 |
| Monday, November 02, 2009 |
|
| |
| |
Voluntary Pro Bono Reporting Rule adopted
The Tennessee Supreme Court today adopted a new rule requesting lawyers to
report their time spent on various categories of pro bono service during
the year. The report will be made part of the annual registration process
administered by the Board of Professional Responsibility.
Eight states require pro bono reporting. Those states say that such
efforts have been successful in enhancing the reputation of lawyers by
developing data on the contribution lawyers make to their communities.
Download the amendment to Rule 9, Section 20.11
|
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
01 - TN Court of Appeals
03 - TN Court of Criminal Appeals
02 - 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/2009/certlist_110209.pdf
IN RE: O.J.B., dob 07/24/05, A Child Under 18 Years of Age
Court: TCA
Attorneys:
Alicia A. Howard, Memphis, TN, for Appellant/Mother
Janis H. Benson, Memphis, TN, for Appellant/Father
Robert E. Cooper, Sr., Attorney General and Reporter, Michael E. Moore, Solicitor General, Lindsey O. Appiah, Nashville, TN, for Appellee
Judge: HIGHERS
This case involves the termination of parental rights of a mother and father. Both parents were addicted to crack cocaine, and the child tested positive for cocaine at birth. The child was taken into DCS custody and placed in a foster home at three days old. Three months later, the mother was arrested and sentenced to three years in prison as a habitual offender. When the child was 18 months
old, DCS filed a petition to terminate the mother's parental rights based on the ground of abandonment by an incarcerated parent. The father had visited the child only twice since she was placed in foster care, and DCS sought to terminate his parental rights for failure to file a petition to
establish paternity. The trial court terminated both parents' parental rights upon finding that termination was in the child's best interest. Both parents appeal. We affirm.
http://www.tba2.org/tba_files/TCA/2009/ojb_110209.pdf
JEFFERY S. GORDON v. STATE OF TENNESSEE
Court: TCCA
Attorneys:
Thomas J. Tabor, Jr., Tazewell, Tennessee, attorney for appellant, Jeffrey S. Gordon.
Robert E. Cooper, Jr., Attorney General and Reporter; Sophia S. Lee, Assistant Attorney General; William Paul Phillips, District Attorney General; Jared R. Effler and Amanda Sammons, Assistant District Attorneys General, attorneys for appellee, State of Tennessee.
Judge: THOMAS
The petitioner, Jeffrey S. Gordon, appeals as of right from the Claiborne County Criminal Court's denial of his petition for post-conviction relief. The petitioner entered guilty pleas to two counts of kidnapping, three counts of aggravated assault, and one count of misdemeanor harassment and received an effective sentence of thirty years as a Range I, standard offender. His timely filed
petition for post-conviction relief alleged that his guilty pleas were unknowingly and involuntarily entered as the result of the ineffective assistance of counsel. Following an evidentiary hearing, the post-conviction court denied relief. Following our review, we affirm the judgment of the post-
conviction court.
http://www.tba2.org/tba_files/TCCA/2009/gordonj_110209.pdf
STATE OF TENNESSEE v. JONATHAN SCOTT LEMAY
Court: TCCA
Attorneys:
C. Brad Sproles, Kingsport, Tennessee, attorney for appellant, Jonathan Scott Lemay.
Robert E. Cooper, Jr., Attorney General & Reporter; Deshea Dulany Faughn, Assistant Attorney General; H. Greeley Wells, Jr., District Attorney General; and Kent Chitwood, Assistant Attorney General, attorneys for appellee, State of Tennessee.
Judge: THOMAS
The defendant, Jonathan Scott Lemay, entered best interest pleas to robbery and aggravated assault,
Class C felonies, in Sullivan County Criminal Court. The trial court imposed two concurrent five- year sentences to be served in the custody of the Department of Correction. In this appeal as of right, the defendant contends that the trial court erred in denying him alternative sentencing and by imposing sentences beyond the statutory minimum. Following our review, we affirm the judgments of the trial court.
http://www.tba2.org/tba_files/TCCA/2009/lemayj_110209.pdf
STATE OF TENNESSEE v. LONTRELL WILLIAMS
Court: TCCA
Attorneys:
Howard L. Wagerman, Memphis, Tennessee, for the appellant, Lontrell Williams.
Robert E. Cooper, Jr., Attorney General and Reporter; Rachel E. Willis, Assistant Attorney General; William L. Gibbons, District Attorney General; and Theresa McCusker, Assistant District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee.
