Nashville’s Metro Council is preparing to settle a lawsuit with Youth Opportunity Investments, the private company that operates the Juvenile Detention Center where four teens escaped last fall. A government analysis shows that the Metro Nashville Police Department spent more than $235,000 to locate the teens — $113,000 in pay for regular shift hours, $129,000 in overtime and more than $11,000 for car and helicopter use. The proposed settlement would have Youth Opportunity Investments pay $144,000. Four teens escaped the detention center on the night of Nov. 30, 2019, after a series of missteps by detention center staff and were not apprehended for almost two weeks. Three employees involved in the incident have been fired and at least three were criminally charged. WPLN has the full story.

A group of voter rights advocates has brought a federal lawsuit against Secretary of State Tre Hargett, Elections Coordinator Mark Goins and Shelby County District Attorney Amy Weirich over the state’s “restrictive excuse” requirements for absentee ballots, the Daily Memphian reports. The Equity Alliance, the A. Phillip Randolph Institute of Memphis and others are claiming the state’s “strict limits” on eligibility for absentee voting do not take the COVID-19 pandemic into consideration. The lawsuit also points toward criminal prohibitions on assisting voters in obtaining absentee ballot requests.  “… In light of the ongoing public health crisis, Tennessee’s failure to make the already-existing voting system available to all voters so that they do not have to choose between their right to vote and their health imposes an undue burden on Tennesseans’ exercise of their right to vote,” the lawsuit states. State officials have said they are putting together a plan to respond to the COVID-19 crisis in conjunction with county election officials.

Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III has joined a bipartisan coalition of 52 attorneys general asking USTelecom, the leading organization representing telecommunications providers, and its Industry Traceback Group (ITG) to continue collaborating with state attorneys general by bolstering technological capabilities to improve enforcement against illegal robocallers. The coalition sent USTelecom a letter on Monday urging further development of traceback tools, including an online platform that would collect live data from carriers and allow law enforcement to submit a subpoena for USTelecom in a streamlined portal. USTelecom would be able to rapidly review and provide law enforcement the ability to expedite subpoena procedures. “We need to use technology to beat illegal robocallers at their own game,” Slatery said. “Imagine stopping a live robocall campaign in its tracks. That’s the goal.” Read the press release here. 

The U.S. Small Business Administration is looking to recruit temporary positions to help respond to small business owners in need of COVID-19 disaster assistance relief. The jobs are full-time and will run two to six months in duration, with many of them available to be done virtually. The available positions are attorney advisor , paralegal specialist and legal assistant.  

Nashville Chancellor Anne Martin ruled late Monday that Gov. Bill Lee’s education savings account program is unconstitutional, the Tennessean reports. The voucher program was Lee’s signature education initiative and would have allowed eligible families in Davidson and Shelby counties to use public money for private school tuition and other educational needs. Since the law only applied to two counties, Martin ruled it violated a section of the state constitution known as “home rule.” As a result, the state improperly imposed the program on the two counties without their consent. “This is an important ruling for local governments in Tennessee,” Metro Director of Law Bob Cooper said in a statement. “It reaffirms the constitutional right of counties and cities to be free of state legislation that targets select jurisdictions without their approval.” Martin did rule that Metro Nashville Public Schools did not have standing to challenge the law, only the county government.

In celebration of Lawyer Well-Being Week, join Judge Steve Hornsby, Sam Wantland and Lisa Cole for the Personal Balance for Well-Being Roundtable this Thursday at 12 p.m. CDT. The panel will explore the resources for fiscal, physical and mental well-being and their applicability to lawyers during the pandemic. Topics will include stressors specific to lawyers, how your "new normal" work life may unknowingly impact your well-being and more. The roundtable is limited to the first 100 registrants, so get registered now! If you have a question related to this topic, please submit the question here. 

Lawyer Well-Being Week kicks off today with organizations across the country coming together to raise awareness and encourage action across the legal profession to improve well-being for lawyers and their support teams. To promote the physical, occupational and emotional health of Tennessee attorneys, the TBA has created a Well-Being Resource Page and will provide activities and resources all week long to champion well-being.

First up this week, check out the 1-Click CLE Wellness Package, featuring important healthy and wellness topics like mindfulness, work life balance, ethics of healthy lawyering and more. Available online in just one click and worth six dual credit hours of CLE.

A new episode of the HealthyBar podcast is also available today. In this special two-part series, immediate past chair of the TBA's Attorney Well-Being Committee, Mary Griffin, speaks with current chair of the committee, Julie Sandine, and Lindsey O'Connell, a licensed mental health clinician with the Tennessee Lawyers Assistance Program (TLAP).

The TBA Sidebar podcast is all new with employment law attorney J.K Simms of Thompson Burton in Franklin. Simms joins the show to discuss the COVID-19 pandemic, how it is impacting his law practice and the legal issues it might cause his clients in the future. Sidebar is part of the Tennessee Bar Association Podcast Network and can be found on the TBA’s website or anywhere you listen to podcasts. If you have a story you’d like Sidebar to tell, email Kate Prince.  

The Tennessee Supreme Court today clarified that a trial court is required to charge a jury on self-defense only when the issue has been fairly raised by the proof at trial. In a unanimous opinion, the Supreme Court held that the trial court, not the jury, must make the threshold determination of whether self-defense has been fairly raised by the proof. Read the unanimous opinion in State v. Antonio Benson authored by Justice Roger A. Page.

The Senate Democratic Caucus is asking Gov. Bill Lee and Secretary of State Tre Hargett to expand absentee balloting for the August primary, WPLN reports. The caucus said that more absentee voting would protect voters from the COVID-19 virus and cited Wisconsin’s April election, where 40 people contracted the virus after voting, as an example of what could go wrong. The lawmakers also want to increase the number of sites and days of early voting and to have each voting precinct site approved by county health departments. “We do not want our voters to be in a situation where we have to choose between the health of our voters and the health of our democracy. Period,” said Sen. Raumesh Akbari, D-Memphis.