Monday is the last day to vote in the Tennessee Supreme Court Candidate Evaluation Poll. For the first time in its history, the TBA is polling its members for their views on the three justices facing retention votes in the August General Election – Chief Justice Gary Wade, Justice Cornelia Clark and Justice Sharon Lee. The TBA is using the SurveyMonkey platform to conduct the survey, which ensures the secrecy of votes. If you have not yet received an email to participate, please check your spam folder for an email from SurveyMonkey.com. The poll is one part of TBA’s efforts to help ensure that the 2014 judicial elections maintain a fair, impartial and accountable judiciary. Learn more about other efforts at the TBA’s Judicial Selection Information Center.

The Tennessee Supreme Court has determined that the effective dates of amendments 24(b) and 25(a) to the Tennessee Rules of Appellate Procedure should be indefinitely suspended, pending further consideration by the Court. In an order filed today, the court ruled that the amendments, which would require the filing of an electronic copy of the transcript, in addition to the original transcript, will not go into effect on July 1, the effective date for the other amendmdents.

A new CLE program on why we need fair courts has been added to the lineup of the TBA Annual Convnetion next week in Gatlinburg. Alistair Newbern, assistant professor at Vanderbilt Law School, will share why retention elections are important to a fair and impartial judiciary in Tennessee. The program will take place Thursday, June 12, at 3 p.m. You can learn more or register for the convention online.

Sharon K. Anderson was disbarred by the Tennessee Supreme Court on June 5 based upon her entry of a guilty plea to the fraudulent transmission of money. View the BPR notice.

Sweeping reform to Tennessee’s workers’ compensation process goes into effect next month and will have new legal implications for employers. The Nashville Business Journal spoke with Stuart Scott, an attorney with Dickinson Wright in Nashville, who highlighted what he considers the major changes in the new process. For a time being, Tennessee will be operating under both the new law and old — claims filed before July 1 will still go through the old process, meaning cases can still go to state courts. Those filed after that date will enter the new system.

Bar associations across Tennessee have joined the effort  to educate their members and communities on the upcoming judicial elections. The Memphis Bar Association will launch a Judicial Qualification Poll for August 's contested races, as well as the retention election for  Western Section Appellate Court seats and Supreme Court posts. The Knoxville Bar Association has developed a "Get to Know Your Judicial Candidates"  website to provide information about state judicial candidates. This tool provides a convenient way for Knox County voters to get non-partisan information about candidates so they can make an informed decision at the ballot box. The KBA, working with the League of Women Voters Knoxville/Knox County, has also invited all trial court candidates to participate in a judicial candidate forum on July 17 at the South College Auditorium.

An expert panel tasked with monitoring the Tennessee Department of Children's Services (DCS) says the agency has flourished under new leadership, the Memphis Daily News reports. Jim Henry became DCS Commissioner after Kate O'Day resigned early last year following a public outcry over problems at the agency. The report says that DCS has improved the way it keeps track of child deaths and investigations, recruited new foster families, invested in ways to help foster children after they turn 18 and fixed a computer system that had hindered caseworkers.

Attorrneys in the Western and Eastern Grand Divisions interested in a position on the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board have until tomorrow (June 6) to submit an application to the Governor’s Commission for Judicial Appointments. The application period for candidates in the Middle Division has closed. The 10 applicants from Middle Tennessee are Aaron James Conklin, Marshall L. Davidson III, Brian Dunigan, Keith Jordan, Ronald W. McNutt, Janis O. Mize, Richard Murrell, Tamra Lee Smith, Sarah K. Stein and Dale A. Tipps. The Administrative Office of the Courts has more. 

A Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) report released Tuesday shows domestic violence reported to police across the state dropped in 2013 for the fourth consecutive year, this time by 5.7 percent. Statewide, nearly every category of crime — including murders and aggravated assaults — decreased in 2013, and 65 out of 95 counties saw domestic violence cases drop as well. However, the TBI report notes that the number of domestic violence incidents involving same-sex couples in Tennessee has risen by 44 percent since 2008. The Tennessean has the story. 

Legal Aid Society attorney Theresa Vay-Smith has been honored with a 2014 Dove Awards from the ARC of Anderson County, a United Way agency serving children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Smith, an attorney with the Oak Ridge office of Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands, also received the award in 2011. “Receiving this award, not once, but twice reflects Thersa-Vay’s passion and dedication advocating for some of our community’s most vulnerable citizens,” Janet Mynatt, managing attorney for the Oak Ridge office, told Oak Ridge Today.