Effective today, Memphis municipal courts have suspended all in-person cases after the high volume of people entering the Walter Bailey Criminal Justice Center caused concern about spreading the COVID-19 virus, the Daily Memphian reports. Shelby County District Attorney Amy Weirich recently said that between July 6 and  24, more than 18,000 non-employees entered the building. Anyone scheduled to appear in municipal court divisions 1, 2 or 3 should call the court clerk’s office at 901-636-3400, 901-636-3450 or 901-636-3499 for information on reset dates.

State election officials have confirmed that rapper and producer Kanye West will be appearing on the state's presidential ballot in November, the Associated Press reports. West’s presidential campaign submitted his petition last week and Secretary of State Tre Hargett this week confirmed that West had cleared the required 275 verified signatures needed to qualify as an independent candidate. The Daily Memphian reports that the signatures on West’s petition came from the Nashville and Clarksville areas and the Memphis, Cordova, Collierville and Arlington areas. West has also been successful in getting on the ballot in several other states, including Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Oklahoma and Utah.

Gov. Bill Lee today announced the appointment of Janet Vest Hardin as special judge on the Washington County General Sessions Court. Prior to her appointment, Hardin served as assistant district attorney for the 1st Judicial District from 1988-2019 and for the 6th Judicial District from 1987-1988. She also served as an adjunct professor at East Tennessee State University and with the Knoxville law firm of Ritchie, Fels and Dillard. Hardin will fill the temporary vacancy created by Judge James Nidiffer, who is stepping away from his judicial duties due to an illness. Read more about Hardin from the Administrative Office of the Courts.

More than one third of the prisoners housed at CoreCivic’s Metro Detention Facility in Nashville tested positive for the COVID-19 virus in recent weeks, but a reporting loophole has kept those numbers out of the public eye, WPLN reports. All 170 prisoners who tested positive for the virus have now recovered, but those cases were never reported by the Tennessee Department of Correction. A CoreCivic spokesperson said the private facility sends daily reports to its contract monitor at the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office, works closely with the Metro Public Health Department and reports COVID testing and case numbers to the Tennessee Corrections Institute, a state agency that oversees local correctional facilities. But, since the facility is not technically part of the state prison system or the sheriff’s office, it hasn’t been included in either agency’s reports to the public. TDOC says one other prison in Shelby County operates under a similar arrangement. CoreCivic facilities have accounted for nearly half of the system’s 3,300 COVID-19 cases and five of its nine deaths. The sheriff’s office is set to take over the Nashville prison in October after the company announced last month it is ending its contract with Metro after nearly three decades.

Join the TBA’s Litigation Law Section for its annual forum on Sept. 17 from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. CDT. This year’s program features a live virtual forum and includes two exclusive webinars to watch after the event. Topics for this program include federal courtroom practice and procedure, state procedure and application, pre-suit investigation techniques, ethics and more. Registrants will receive login information on Sept. 16. Register now. 

Sumner County lawyers and TBA members Jake Mason and Michael Ponce joined forces this summer to hold the End Hunger For Heroes Food Drive, benefitting the Sumner County Veterans Food Pantry. The effort collected approximately 3,500 pounds of food and additional monetary donations. Mason noted that “the past several months have been difficult for many throughout Sumner County” and said it “was so wonderful to see how generous the community was to help our local veterans food pantry.” Mason is founder of the Heritage Law Group, a boutique estate planning and elder law firm serving clients in Tennessee and Kentucky. Ponce is founder of Ponce Law, which handles personal injury, employment law, Social Security/disability, wrongful death and worker related injury cases.

State officials today announced that the state’s application for a federal grant program was accepted and Tennesseans facing unemployment will soon start receiving an extra $300 weekly benefit, the Tennessean reports. The Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development received approximately $236 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency Monday afternoon, which will provide $300 weekly benefit payments to eligible jobless Tennesseans for the first three weeks of August. Department commissioner Jeff McCord said the extra benefit will be available this week or early next week, but cautioned that the funds will terminate when the $44 billion in FEMA funds allocated to the grant runs out. After that, McCord says Tennesseans will have to “wait and see” if it’s possible to get another allotment.

Attorney General Herbert Slatery today announced a $91 million multistate settlement with American Honda Motor Company and Honda of America over allegations Honda concealed safety issues related to defects in the frontal airbag systems installed in certain Honda and Acura vehicles sold in the U.S. The settlement concludes a multistate investigation into Honda’s alleged failure to inform regulators and consumers that the frontal airbags posed a significant risk of rupture, which could cause metal fragments to fly into the passenger compartments of many Honda and Acura vehicles. The ruptures have resulted in at least 14 deaths and more than 200 injuries. Under the terms of the consent judgment, which will be filed with the Davidson County Circuit Court, Honda has agreed to pay the participating attorneys general a total of $91 million, of which Tennessee will receive $1,730,909.22. Honda also agreed to strong injunctive relief. Read the release and the settlement from the Attorney General’s Office.

The Tennessee Supreme Court today vacated a decision from Judge Lee V. Coffee in a post-conviction relief case due to comments he made during proceedings. Coffee denied the post-conviction relief claim of ineffective assistance of counsel and in his oral ruling from the bench, compared the post-conviction process in Tennessee to a football game, called the petitioner’s claims “almost absolutely laughable,” expressed a preference for Texas law and expressed doubt that the petitioner’s trial attorneys could ever be ineffective. The high court ruled that Coffee’s comments would indicate to a reasonable person that the decision to deny relief was based as much on the judge’s disdain for, and disagreement with, Tennessee law regarding post-conviction procedures and his belief that trial counsel were so preeminent, skilled, and knowledgeable that they could never be ineffective in any case as on the evidence presented at the hearing. The court also reviewed whether Coffee’s comments called into question his impartiality for future post-conviction relief cases, but “stopped inches short” of drawing that conclusion since the comments appeared to be isolated and not habitual. Read the full story from the Tennessee State Courts website.

The Tennessee Board of Judicial Conduct has taken disciplinary actions against Bledsoe County General Sessions Judge Howard Upchurch and 12th Judicial District Circuit Judge J. Curtis Smith after a complaint was filed alleging an extramarital affair, “judge shopping” and judicial impropriety, the Times Free Press reports. The complaint was filed by Bledsoe County resident Ben Farmer amid divorce proceedings from his former wife, Stacy Farmer. Among the many allegations in the complaint, Farmer claims his wife was having an extramarital affair with Upchurch, who pursued a restraining order against Ben Farmer by shopping around for a judge who would act on the request. The complaint claims Smith accepted inappropriate communications from Upchurch about the matter and later held the restraining order hearing knowing the rules weren’t being followed. After filing the complaint, Farmer received a letter from the Board of Judicial Conduct telling him disciplinary actions had been taken against both judges after the complaint was submitted to an investigative panel. There was no indication what action was taken or which allegations from the complaints it was based on.