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| Tuesday, January 11, 2011 |
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TBA CLE offers key updates in construction law
The past few years have seen a number vital case and statutory law developments in the area of construction law. If you haven't kept up, remember that what you do not know can hurt both you and your clients. Make sure you are up to date on topics such as retainage, prompt pay acts, change order disputes and more, at the upcoming Tennessee Construction Law Update, this Friday in Nashville.
Find out more or register now
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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
04 - 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.
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SUPREME COURT DISCRETIONARY APPEALS Grants & Denials List
Court: TSC
http://www.tba2.org/tba_files/TSC/2011/certlist_011111.pdf
CALVIN WILHITE v. TENNESSEE BOARD OF PAROLE
Court: TCA
Attorneys:
Calvin Wilhite, Nashville, Tennessee, Pro Se.
Robert E. Cooper, Jr., Attorney General and Reporter; Michael E. Moore, Solicitor General; and Kellena Baker, Assistant Attorney General, for the appellee, Tennessee Board of
Probation & Parole.
Judge: CLEMENT
Appellant filed this petition for common law writ of certiorari when the Board of Probation and Parole denied him parole. He contends the Board's decision was illegal, arbitrary, fraudulent, and in excess of its jurisdiction. The trial court dismissed the petition for writ of certiorari. We affirm the trial court.
http://www.tba2.org/tba_files/TCA/2011/wilhitec_011111.pdf
STATE OF TENNESSEE v. JEFFERY D. LEMAY
Court: TCCA
Attorneys:
Melissa L. Thomas, Fayetteville, Tennessee, for the appellant, Jeffery D. Lemay.
Robert E. Cooper, Jr., Attorney General and Reporter; Lindsy Paduch Stempl, Assistant Attorney General; Charles Crawford, District Attorney General; and Weakley E. Barnard, Assistant District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee.
Judge: WITT
The defendant, Jeffery D. Lemay, pleaded guilty to one count of rape of a child, a Class A felony, and reserved a certified question of law challenging the trial court's order finding him
competent to stand trial. See Tenn. R. Crim. P. 37(b)(2)(a). Following our review, we conclude that the defendant failed to properly certify a question of law that is dispositive of
the case. Accordingly, we dismiss the appeal.
http://www.tba2.org/tba_files/TCCA/2011/lemayj_011111.pdf
STATE OF TENNESSEE v. JAMIE LYNN MIDDLEBROOK
Court: TCCA
Attorneys:
David M. Hopkins (on appeal) and Ben Russ (at trial), Nashville, Tennessee, for the appellant, Jamie Lynn Middlebrook.
Robert E. Cooper, Jr., Attorney General and Reporter; Lacy Wilber, Assistant Attorney General; Victor S. Johnson, III, District Attorney General; and Bret Thomas Gunn, Assistant
District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee.
Judge: THOMAS
The Defendant, Jamie Lynn Middlebrook, was indicted by the Davidson County Grand Jury for aggravated assault, a Class C felony, and theft of property valued $1,000 or more, a Class
D felony. Following a jury trial, the Defendant was convicted of aggravated assault. The jury was unable to fix the property value for the theft charge; therefore, the trial court declared a mistrial as to that count. At the sentencing hearing, the Defendant pled guilty to theft of property valued $500 or more, a Class E felony. The trial court imposed concurrent
sentences of 6 years as a career offender for the theft conviction and 13 years as a persistent offender for the aggravated assault conviction. The trial court ordered the sentences to be served consecutively to a sentence imposed in another case. In this appeal as of right, the Defendant contends (1) that the evidence is insufficient to sustain her conviction of aggravated assault; (2) that the trial court erred in granting the State's motion to admit evidence of prior bad acts; and (3) that the trial court erred in sentencing the Defendant. Following our review, we affirm the judgments of the trial court.
http://www.tba2.org/tba_files/TCCA/2011/middlebrookj_011111.pdf
STATE OF TENNESSEE v. RACARDO ARNETTE SPENCER
Court: TCCA
Attorneys:
Michael A. Colavecchio, Nashville, Tennessee, for the appellant, Racardo Spencer.
Robert E. Cooper, Jr., Attorney General and Reporter; Clark B. Thornton, Assistant Attorney General; Victor S. Johnson, III, District Attorney General; and Ben Ford, Assistant District
Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee.
Judge: THOMAS
The Defendant, Racardo Arnette Spencer, appeals as of right from the Davidson County Criminal Court's revocation of his community corrections sentence and order of incarceration. The Defendant contends that the trial court erred in revoking his community corrections sentence because there was no substantial evidence to determine that the Defendant had violated the terms of his sentence. Following our review, we affirm the trial court's revocation of the Defendant's community corrections sentence.
