The 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals today upheld the decision of a three judge panel to give former Pilot Company president Mark Hazelwood a new trial, the Knoxville News Sentinel reports. The panel overturned the convictions of Hazelwood and two subordinates in October, ruling that U.S. District Judge Curtis Collier was wrong to allow prosecutors at the 2018 trial to play secret recordings of Hazelwood making racist comments. The one-page order offered no explanation but rejected a request by federal prosecutors to reconsider the decision. Prosecutors must now decide if they can reconstruct the case in which many witnesses were made up of reluctant former Pilot employees who received sentencing breaks in return for their testimony.

The Tennessee Court of Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board will hear oral arguments by videoconference in January and February. On Jan. 28, the board will hear the following: Tate v. Doney, d/b/a Middle Tennessee Respiratory; Harris v. Nashville Center for Rehabilitation and Healing; and Day v. Great Salons of Knoxville. On Feb. 4, it will hear Turner v. Pee Dee Country Enterprises, Inc. Read summaries of each case on the board’s website.

The University of Tennessee College of Law is seeking volunteers to conduct mock interviews with its law students from Jan. 13 through 15. All interviews will be conducted virtually and can be scheduled at a variety of times throughout the day. Each interview will take 30 minutes, allowing for 20 to 25 minutes to conduct the interview and five to 10 minutes to provide students with feedback. A user guide will be provided to all volunteer attorneys. Volunteers are asked to sign up for a minimum of two interviews, if possible. The sign-up sheet can be found here. Questions about the program can be emailed to Christie Laird.  

Disciplinary counsel with the Board of Professional Responsibility, Brittany Lavalle, will lead the TBA CLE’s upcoming program, Top 5 BPR Complaints of 2020 and How To Avoid Them in the Future. Lavalle will review the most common complaints the BPR received in 2020 and discuss with attendees what not to do and how to use best practices in 2021. The program will take place virtually on Jan. 7 from noon to 1 p.m. CST.

The Sixth Circuit Judicial Council has advanced the names of five attorneys to be considered for a bankruptcy judge vacancy in the Western District of the state. Those attorneys are as follows: Denise E. Barnett, Tampa, Florida; Bettye S. Bedwell, Memphis; Cindy Cole Ettingoff, Memphis; Carrie Ann Rohrscheib, Memphis; Daryl J. Smith, Memphis. The council must now narrow the list to three recommended candidates and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit will make the final decision on who will fill the vacancy. Written comments about any of the candidates for the council or Court of Appeals to consider should be emailed or mailed to the Office of the Circuit Executive, 503 Potter Stewart United States Courthouse, 100 East Fifth Street, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202. Comments must be received no later than Jan. 22.

Nashville attorney Kyonzté Hughes-Toombs has been appointed by the Tennessee Supreme Court to serve on the state’s Commission on Continuing Legal Education and Specialization. She will take her seat on the commission on Jan. 1, replacing outgoing Commission Chair John Alexander, who termed out after two years. Hughes-Toombs is the deputy general counsel for the Tennessee Department of Health and serves as District 2 councilwoman on the Metro Nashville Council. She currently serves on the board of the Lawyers Association for Women – Marion Griffin Chapter and is a 2017 graduate of the TBA’s Leadership Law program. The commission tracks CLE hours for 24,000 Tennessee attorneys and also approves or denies CLE credit for over 9,000 CLE courses across the country each year. Read more from the Administrative Office of the Courts. 

Many court services that were impacted by the explosion in Nashville last week have been brought back online, but several outages remain. The following is an update from Tuesday afternoon:

• Phone lines into the Nashville Supreme Court Building, Administrative Office of the Courts, and Board of Law Examiners have not yet been restored, but email is working. The AOC physical office will be closed for the week, with staff working remotely. All methods of filing will still be available, including the drop box located outside of the building, e-filing, fax filing, U.S. mail and commercial delivery services. Questions can be directed to the Appellate Court Clerk offices in Jackson at 731-423-5840, or Knoxville at 865-594-6700
   
• The Davidson County District Attorney’s office is without phone service
   
• The Tennessee Lawyers Assistance Program offices received heavy damage. The physical office is closed. The website and email are functioning and staff was able to gain access to their computer network on Monday.  All case files and other information on the network are accessible and secure. The phone lines are not currently working. If you have an emergency or need to talk to staff, please call this cell number: 615-393-2985
   
• The Davidson County court clerk offices are open and functioning, but phone lines are not working. Elevators in the buildings also may not be accessible. Email is functioning with no issues reported

Memphis-based Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare last week announced that it will no longer be acquiring Saint Francis Hospital-Memphis and Saint Francis Hospital-Bartlett after opposition from the Federal Trade Commission, the Associated Press reports. The FTC authorized a suit in federal court last month to block the proposed $350 million transaction, saying the deal would ultimately lead to higher health care costs and less incentives to expand quality of care. The Tennessee Attorney General’s Office later joined the FTC in its challenge. In a statement, Methodist Le Bonheur CEO Michael Ugwueke said his organization would rather focus on providing patients with quality care than engaging in costly and time consuming litigation.

Attorneys from the Choosing Justice Initiative last week filed an emergency motion urging the Tennessee Supreme Court to release people from jails and juvenile detention centers, WPLN reports. The petition cites a recent spike in COVID-19 cases and unsafe conditions in some facilities and asks the high court to require each judicial district to submit a new plan to reduce the number of people in their jails and juvenile detention centers. A similar motion was denied in the spring because courts had already asked districts to reduce their jail populations and many were released. But, according to the motion, jail populations have already increased again, from 19,126 on April 21 to 24,599 on Oct. 31. Attorneys also wrote that jails in more than 20 of the state’s 95 counties were at or above capacity.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY, today blocked efforts to hear legislation passed by the U.S. House to increase the amount of stimulus checks, making them $2,000 instead of $600, NPR reports. President Donald Trump has tweeted in support of an increase and several Senate Democrats pressured McConnell to allow a vote on the legislation, which was passed by the House on Monday in a 275-134 vote. McConnell blocked those efforts and gave no indication as to when, or if, he might agree to consider it. However, McConnell did say that the Senate would address a few big issues that Trump has recently called attention to, which includes the stimulus checks.