Legal service organizations and bar associations are providing support in response to two federal disaster declarations for tornadoes and severe storms that struck in middle and east Tennessee over the past two months. A toll-free legal assistance hotline (1-844-HELP4TN) is available to support survivors of the disasters and more information about services, including remote legal clinics, is available at www.HELP4TN.org. Volunteers are needed to provide legal information, advice and representation to those affected. Attorneys interested in volunteering should complete this online form. Assistance is also available from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Small Business Administration. The deadline for assistance applications related to the March tornadoes is May 4 (possible extension pending) and June 23 for the April storms.

The TBA Sidebar podcast is all new with employment law attorney J.K Simms of Thompson Burton in Franklin. Simms joins the show to discuss the COVID-19 pandemic, how it is impacting his law practice and the legal issues it might cause his clients in the future. Sidebar is part of the Tennessee Bar Association Podcast Network and can be found on the TBA’s website or anywhere you listen to podcasts. If you have a story you’d like Sidebar to tell, email Kate Prince.  

The Tennessee Supreme Court today clarified that a trial court is required to charge a jury on self-defense only when the issue has been fairly raised by the proof at trial. In a unanimous opinion, the Supreme Court held that the trial court, not the jury, must make the threshold determination of whether self-defense has been fairly raised by the proof. Read the unanimous opinion in State v. Antonio Benson authored by Justice Roger A. Page.

The Senate Democratic Caucus is asking Gov. Bill Lee and Secretary of State Tre Hargett to expand absentee balloting for the August primary, WPLN reports. The caucus said that more absentee voting would protect voters from the COVID-19 virus and cited Wisconsin’s April election, where 40 people contracted the virus after voting, as an example of what could go wrong. The lawmakers also want to increase the number of sites and days of early voting and to have each voting precinct site approved by county health departments. “We do not want our voters to be in a situation where we have to choose between the health of our voters and the health of our democracy. Period,” said Sen. Raumesh Akbari, D-Memphis.

The Tennessee Bar Association has opened the nomination period for the third annual Fourth Estate Award: Honoring Courageous Reporting on Justice and the Law. Prior winners were the WSMV Channel 4 I-Team in Nashville for its reporting on Judge Casey Moreland and Steven Hale of the Nashville Scene for his coverage of the executions of Billy Ray Irick, David Earl Miller and Edmund Zagorski, and capital punishment more generally in Tennessee. Learn more about the award or make a nomination now.

Davidson County Chancellor Anne Martin heard arguments via teleconference from the state and Davidson and Shelby counties on Wednesday over Gov. Bill Lee’s education savings account program, the Nashville Post reports. Both counties sued the state over the voucher program, arguing that it unfairly targeted the state’s two largest school systems. The law, which would give qualifying students in Davidson and Shelby counties $7,000 to spend on private-school tuition, was opposed by most lawmakers from both counties. Additionally, Metro attorneys argued the program was designed to benefit only students from high-performing schools. Martin said she would rule on the motions to dismiss or to enjoin the voucher plan’s implementation within a week, a timeline expedited by the stalled application process for next school year.

Two hundred sixty-six pretrial detainees and jail employees at 201 Poplar have been tested for COVID-19, with more than 70% testing positive, the Daily Memphian reports. According to numbers provided by Shelby County Health Department Director Dr. Alisa Haushalter on Wednesday, of those 266, 155 inmates and 37 employees were positive. Shelby County Sheriff Floyd Bonner said detainees who tested positive had been quarantined in a sterilized environment and that all of them were asymptomatic. The inmates who tested positive are in the jail on felony charges with the most serious charge being first-degree murder. Two jail employees are in the hospital and Jeremy Smith, a 201 Poplar corrections deputy, died from complications of the virus on April 21.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been detrimental for so many, but, according to Massachusetts attorney and author of the LawSites legal blog, Bob Ambrogi, the legal profession might be changed for the better. In an article he wrote for Above the Law, Ambrogi lists seven ways in which the pandemic has changed the practice of law. That list includes changes to legal education, an acceleration of innovation and online services in the courts and lawyers who are more likely to embrace technology rather than fear it. Ambrogi writes that he believes many of these changes will be for the “betterment of the legal system and those it is intended to serve.” Read Ambrogi’s “7 Ways The Pandemic Will Forever Change Law Practice” article at Above the Law.  

The Family Law Forum originally set for May 11 is now available in an online 1-Click package! Because of significant updates taking place right now, members have requested that the online package be made available immediately. The four-hour program includes important child support updates that go into effect May 10, key issues in family law during the COVID-19 pandemic, G.A.L. essentials, and ethics in family law. Visit the TBA course catalog to see all available online courses.

A new study suggests that practicing acceptance helps reduce stress more than other mindfulness activities, Jill Suttie writes in an online article for mindful.org. “Learning how to accept your present-moment experience is really important for reducing stress,” says Emily Lindsay, one of the study’s coauthors. “It seems to be a key element of mindfulness training.” Mindfulness practices that specifically emphasize acceptance teach us a nonjudgmental attitude toward our experiences and help us to “stop focusing only on what’s wrong and to notice other feelings, sensations and thoughts occurring at the same time.” And “stress diminishes as you take in more of your experience,” Lindsay explains.