The Knoxville Bar Association and its Bankruptcy Section, in partnership with Legal Aid of East Tennessee and U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Suzanne H. Bauknight, will hold a Pro Bono Debt Relief Clinic on Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon EDT. The event will take place at the Knox County Public Defender's Community Law Office. Judge Bauknight will present a short overview of the bankruptcy system and other solutions for clients before volunteer lawyers meet with them to discuss their options.

The Memphis Bar Association and its Access to Justice Committee will host a virtual legal advice clinic on Friday from 1 to 3 p.m. CDT. Clients must register online at 901legalconnect.org. The virtual clinic is sponsored by Burch, Porter & Johnson in collaboration with the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Office of General Counsel, the Community Legal Center and Memphis Area Legal Services.

"Want to build a better firm?" A simple question asked by the November-December Tennessee Bar Journal, and of course the short answer is yes! But how? Answer: "Build a culture of well-being." The issue is devoted to showing you how to do this, and how improving your health will help your practice. Conceived and created by members of the TBA's Attorney Well-Being Committee, the issue covers how your skills can help with caregiving, handling holiday stress, the importance of sleep, liability insurance and more. TBA President Sherie Edwards co-writes her column this month with her daughter, Victoria Cundiff, in which they open up about their journey. "As I’ve stated before, one of the main initiatives of my bar year is to shine a light on mental health, especially destigmatizing seeking help for mental health disorders," Edwards writes. "My reason for this focus is both professional and intensely personal."

Legislators were expected to vote today on a measure that would allow the attorney general to temporarily replace local district attorneys on cases they refuse to prosecute, the Tennessean reports. The bill, sponsored by House Speaker Cameron Sexton, R-Crossville, advanced in the Senate and House yesterday. The new bill would allow the attorney general to ask the court to install a temporary prosecutor to handle all cases charged under an offense that a district attorney “peremptorily and categorically” announced they would not prosecute. The court would still retain the authority to decide whether the circumstances merited the district attorney pro tem. Supporters of the bill said it is aimed at prosecutors "taking a rogue approach on multiple issues and refusing to uphold their oath of office.” Rep. London Lamar, D-Memphis, opposed the measure. “This is muddying the water on the separation of powers just because we don’t like the court’s decisions and the way they let their district attorneys operate,” she said.

A juvenile who was incarcerated for three days in 2016 is suing Rutherford County Juvenile Court Judge Donna Scott Davenport and Juvenile Detention Center Director Lynn Duke for $15 million, the Daily News Journal reports. The plaintiff, who was 10 at the time of incarceration, was arrested for allegedly encouraging an off-campus fight which, according to the lawsuit, he was not actually present for. The suit pointed to a 2017 ruling by Chief U.S. District Court Judge Waverly D. Crenshaw Jr., which said that the juvenile center was illegally incarcerating children accused of misdemeanors based on Davenport's 2003 order and memorandum in asking officers to "arrest all" children facing charges. Last month, Rutherford County agreed to pay $11 million to settle a class action lawsuit brought on behalf of juveniles wrongly detained by the county. A report from Nashville Public Radio and ProPublica earlier this month revealed the county’s “staggering history of jailing children” and its use of an illegal filtering system for determining which children go to jail.

Knox County District Attorney General Charme Allen is expressing concern over proposed legislation that would alter the length of a life sentence in Tennessee, WATE.com reports. State law defines a life sentence as 60 years, with the possibility of parole after serving 85%, or 51 years. House Bill 1532/Senate Bill 0561 would allow parole eligibility after 60% of a life sentence is served, or 36 years. Allen says she’s worried the new bill would allow those who have committed first-degree murder to be released even earlier if they earn certain credits. Though the bill does require a 25-year minimum sentence, Allen believes a life sentence “should mean more than 25 years.” She says a fiscal note from the state shows the bill would impact 1,600 inmates and would also have a retroactive effect, which would allow inmates to become eligible for parole decades before victims’ families were expecting. The fiscal note estimates the bill would save the state $1.2 million in the first year and $2.46 million for the following nine years.

James H. “Jim” Ripley has announced his campaign for chancery court judge of the 4th and 5th Judicial Districts, which cover Sevier, Jefferson, Cocke, Grainger and Blount counties. Ripley, a Republican candidate, has practiced in the 4th and 5th districts since he was licensed in 1983. The Chancery Court has previously appointed Ripley as special master to hear testimony and provide legal opinions in complex legal matters. Ripley is a past president of the Sevier County Bar Association, a TBA member and a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates. Ripley says he “will bring 38 years’ experience with a focus on integrity, fairness and common sense in the finest tradition of my predecessors” if elected. Read his campaign announcement here.

Lebanon-based behavioral health facility Ameri-Kare and its CEO Janie Ganaway have agreed to pay the state $86,595.96 to settle claims that they violated the Tennessee Medicaid False Claims Act. Per the settlement agreement, the state alleges Ameri-Kare submitted false claims for payment for TennCare members, false claims for TennCare services provided by a physician no longer employed by the facility and altered records to conceal wrongdoing. Read the full settlement from the Attorney General’s Office website.

Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery and 20 attorneys general from across the country are asking President Joe Biden to withdraw his administration’s COVID-19 mandate for all federal contractors. Pursuant to Biden’s September executive order requiring federal departments to contractually require contractors and subcontractors to adopt COVID-19 safety protocols, the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force in September issued a vaccination mandate, which Slatery called “simply not workable.” Read more from the AG’s website.  

Results from the July 2021 Uniform Bar Examination in Tennessee are now available. Almost 350 candidates successfully passed the exam.