Washington County Republican state representatives will have Democratic challengers in the August primary. Brad Batt of Johnson City will run against current District 6 Rep. Tim Hicks of Gray. Sylvain Bruni of Johnson City will face District 7 Rep. Rebecca Hicks of Jonesborough. WJHL reports that both Batt and Bruni have stated that they are focused on improving the region's health care quality and opposing Gov. Bill Lee's voucher program.

Nashville attorney Robert "Bob" Edmond Parker died April 2 at the age of 80. A native of Shelbyville, he attended Vanderbilt University for both undergraduate and law school, going on to the serve in the Marines as a judge advocate. He was a founder of the law firm of Parker, Lawrence, Cantrell & Smith, and served in leadership and board positions with Family and Children’s Service, Westminster School (now Curry Ingram Academy) and Pastoral Counseling Centers (now Insight), among others. Services will be held April 9 at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 3900 West End Ave., Nashville 37205. Visitation will begin at 10:30 a.m. CDT, followed by services noon. The service will be livestreamed at www.nashvillewpc.church. In lieu of flowers, please consider a contribution to Westminster Presbyterian Church or Alive Hospice.

A new TBA Legislative Updates podcast is now available featuring attorney and TBA lobbyist Berkley Schwarz and Adams and Reese attorney and TBA lobbyist Ashley Harbin. This week they discuss HB2710/SB2254 (the TBA Conservatorship bill), HB2645 (the adoption birth certificate bill), HB2002 (removing two Shelby county judicial districts), HB2215/SB2448 (the Real Estate Fraud Reduction Act), and HB2644 (the adoption clean-up bill.) Legislative Updates airs each week on the TBA’s Facebook page. It is also released as a podcast on the same day and can be found on the TBA’s website or wherever you listen to podcasts.

The Tennessee Bar Association and Tennessee’s American Inns of Court are accepting nominations for the 2024 Judge Pamela L. Reeves Tennessee Professionalism Award through today, April 8. The annual award is presented to a lawyer or judge whose life and practice display sterling character and unquestioned integrity, coupled with ongoing dedication to the highest standards of the rule of law and the highest standards of the legal profession in Tennessee. This year's award will be presented to a lawyer or judge residing in the West Grand Division. Nominees must be alive when nominations are submitted but they need not be an active member of an American Inn of Court or the TBA. The award will be presented at the TBA's Annual Convention, which will be held in Memphis June 12-15.

The TBA would like to thank Estate Planning & Probate Section Chair Aaron Flinn and the section’s executive council for another stellar forum. The council meets monthly to discuss legislation and updates to the practice area, and to plan CLEs, webinars and other programming. Stay tuned for more events to come, including the Topgolf Estate Planning Tee-off on a to-be-determined date this summer.

Section Chair: Aaron Flinn, Holland & Knight
Section Vice Chair: Charles Frazier, The Law Offices of Charles R. Frazier
Immediate Past Chair: Ashley Stearns, Trail Coleman & Stearns

Eastern Delegates
Angelia Nystrom, Long Ragsdale & Waters
Donald Farinato, Hodges Doughty & Carson
Jennifer Exum, Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell & Berkowitz
John Billings, The Law Office of John L. Billings
Newman Bankston, Egerton McAfee Armistead & Davis

Middle Delegates
Bevin Lyle, Dale Hutto & Lyle
David Parsons, David Parsons Law
J Barry, J Barry Law Office
Jeff Carson, CL Group
Michael Goode, Lewis Thomason
Rob Malin, Pinnacle Financial Partners

Western Delegate
Mike Parham, Parham Estate Law

As the deadline looms, many U.S. taxpayers begin a last-minute push to get their financial affairs in order. While filing W-2 wages is pretty straightforward, things can get tricky when dealing with investment income. Americans in 2021 reported nearly $2.7 trillion in investment income, including approximately $2.1 trillion in sales of capital assets. The same year, taxpayers reported over $408 billion in taxable IRA distributions, more than $858 billion of taxable pensions and annuities, and $413 billion in taxable Social Security benefits. A recent article in Forbes provides considerations involving common investment concerns such as taxable and tax-exempt interest, asset location, capital gains, qualified dividends and more.

Thursday’s virtual Elder Law Basics forum will feature a session on estate recovery. Expert and TBA Elder Law Section Chair John Toy will cover the essentials such as what to expect, the process and procedures involved and the importance of planning to avoid estate recovery. Other topics at the forum include pre-admission evaluations, TennCare, real estate in elder law, ethics and how clients can afford health care in retirement. Learn more and register here.

February’s TBA Estate Planning & Probate Forum was a huge success with almost 250 lawyers attending in person. The event also saw participation of 16 sponsors who were onsite to provide information regarding their organizations to TBA members. This forum remains the premier event for Tennessee planners and professionals of related practice areas. The continued growth is a testament to the topnotch programming, presenters and hard work of the Estate Planning Section leadership. If you missed the forum, you can find individual sessions on the TBA CLE website.

Join the Corporate Counsel Section for its annual forum on April 19 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. CDT. The program will be held virtually via Zoom, with topics including how the Corporate Transparency Act affects in-house counsel, guiding your company through a government investigation, the recent FTC guidance on noncompetes and no-poaching agreements, and what in-house counsel needs to know about parent/subsidiary relationships. Learn more and register here.

Following a motor vehicle accident, Appellant/the insured brought a breach of contract claim against Appellee/the automobile insurer. In a motion for summary judgment, Appellee argued that Appellant materially breached the duty to cooperate clause of the insurance policy, which barred his recovery. The trial court granted summary judgment in favor of Appellee, finding that there was no genuine issue of material fact that Appellant materially breached the insurance policy by failing to submit to an examination under oath. The trial court concluded that the material breach barred Appellant from recovery under the policy. Appellant appeals. Discerning no error, we affirm and remand.