In-person jury trials have resumed in Sullivan County, but Criminal Court Judge Jim Goodwin says the halt in trials during the COVID-19 pandemic has created an overwhelming backlog of cases, WJHL News reports. “We can’t catch up. We won’t catch up,” he said. “We’ll get through them the best we can. And that’s all we can do.” Public Defender Andrew Gibbons said his attorneys normally have around 100 cases each, but their caseloads can now reach up to 200 at a time. He cautions against rushing through these cases. “One of my big fears is people in the system — judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, Department of Corrections, whoever — they’re going to want to just start cranking out cases … my job is to make sure the process is fair. My job is to make sure people are protected from the system. You can’t rush that.”

The White House has confirmed that Tennessee is being used as a place to transport unaccompanied migrant children to family members or sponsors, WREG News Channel 3 reports. “Tennessee is a state that is right near and the middle of the country, and some kids have to travel through there to get to their destination,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said recently. The Biden administration is seeking to connect children seeking asylum at the border with sponsors and are using a place in Chattanooga to house and transport some of those children. Matt Maniatis, a Nashville based immigration attorney, tells the station that there is nothing new about the process being used. “This is a program that’s been around for decades. It was the same program under the Trump administration,” Maniatis said.

Roger A. Miller has announced his intention to seek re-election for a second term as Anderson County General Sessions judge for Division II, located in Oak Ridge. Miller was first elected 2014 after practicing law for 16 years in Clinton, the Oak Ridger reports. He obtained his law degree from Samford University’s Cumberland School of Law in 1998. Prior to joining the legal profession, Miller was an EMS paramedic for 13 years.

A dozen law firms with offices in Tennessee have made the Am Law 100 List this year. In addition to the two firms that debuted on the list for the first time (Baker Donelson and Loeb & Loeb), 10 others repeat on the list of top revenue-grossing firms. They are: Husch Blackwell, Chattanooga; Jackson Lewis, Memphis; Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani, K&L Gates, Nelson Mullins, Pillsbury, Polsinelli and Winthrop Shaw Pittman, Nashville; and Littler Mendelson and Ogletree Deakins with offices in both Memphis and Nashville. See the full list.

The 2021 TBA Annual Convention is being presented this year as both an in-person and virtual event. For those not yet ready to travel, the virtual option includes all the same CLE and key programs as the in-person option but at a significant savings. Programming will be offered each day the week of June 14. Early in the week, Tennessee law school alumni will gather for virtual mixers, while virtual programs will focus on civility, the TBA’s Practice Management Center and legal trends beyond COVID. On Thursday, join colleagues gathered in Memphis for the annual Bench Bar program and popular Better Right Now CLE via Zoom. And on Friday, don’t miss the annual Legislative Update CLE and Lawyers Luncheon, where colleagues will be honored for their service to the bar and the profession, and Nashville lawyer Sherie Edwards will be sworn in as TBA's 142nd president. Register here for the virtual option.

Former State Rep. Joe Carr, R-Lascassas, has announced that he will run for Rutherford County mayor, TNJ: On the Hill reports. Incumbent Bill Ketron has encountered several legal problems pertaining to his former insurance business and most recently received a $135,000 civil penalty for questionable campaign contributions and expenditures. Carr served as a state representative from 2008 until 2014 when he launched an unsuccessful campaign for U.S. Senate in the Republican primary against Lamar Alexander. He also ran unsuccessfully for two different U.S. House seats and the state Republican Party chair. He was hired to work in Gov. Bill Lee’s administration in 2018, but left after roughly a year.

Davidson County lawyer Mark Christopher Scruggs was today censured by the Tennessee Supreme Court. Scruggs represented a client against criminal charges alleging rape of a child. The victim in the case had been removed from the home and removed from the mother’s custodial rights. Scruggs arranged with the mother for the victim to be interviewed by a private investigator but failed to seek and obtain permission from the court-appointed custodian prior to the interview. A public censure is a rebuke and warning to the attorney, but it does not affect the attorney’s ability to practice law.

U.S. District Judge Travis McDonough in Knoxville has denied a temporary restraining order that would have stopped the priority status for restaurants and bars owned by women and certain minorities in President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 relief package, the Associated Press reports. The complaint targets the three-week period from May 3 until Monday when only funding requests from businesses owned by women, veterans or socially and economically disadvantaged individuals will be processed. The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty brought the lawsuit for a restaurant owner in Harriman, Tennessee. It claims the program pushes white males “to the back of the line” and puts them “at significant risk” of missing out on funding. McDonough was not swayed by the argument, citing data from the federal government that shows how businesses owned by women and some minorities “have suffered more severely” than others during the pandemic.

Gov. Bill Lee this week signed two criminal justice reform bills into law, predicting that the measures would break cycles of crime and punishment and keep families intact, the Tennessean reports. The new laws are intended to divert more people away from state prisons and to expand support services for people who are leaving prisons after serving their sentences. The administration is expected to push for broader sentencing reform next year. Lee is also expected to sign legislation that creates harsher penalties for several crimes, including drag racing, farm vandalism and reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon. After the bill signing, Lee told reporters that his criminal justice work would pair “smart” reforms with some tougher penalties.

The Administrative Office of the Court, in partnership with the Department of Children’s Services, Metro Nashville Public Schools and the Davidson County Juvenile Court, has created a pilot program with the goal of increasing on-time graduation rates for students in foster care. Project Wrap Around hopes to achieve its goal by facilitating improved communication among stakeholders like DCS and MNPS and through Wrap Around Meetings, which will be attended by students in foster care, school administrators, counselors, teachers, MNPS and DCS, guardians ad litem and CASA advocates when appropriate. The project’s stakeholders hope to have conversations about expanding beyond Davidson County after the next school year. The AOC’s website has more on its efforts to make Project Wrap Around successful.