http://www.tba2.org/tba_files/TCCA/2011/spencerr_011111.pdf
Status of Interim County Mayor as Member of County Commission
TN Attorney General Opinions
Date: 2011-01-11
Opinion Number: 11-2
http://www.tba2.org/tba_files/AG/2011/ag_11_2.pdf
Inapplicability of Private Investigators Licensing Act to Photographic Traffic Monitoring Systems
TN Attorney General Opinions
Date: 2011-01-11
Opinion Number: 11-3
http://www.tba2.org/tba_files/AG/2011/ag_11_3.pdf
Retired Misdemeanor Cases
TN Attorney General Opinions
Date: 2011-01-11
Opinion Number: 11-4
http://www.tba2.org/tba_files/AG/2011/ag_11_4.pdf
Voting Eligibility in Referendum Pursuant to Tenn. Code Ann. section 49-2-502
TN Attorney General Opinions
Date: 2011-01-11
Opinion Number: 11-5
http://www.tba2.org/tba_files/AG/2011/ag_11_5.pdf
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| TODAY'S NEWS |
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Legal News
Tenn. Government
U.S. Supreme Court
Disciplinary Actions
Upcoming
TBA Member Services
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| Legal News |
| Lawyer appointed to defend Loughner no stranger to high-profile cases |
| A judge in Arizona has appointed veteran public defender Judy Clarke to represent Jared Loughner, the man accused of the shootings last Saturday. Clarke is the former head public defender in San Diego County, Calif. She has a long list of notorious clients, including "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski and Susan Smith, the South Carolina mother who drowned her two sons in 1994.
"She's a specialist in representing people charged with some of the most heinous crimes you can imagine. And she does it with a great deal of compassion and objectivity and thoroughness," says California criminal defense lawyer Gerald Blank. |
NPR's Morning Edition has the story
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| Solving the 'J.D. overabundance problem' starts with school rankings |
| A close look at law school graduates' employment and debt repayment prospects -- notwithstanding the "downright rosy" outlook from the U.S. News & World Report annual rankings -- yields a catastrophic vision, according to an article in The New York Times.
The article points out that
"in reality, and based on every other source of information, a generation of new lawyers face the grimmest job market in decades."
The "glut of diplomas, the dearth of jobs and those candy-coated employment statistics have now yielded a crop of furious young lawyers who say they mortgaged their future under false pretenses." |
Read more from the Times
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| Tenn. Government |
| Harwell elected first woman speaker of House; Ramsey reelected lt. governor |
Tennessee lawmakers unanimously selected Beth Harwell to be the speaker of the House of Representatives today, electing the first woman to the post in the state's history.
Harwell pledged to defend states' rights, to manage the state's finances responsibly and to encourage bipartisanship within the chamber.
Also today, state senators reelected Ron Ramsey to a third term as lieutenant governor and speaker of the Senate.
With Harwell at her new post, The Tennessean takes a look at other powerful women in the state, including outgoing First Lady Andrea Conte, Rep. Marsha Blackburn, Tennessee Supreme Court Chief Justice Corneila Clark and Clarksville Mayor Kim McMillan. The paper also explores how Tennessee still lags behind much of the nation in the number of women in higher office.
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Read more in the Tennessean
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| U.S. Supreme Court |
| Kagan's first decision rejects consumer's argument |
| In Justice Elena Kagan's first decision for the U.S. Supreme Court, she ruled against a consumer seeking to shield some income from creditors.
Although it seemed an easy issue, federal appeals courts had arrived at different answers.
And dissenting Justice Antonin Scalia said the courts that ruled for the debtors in these cases were right. |
The ABA Journal connects you to more of the story
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| Disciplinary Actions |
| Nashville lawyer reinstated |
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Nashville lawyer Kevin Shalom Terry was reinstated to the practice of law on
Jan. 10 after complying with requirements for continuing legal education. He
was suspended on Sept. 7, 2010, for failing to meet 2009 CLE requirements.
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View all attorneys suspended and reinstated for 2009 CLE violations
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| Upcoming |
| Medgar Evers' widow is MLK speaker at Fisk |
| Civil rights activist and former NAACP Chairwoman Myrlie Evers-Williams will headline Fisk University's 2011 MLK Convocation this Thursday.
Evers-Williams, widow of slain Civil Rights icon Medgar Evers, has spent a lifetime working to promote justice and civil engagement. In 1963, she and her husband were well-known activists whose work had, among other things, led to the integration of the University of Mississippi. On June 12 of that year, Medgar Evers was assassinated just outside the family home, with his wife and three children inside.
She will speak at 10 a.m. Jan. 13, in the Fisk Memorial Chapel, 1000 17th Avenue North in Nashville. The public is invited to attend the event, which marks the start of the school's commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr. |
The Tennessean has more
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| Starbucks exec to speak at MLK event |
| Paula E. Boggs, executive vice president, general counsel and secretary of Starbucks Corporation, will be the featured speaker at a Jan. 13 luncheon in Nashville celebrating the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The event, hosted by Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis LLP, will be held at the Sheraton Downtown Nashville Hotel at 11:30 a.m. The firm plans to make the lunch an annual event with speakers that focus on issues of diversity and service.
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Read more about the event from the firm
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| TBA Member Services |
| Get Connected: Sign up for TBA Connect today |
| Hundreds of your colleagues have already joined in to the TBA's Social Networking platform for members called TBA Connect. This service provides many of the same features of sites such as LinkedIn or Facebook, but access is limited to members of the Tennessee Bar Association and approved guests. |
Join TBA Connect now
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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 2011 Tennessee Bar Association
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