After approving a fifth judicial commissioner position at its last meeting, the Hamilton County Commission yesterday named Rachel Ortwein to the post. Ortwein, who previously was an assistant district attorney, had been serving as an "on call" judicial commissioner. She was the only applicant for the position, Chattanoogan.com reports. She will join Chief Lori Miller, Ron Powers, Charles Paty and Blake Murchison. Judicial commissioners, also known as magistrates, set bonds and handle warrants.

Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani has named Adam Hiller the co-managing partner of its Nashville office. He joins Heather Gwinn in this shared leadership role. Hiller, a litigator with experience in federal and state courts, represents a broad array of clients in the construction sector, including architects, engineers, general contractors and construction managers, commercial property owners and developers, subcontractors and environmental consultants. He joined the Nashville office in September 2019 from the firm’s New York City office. Read more in a release from the firm.

The La Vergne city council has approved a settlement agreement with former officer Maegan Hall, who filed a federal lawsuit against the city accusing her supervisors of grooming her, WKRN reports. Hall filed suit in February 2023 against the city, two former sergeants and the former chief of police. She and four other officers were fired in January 2023 for allegedly having sex while on duty, sending nude photos of each other, not disclosing their relationships and lying during an internal investigation. Former Chief Chip Davis was fired a month later after a third-party investigation found he was aware of the sex scandal but failed to report it, and may even have encouraged the behavior. Hall will be compensated $500,000 for “civil rights claims based on personal physical injuries.”

The Tennessee Opioid Abatement Council has announced its first round of community grant recipients with $81 million set to be distributed throughout the state, the Nashville Post reports. Treatment programs received the highest subset of money: $32.8 million. The next highest was recovery support at $19 million. The remaining categories were primary prevention at $12.2 million, around $8 million each for education and training and harm reduction, and $752,508 for research and evaluation. Out of 396 proposals, the council approved 116 grants.

Question: Is Senate Bill 1092 of the 113th Tennessee General Assembly, 1st Session (2023) constitutional?

Opinion: Senate Bill 1092 is constitutionally infirm. The separation-of-powers doctrine set forth in article II, sections 1 and 2 of the Tennessee Constitution prevents the General Assembly and the governor from nullifying “unconstitutional federal action.” And the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution prohibits state legislation aimed at increasing the limited authority of state courts to nullify unconstitutional federal action.

U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman in Washington, D.C., has approved a $125 million settlement resolving claims that the federal judiciary overcharged users of its PACER electronic court records system for downloading documents. He also awarded plaintiffs' lawyers nearly $25 million in fees and expenses, Reuters reports. The judge granted final approval to a class action settlement that its backers say will reimburse the "vast majority" of PACER users in full for excessive fees charged over eight years. The U.S. government agreed to settle the case in October 2023.

For years, information about Tennessee sex offenders have been just a few keystrokes away. Now, Tennessee lawmakers are considering a move that would create a similar registry for domestic violence offenders, according to News Channel 5. The proposed registry, passed by the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday, would differ from the sex registry in several ways, including: requiring the victim's consent to place a name on the registry, omitting specific addresses, and tying the duration of the name on the registry to the number of offenses committed. In commenting on the bill, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said it would cost around $500,000 to operate each year. The Tennessee Coalition to End Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault is taking a neutral stance on the bill, saying that such registries can have unintended impacts on survivors. Track action on SB2277/HB2898 here.

JULIA SMITH GIBBONS, Circuit Judge. Dr. Jacquelyn Mares was dismissed from Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine’s (“WSU”) obstetrics and gynecology residency program after a long series of complaints and escalating discipline stemming from her unprofessional behavior. As a result of this dismissal, Mares was terminated from her position at Miami Valley Hospital (“MVH”), where she was employed during, and through, the course of her residency. Mares sued WSU, MVH, Premier Health Partners (MVH’s owner-operator), and several WSU employees, alleging violations of her procedural and substantive due process rights along with various contract-based state law claims. The district court granted summary judgment to the defendants on each claim. For the reasons outlined below, we affirm.

The Defendant, Kesean Dewayne Hall, appeals his jury convictions for second degree murder, attempted second degree murder, employing a firearm during the commission of or attempt to commit a dangerous felony, and criminal trespass. For these convictions, he received an effective thirty-five-year sentence. On appeal, the Defendant challenges (1) the denial of his motion to sever the separate shooting episodes; (2) the sufficiency of the convicting evidence; (3) the admission of video footage showing the Defendant trespassing on the housing development’s property; and (4) the admission of “video evidence related to Crime Scene 3.” He also raises a claim of cumulative error and a challenge to his sentence. Following our review, we conclude that due to inadequacies in the Defendant’s appellate brief, all of his issues are waived save sufficiency of the evidence. First, relative to the sufficiency of the evidence, we conclude that the evidence was insufficient to support the Defendant’s criminal trespass conviction, and that conviction must be reversed and dismissed. Next, the evidence’s being sufficient to support the Defendant’s remaining convictions for second degree murder, attempted second degree murder, and employing a firearm during the commission of or attempt to commit a dangerous felony, those convictions are affirmed. The case is remanded to the trial court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

In this appeal, the employer contends the trial court erred in denying its motion for summary judgment, in concluding that the employee’s alleged injury was compensable, and in awarding the employee permanent total disability benefits. The employee, a restaurant worker, reported that while he was in a designated break area outside the restaurant waiting for his ride, an opossum ran from behind a dumpster and startled him, causing him to fall and sustain injuries to his shoulder and back. The employer moved for summary judgment, asserting that the employee’s injury did not arise primarily out of or in the course and scope of his employment. Following a compensation hearing, the trial court denied the employer’s motion and concluded that, based on the totality of the evidence and relevant precedent, the employee’s injuries arose out of and in the course and scope of his employment. The court also concluded, based in part on expert vocational testimony, that the employee was permanently and totally disabled as a result of the accident. The employer has appealed. After careful consideration of the record and the arguments of counsel, we affirm the trial court’s order and certify it as final.