The American Bar Association recently approved a new half online, half on-site law program at William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, Minneapolis. While the ABA allows law schools to offer up to 12 hours of online credit, the hybrid program is the first of its kind to receive accreditation. US News and World Reports has more.

This matter is before the Court upon the State’s motion to dismiss or in the alternative to affirm the judgment of the trial court by memorandum opinion pursuant to Rule 20, Rules of the Court of Criminal Appeals. Petitioner, James Sellars, has appealed the lower court’s order dismissing his petition for post-conviction relief in which he alleged that the trial court improperly sentenced him as a career offender.

The Defendant, Patrick David McCollum, pled guilty to one count of solicitation to commit aggravated assault, a Class E felony. See Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 39-12-102, -13-102. The trial court sentenced the Defendant as a Range I, standard offender to twenty months’ incarceration. In this appeal as of right, the Defendant contends (1) that the trial court erred in denying his request for alternative sentencing; (2) that the trial court abused its discretion in denying his request for judicial diversion; and (3) that the State abused its discretion in denying his request for pretrial diversion.

At issue in this case is the methodology by which multi-state taxpayers are to compute their liability for franchise and excise taxes to Tennessee and, specifically, the authority of the Commissioner of Revenue to require the taxpayers to use an apportionment methodology other than the standard cost of performance methodology codified in Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 67-4-2012 and 67-4-2110.

Petitioner, Robert Kizer, appeals from the Stewart County Circuit Court’s summary dismissal of his petition for post-conviction relief after a 2009 guilty plea to the sale of cocaine. Petitioner argues he was deprived of due process because the court dismissed his post- conviction petition without a hearing or notice during his probation revocation hearing, and that the post-conviction court erred by concluding that the petition was untimely. We agree, and we remand this case for further post-conviction proceedings.

Plaintiffs sued four individual defendants and three religious institutions for invasion of privacy; malicious harassment; assault; intentional infliction of emotional distress; negligence; negligent hiring, training, supervision and retention; and civil conspiracy. The trial court dismissed all of plaintiffs’ causes of action for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. We affirm the dismissal of plaintiffs’ claims against two of the religious institutions for failure to state a claim for vicarious liability.

This appeal concerns a breach of contract claim brought for an alleged wrongful acceleration of a note in default, a cause of action currently unrecognized in Tennessee law. Janet Wynn Snyder (“Snyder”) sued First Tennessee Bank (“the Bank”) in the Chancery Court for Knox County (“the Trial Court”). Snyder alleged that the Bank abused its discretion in accelerating her debt when it knew that it held funds of Snyder’s in a trust sufficient to cover her debt to the Bank. The Bank filed a motion to dismiss under Tenn. R. Civ. P. 12.02(6), which the Trial Court granted. Snyder appeals.

The Memphis Lawyers’ Chapter of the Federalist Society will present a seminar on campaign finance regulation on Tuesday at The Madison Hotel. Lunch is from 11:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. with programming to follow. Tickets are $25 for Federalist Society members, $30 for non-members. To register, contact Greg Grisham at (901) 462-2616.

A specially appointed “Ad Hoc Committee on Judicial Accountability” of the Tennessee Senate is scheduled to meet Tuesday. While the notice fails to indicate the purpose of the meeting, it appears to be a legislative effort to investigate Sen. Mike Bell’s ethics complaint against Tennessee Supreme Court Chief Justice Gary Wade and/or to examine the legality of the composition of the state’s Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission, Gavel to Gavel reports. 

The Madison County Criminal Justice Complex and Jail Annex failed an inspection of the jail facilities last month by the Tennessee Corrections Institute, the Jackson Sun reports. The annual surprise inspection took place on May 8; the county has until July 7 to fix the problems found in the inspection, which included overcrowding that led to some inmates sleeping on the floor at the justice complex.