Changes to the Tennessee Rules of Civil Procedure and Tennessee Rules of Criminal Procedure, approved by the General Assembly in April, took effect July 1. The changes were originally proposed by the Tennessee Supreme Court in August 2022 based on recommendations from the Advisory Commission on the Rules of Practice & Procedure. The court originally included amendments to Rule 41 of the Rules of Criminal Procedure but after a comment period decided to send that section back to the commission for further consideration.

More than 170 laws passed this year by the Tennessee General Assembly are set to become effective tomorrow. The Tennessean looks at several, including new school security requirements, liability protections for gun manufacturers, business tax changes, restrictions on the sale of Delta-8 THC products, penalties for book publishers and distributors who send or sell obscene materials to public schools, stronger penalties for those who desecrate houses of worship, and paid family leave for state employees and teachers. Action News 5 has its own list, including new requirements tied to the state’s “Move Over” law, a 30-day requirement for death sentences to be carried out after all appeals are exhausted, and restrictions on universities using state funds for activity that “endorses or promotes a divisive concept.”

Hamilton County District Attorney Coty Wamp has been appointed to investigate complaints concerning the Shelby County Clerk's office and County Clerk Wanda Halbert. A news release from the Shelby County District Attorney's office said that Wamp was appointed by Shelby County Criminal Court Judge Chris Craft at the request of District Attorney Steve Mulroy, who believed that an outside, independent prosecutor was needed because of the politically sensitive nature of the inquiry. 

Chancellor Louis Oliver III has ruled that a lawsuit filed by the Sumner County Election Commission against the county’s mayor and the county commission will be allowed to continue. The Tennessee Lookout reports that the lawsuit was filed in May after members of the Sumner County Commission sought to evict election officials from their offices and warehouse space used to store voting machines — potentially leaving machines unsecured and out of easy reach of election officials who need ready access to them.

Sumner County has officially eliminated its Human Resources Department. According to the Tennessee Lookout, this week’s 19-4 decision is part of an ongoing approach to “streamline government and decrease bureaucratic function,” Commissioner Jeremy Mansfield said in advance of the vote. Commissioner Baker Ring was among those opposed to the measure, noting that the county is currently facing multiple lawsuits over policy actions taken by the county commission since a turnover in membership ushered in a majority of members who campaigned on limiting government in the last election.

The Jabari Bailey Highway Safety Act, named after a Memphis teen who was injured while pulled over along the highway, will add more requirements to Tennessee’s “Move Over Law” when it goes into effect Saturday. WATE in Knoxville reports that the act, sponsored by Knoxville Republican Sen. Becky Duncan Massey, requires motorists to change lanes and move away from any vehicle that is stationary on the side of the road with its hazard lights on. The previous “Move Over Law” only applied to emergency vehicles pulled over on the side of the road; this amendment is also intended keep road work crews safer.

A federal judge issued a temporary partial injunction a Tennessee’s law banning certain gender-affirming care for transgender minors. The law, which was set to take effect July 1, would have banned transgender youth from accessing puberty blockers or hormone replacement therapy, reports WPLN. Judge Eli Richardson wrote that limiting gender-affirming care for transgender children, but not for cisgender or intersex children, “imposes disparate treatment on the basis of sex.” The state argued that gender-affirming treatment does not improve mental health, but the judge’s ruling refutes this argument. The Daily Memphian reports that Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti filed an emergency motion asking the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee to reverse the preliminary injunction and notified the court that it would appeal the decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

The Tennessee Trial Lawyers Association recently held elections during the TTLA Annual Convention. Go here to see a complete list of the new TTLA Board of Governors. On Wednesday, the TTLA announced that Carey Acerra will serve as president for the 2023-2024 term. Acerra, a Memphis attorney, replaces Mark Chalos of Nashville who served as president from 2022-2023. Chalos now assumes the role of immediate past president and Danny Ellis of Chattanooga advances to the office of president-elect.

California-based Clarkson Law Firm is launching a class-action lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging the artificial-intelligence company that created popular chatbot ChatGPT violated the copyrights and privacy of countless people when it used data scraped from the internet to train its tech, reports Law.com. The 151-page complaint was filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California and claims that ChatGPT scrapes personal information on the internet without consent while also gathering user data. In addition to user information, the lawsuit alleges the company gathers identifying information from users’ devices, browsers and social media.

The Tennessee Trial Lawyers Association has named Memphis attorney and TBA member Carey Acerra as the new president of the TTLA. Acerra graduated from the University of Memphis in 1997 magna cum laude and received her law degree from the Cecil C. Humphrey School of Law at the University of Memphis in 2004. Read more about Acerra and see the full TTLA Board list in this release from the group.