Gov. Bill Lee today announced the appointment of Janet Vest Hardin as special judge on the Washington County General Sessions Court. Prior to her appointment, Hardin served as assistant district attorney for the 1st Judicial District from 1988-2019 and for the 6th Judicial District from 1987-1988. She also served as an adjunct professor at East Tennessee State University and with the Knoxville law firm of Ritchie, Fels and Dillard. Hardin will fill the temporary vacancy created by Judge James Nidiffer, who is stepping away from his judicial duties due to an illness. Read more about Hardin from the Administrative Office of the Courts.

More than one third of the prisoners housed at CoreCivic’s Metro Detention Facility in Nashville tested positive for the COVID-19 virus in recent weeks, but a reporting loophole has kept those numbers out of the public eye, WPLN reports. All 170 prisoners who tested positive for the virus have now recovered, but those cases were never reported by the Tennessee Department of Correction. A CoreCivic spokesperson said the private facility sends daily reports to its contract monitor at the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office, works closely with the Metro Public Health Department and reports COVID testing and case numbers to the Tennessee Corrections Institute, a state agency that oversees local correctional facilities. But, since the facility is not technically part of the state prison system or the sheriff’s office, it hasn’t been included in either agency’s reports to the public. TDOC says one other prison in Shelby County operates under a similar arrangement. CoreCivic facilities have accounted for nearly half of the system’s 3,300 COVID-19 cases and five of its nine deaths. The sheriff’s office is set to take over the Nashville prison in October after the company announced last month it is ending its contract with Metro after nearly three decades.

Join the TBA’s Litigation Law Section for its annual forum on Sept. 17 from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. CDT. This year’s program features a live virtual forum and includes two exclusive webinars to watch after the event. Topics for this program include federal courtroom practice and procedure, state procedure and application, pre-suit investigation techniques, ethics and more. Registrants will receive login information on Sept. 16. Register now. 

Sumner County lawyers and TBA members Jake Mason and Michael Ponce joined forces this summer to hold the End Hunger For Heroes Food Drive, benefitting the Sumner County Veterans Food Pantry. The effort collected approximately 3,500 pounds of food and additional monetary donations. Mason noted that “the past several months have been difficult for many throughout Sumner County” and said it “was so wonderful to see how generous the community was to help our local veterans food pantry.” Mason is founder of the Heritage Law Group, a boutique estate planning and elder law firm serving clients in Tennessee and Kentucky. Ponce is founder of Ponce Law, which handles personal injury, employment law, Social Security/disability, wrongful death and worker related injury cases.

Gov. Bill Lee drew criticism last week when he said he had not responded to a meeting request from the Tennessee Black Caucus of State Legislators because “we meet with those folks that are willing to work together to move forward.” Members of the Black caucus registered their anger at a press conference today, calling the answer personally offensive. Now, Lee's staff is “working to get one on the books,” a spokesperson said of a future meeting, according to the Nashville Post. The caucus has been seeking a meeting with Lee to discuss recent protests and legislation Lee signed into law making it a felony to camp out overnight on the Capitol grounds. The lawmakers also used today’s event to call on Lt. Gov. Randy McNally to apologize for a meme posted to his Facebook page that warned Black Lives Matters supporters “there’s nobody protecting you from us” if police are defunded. When it was pointed out that the meme could be interpreted as an implicit threat, it was taken down.

This program has been postponed due to ongoing concerns about gathering in person. It will be rescheduled when it is safe to do so. The TBA’s annual Animal Law Forum will take place April 9, 2021, at the Nashville Zoo and will provide updates on trends and advancements in animal law. The zoo’s president and chief executive officer will be on hand to discuss conservation efforts, laws affecting procurement, care for zoo animals and more. Five other speakers will cover topics such as ethical considerations for animals and the law, legislative updates and laws governing farm animals. Programming will run from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. CDT. Zoo admission, breakfast and lunch are included.

The Tennessee Supreme Court has unanimously held that courts may not retroactively correct — or “reform” — deeds when doing so would harm parties with valid recorded liens on the property and would benefit others who bought the property with notice of the liens. In Tennessee, courts have the authority to correct an error in a written agreement if it was caused by the mutual mistake of the parties. To correct such a mistake, the parties must prove by clear and convincing evidence that the document does not accurately reflect their agreement and the error was not caused by the gross negligence of the party seeking to correct it. But in the case at hand, the court found that two banks would be deprived of their property liens if an unintended error was corrected.

Davidson County lawyer Kevin William Teets Jr. was reinstated to the practice of law today. He had been suspended in June for 30 days. The Tennessee Supreme Court conditioned reinstatement on Teets’ engagement of a practice monitor for one year. The monitor is required to meet with Teets monthly to assess his case load, timeliness of tasks, adequacy of communication with clients and accounting procedures.

Attorneys for the state are asking a federal judge to set aside a preliminary injunction he imposed on July 24 to bar the recent “heartbeat” abortion law from taking effect. In a filing Friday, the state notified U.S. District Judge William Campbell that it plans to appeal the injunction and asked Campbell to lift the ban while the appeal moves forward, Tennessee Lookout reports. The law bans most abortions after the point a fetal heartbeat can be detected, and makes it a crime for doctors to perform abortions if a fetal heartbeat can be detected. Gov. Bill Lee signed the bill into law on July 13. Opponents of the measure sued, arguing the measure violates Roe v. Wade and other U.S. Supreme Court precedent. Judge Campbell agreed and issued a preliminary injunction barring the law from taking effect.

The American Bar Association is partnering with the National Association of Secretaries of State and the National Association of State Election Directors to mobilize lawyers to assist as poll workers for the upcoming 2020 election. The Poll Worker Esq. Initiative encourages lawyers, law students and other legal professionals to step into these roles to protect more vulnerable populations that typically serve. Check out a video launching the initiative, sign up to help and support the effort with the hashtag #PollWorkerEsq.