The Tennessee Supreme Court has ordered a change in the classification of personal contact information that attorneys provide to the Board of Professional Responsibility. Personal contact information now will be considered confidential and not public record. The change was requested by the board in June. After receiving comments from the Tennessee Bar Association, the Knoxville Bar Association and others that lawyers should be asked to provide alternative contact information that can be made public, the court allowed TBA and the board to develop new language, which it now has adopted. The alternative contact information must be submitted by Jan. 1, 2025. Read more in a press release from the Administrative Office of the Courts.

The Tennessee Department of Finance and Administration will host Gov. Bill Lee’s public budget hearings for Fiscal Year 2026 on Nov. 5, 6, 12 and 13. The hearings will be live streamed. Check the department's website for the schedule of dates and times for individual state agency hearings.

Early voting in Tennessee concluded Thursday with over two million ballots cast, marking about 42% of total expected turnout. Overall, early voting was down about 2.9% compared to last year, though in-person early voting increased by 60,000 votes for a new state record. A 60% decrease in absentee ballots — which had surged in 2020 due to the pandemic — more than countered the in-person increase, the Nashville Banner reports. Election Day is Tuesday. Visit the Tennessee Secretary of State website to find polling locations, sample ballots, election information and more. The American Bar Association also has nonpartisan resources, programs and information to support voting, civic engagement and the electoral process.

Candidates who passed the July 2024 Tennessee Bar Exam were admitted to the practice of law at a ceremony in Knoxville today. Representatives from the Tennessee Bar Association and its Young Lawyers Division were on hand to congratulate the new admittees. See photos from today. Ceremonies continue this week with events in Nashville tomorrow, Jackson on Wednesday and Memphis on Thursday. Watch for coverage and photos from these events coming soon in TBA Today and on social media.

Four legal advice clinics are being held this week across the state. In Nashville, the Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands will hold a clinic on Wednesday from 4-6 p.m. at the Nashville library and on Saturday from 9:30-11:30 a.m. at the McHugh Clinic. In Memphis, the Memphis Bar Association and Memphis Area Legal Services will hold an Attorney of the Day Clinic on Thursday from 1-3 p.m. at the Shelby County General Sessions Courthouse and the Second Saturday Legal Aid Clinic from 10 a.m. to noon at the Benjamin Hooks Central Library. All times central. Sign up online to help at the Nashville clinics. Contact Heather Staggs to volunteer for the Memphis clinics.

TBA's annual Hot Topics in Real Estate seminar, presented in partnership with the Tennessee Land Title Association, will be held virtually on Nov. 8 from 9 a.m to 4:15 p.m. CST. Topics will include powers of attorney, the new FINCEN rules, AI and the annual case law and legislative updates. Participants include Al Frazier with Fidelity National Financial Title Group, Ryan Martinez with Alliant National Title Insurance, Dr. Susan Tanner with the University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law, and Charles Welch Jr. with Phelps Dunbar. Real Estate Section members enjoy discounted registration fees. Not a member of the section? Join here.

Rideshare drivers in Tennessee are advocating for legislation to ban out-of-state drivers from operating within the state. Drivers have formed an organization to advocate for change and say they are in the process of working with an attorney to create a proposal to share with lawmakers next month, aiming for its introduction during the next legislative session, Fox Chattanooga reports. Drivers argue that the influx of out-of-state drivers, and a ban on out-of-state drivers in Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Kentucky, has oversaturated the market, leading to decreased earnings. The group will also be holding a strike regarding this issue on Nov. 20.

Dennis Bruce Francis, a Knoxville attorney and advocate for voting rights, died Tuesday at age 78. Francis received his law degree from the University of Tennessee College of Law in 1974 and went to work as general counsel at Eastern State Psychiatric Hospital (later Lakeshore Mental Health Institute). He was a member of the Knoxville Bar Association, served as chair of the Knox County Election Commission and was a member of the state Democratic Executive Committee. The family will receive friends on Nov. 4 from 5 to 7 p.m. EDT with a Rosary at 6:30 at Rose Funeral & Cremation, 6200 Kingston Pike, Knoxville 37919. A funeral mass will be held at noon EST on Nov. 5 at St. John Neumann Catholic Church, 645 St. John Court, Farragut 37934.

Amazon asked a federal judge in Seattle to dismiss a multibillion-dollar consumer lawsuit case that claims the company’s cloud-based voice service Alexa illegally collected and recorded private conversations without consent. Amazon said in a federal court filing on Wednesday that after years of litigation, consumers had failed to show the company engaged in unfair or deceptive practices, Reuters reports. “Alexa recordings in fact contain none of the private, salacious or personal details they claimed in their complaint,” Amazon told the court. The plaintiff filings said the consumers “either knew or reasonably should have known how Alexa worked.” The lawsuit, filed in 2021, claimed Amazon violated state wiretap laws through its collection and storage of data from Alexa.

The U.S. Department of Transportation on Tuesday announced that three railroad projects in Tennessee will receive up to $25.7 million in federal infrastructure grants. Funded projects include upgrades to a railroad from Jackson to the northwest corner of the state, improvements to 13 miles of track between Manchester and Morrison, and a new rail yard in Watertown, east of Nashville, the Tennessee Lookout reports. The funds, distributed by the Federal Railroad Administration, are part funding dedicated by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to 122 rail improvement projects across the country.