Judge: GLENN
The defendant, Lontrell Williams, appeals the revocation of his probation, arguing that the trial court applied an incorrect legal standard when finding that he had violated the terms of his probation. He, therefore, requests that this court remand for a new probation revocation hearing. The State concedes that the trial court applied an incorrect standard and joins in the defendant's request for a new revocation hearing under the appropriate standard. We agree that the trial court erroneously based the revocation of the defendant's probation on a probable cause, rather than a preponderance of the evidence, standard. Accordingly, we reverse the judgment of the trial court and remand the case for a new probation revocation hearing.
http://www.tba2.org/tba_files/TCCA/2009/williaml_110209.pdf
Composition of Assessment Appeals Commission
TN Attorney General Opinions
Date: 2009-11-02
Opinion Number: 09-172
http://www.tba2.org/tba_files/AG/2009/ag_09_172.pdf
Workers' Compensation Insurance Coverage for Sole Proprietors in the Construction Industry
TN Attorney General Opinions
Date: 2009-11-02
Opinion Number: 09-173
http://www.tba2.org/tba_files/AG/2009/ag_09_173.pdf
|
|
 |
|
| TODAY'S NEWS |
|
Celebrate Pro Bono
Legal News
Supreme Court Report
Upcoming
TBA Member Services
|
| Celebrate Pro Bono |
| Knox event includes clinic, CLE, IOLTA luncheon |
| Knoxville 'celebrated pro bono' last Friday with a CLE, a legal clinic and a luncheon commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Interest On Lawyers' Trust Accounts (IOLTA) program.
Eighteen lawyers and 11 law students volunteered at the Legal Advice Clinic, which served 24 clients, and 31 people attended the IOLTA luncheon. |
See pictures from the event
|
| Legal News |
| Belmont taps Elon professor as law dean |
| Jeffrey Kinsler, professor of law and senior scholar at Elon University's School of Law in North Carolina, will be the founding dean for Belmont University's new college of law.
Before going to Elon, he was dean of the Appalachian School of Law. Kinsler, who will start his new job early next year, was a consultant in the planning process for the new college, which will open in the fall of 2012 in a new $25 million building. |
NashvillePost.com reports
|
| Rezoning suit asks if Nashville schools are resegretated |
| Beginning Tuesday, John T. Nixon's federal courtroom will be the setting for new arguments over whether a school rezoning policy, enacted this year, unlawfully resegregates Nashville's schools. It's not a new subject for Nixon: as a young attorney in the 1960s, he worked on behalf of the federal government to bring white and black leaders together in Southern communities torn by racial tension. |
The Tennessean has more
|
| Jury's contribution praised |
| In an editorial this weekend, the News Sentinel recognized the contribution made by the jurors who served in the Lemaricus Davidson trial,
"a tremendously grueling ordeal for these ordinary citizens who serve on behalf of all of us." Editor Jack McElroy writes that "with the exception of being drafted into the military, jury duty is the most direct service our nation demands of us." |
Read the editorial
|
| Supreme Court Report |
| Court declines to take up 1964 kidnap case question |
|
The U.S. Supreme court today declined to hear a case to determine
what statute of limitations applies in the federal prosecution of James Ford Seale, a Ku Klux Klan member accused in the kidnap and murder of two black teenagers in Mississippi in 1964. The question, which could affect prosecution of long-ago civil rights cases in the South, will go back to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals unresolved. |
The Blog of Legal Times has more
|
| Upcoming |
| Downtown Nashville blood drive Nov. 4 |
| The Red Cross will hold a blood drive for attorneys and staff Nov. 4, from 8:30 a.m. until 1:30 p.m. in Nashville. The event, sponsored by the Tennessee Bar Association and the Nashville Bar Association, will be at the Tennessee Bar Center, 221 4th Ave. North. Reservations can be made at
www.givelife.org. Enter code: "bar assn" to view the times available for this drive. When you donate, you will be entered into a drawing for a free round of golf for four at the private, members-only
|
Old Natchez Country Club.
|
| TBA Member Services |
| Program offers savings on auto insurance |
| See how being a member of the TBA could help you save 8 percent on car insurance. GEICO offers 24-hour sales, service and claims. Call GEICO at (800) 368-2734
|
or get an online rate quote
|
| |
|
| |
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 2009 Tennessee Bar Association
|
|
|
