on Call. "But that's been completely reversed. There are a lot of lawyers out there who don't want to work at a firm or in a corporate legal department on a 70-hours-a-week basis, so they're looking for a different way to do it."
The company recently opened its first New England area office. |
Read the Boston Globe
|
| Upcoming |
| Reception for Chancellor Peoples set |
| A 30th anniversary reception honoring Chancellor
Howell N. Peoples will be May 12, from
11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Hamilton County City Courts Building, 600 Market Street in
Chattanooga. Respond by April 18 to
(423) 209-7385. For more information contact Chattanooga Bar Association Executive Director
Linda Minks Hood.
|
|
| TBA Member Services |
| Free online legal research is hot TBA benefit |
| Online legal research is available free to all Tennessee Bar Association members through an agreement with Fastcase, a leading online legal research firm. The new TBA member benefit is national in scope and offers TBA members unlimited usage, unlimited customer service and unlimited printing -- all at no cost. |
Log in now to try it out
|
| |
|
| |
Discontinue your TBA Today subscription? ... Surely not!
But if you must, visit the TBALink web site at:
http://www.tba2.org/tbatoday/unsub_tbatoday.php
Questions, comments: Email us at TBAToday@tnbar.org
About this publication: Today's News is a compilation of digests of news reports of interest to Tennessee lawyers compiled by TBA staff, links to digested press releases, and occasional stories about the TBA and other activities written by the TBA staff or members. Statements or opinions herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Tennessee Bar Association, its officers, board or staff.
© Copyright 2008 Tennessee Bar Association
|
|
|
