This year’s Tennessee Supreme Court Boot Camp set for Oct. 4 will include two special elements not to be missed! As in past years, attendees will observe oral arguments in real cases and then engage in a discussion about the preparation and considerations for deciding to seek review in the court. But this year, attendees also are invited to see Justice Holly Kirby sworn in as the court’s newest chief justice prior to the CLE at the state capitol, and then hear former TBA president Bill Harbison present a special program on the history of the court at Holland & Knight after the Boot Camp. The TBA's Boot Camp program will kick off at 9:30 a.m. CDT at the Tennessee Supreme Court building in Nashville with oral arguments before the full court. An analysis and discussion will follow with Chattanooga lawyer Robert Parsley with Miller & Martin, and Nashville lawyers Donald Capparella with Dodson Parker Behm & Capparella, and Edmund Sauer with Bradley Arant Boult Cummings. The program will wrap up at 4:30 p.m. CDT.

The state’s indigent defense system is at a “breaking point,” a story in the Tennessean suggests. With the lowest indigent defense reimbursement rate in the nation ($50 an hour for non-capital cases), the paper says the funding is “so paltry it amounts to a theft of services from attorneys, who are at regular risk of losing money when appointed to the cases.” The reimbursement rate has only been raised $20 in the last 42 years, despite widespread calls for increases and a 2017 task force recommendation to pay between $75 and $125 per hour. Attorneys and judges interviewed for the story say the low rate is “squeezing the state’s judicial system” leading judges to increasingly rely on less experienced lawyers to handle cases. But even that pool of willing attorneys appears to be shrinking, judges say. Dawn Deaner, former Nashville public defender and current executive director at the Choosing Justice Initiative, says the system is in the worse shape "it's ever been."

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan said on Friday it would “be a good thing” for the court to adopt a code of ethics, even if it had to be slightly different than the one for lower court judges, Courthouse News Service reports. Speaking at Notre Dame Law School, Kagan said ethics guidelines would “help in our own compliance with the rules, and it would, I think, go far in persuading other people that we were adhering to the highest standards of conduct.” She went on to say there are legitimate concerns with the court just adopting the code of ethics applicable to lower courts but said the rules could be adapted to reflect certain differences.

House Speaker Cameron Sexton, R-Crossville, and Senate Speaker Randy McNally, R-Oak Ridge, have announced the formation of a working group to examine the possibility of the state rejecting billions of dollars in federal education funding. Rep. Debra Moody, R-Covington, and Sen. Jon Lundberg, R-Bristol, will lead the group. House members include Reps. Ronnie Glynn, D-Clarksville, Timothy Hill, R-Blountville, John Reagan, R-Oak Ridge, and William Slater, R-Gallatin. Senators joining the group are Raumesh Akbar, D-Memphis, Joey Hensley, R-Hohenwald, Bill Powers, R-Clarksville, and Dawn White, R-Murfreesboro. The state receives $1.8 billion annually from the federal government for K-12 education, the Tennessean reports.

In this breach of contract dispute between an engineering consulting firm and a real estate development company, we review the trial court’s holding that the real estate development company breached the contract between the parties as well as the court’s award of attorneys’ fees to the engineering consulting firm. We affirm the court’s decision in all respects. Because the parties’ agreement states that the prevailing party in litigation arising from or related to the contract shall be entitled to attorneys’ fees and costs, we remand the case to the trial court with instructions for the trial court to award the engineering firm its reasonable and necessary attorneys’ fees and costs incurred in this appeal.

This is a health care liability action filed by a patient and her husband alleging serious injury as a result of surgery. The plaintiffs learned that the defendants had taken surveillance videos and sought discovery of those videos. The trial court allowed discovery of only the videos that the defendants intended to use at trial for impeachment purposes. The trial court gave the plaintiffs permission to seek an appeal under Tenn. R. Civ. P. 9. This Court granted the appeal. We affirm the trial court’s decision.

A Maury County jury convicted the Defendant, William Michael Bowers, of vehicular homicide by intoxication, a Class B felony, and driving under the influence, a Class A misdemeanor. The Defendant appeals, contending that (1) the trial court violated his right to confrontation by allowing a witness to testify via video rather than in person; and (2) the evidence was insufficient to support his convictions. Following our review, we affirm the judgments of the trial court.

A three-judge panel last week ruled that a new state law designed to lower the threshold needed for Nashville leaders to approve improvements to the fairgrounds speedway violates the Tennessee Constitution and cannot be enforced. The law would have allowed the city to undertake demolition at the fairgrounds with a simple majority vote while the local charter requires a supermajority, the Associated Press reports. The state argued that the new law did not specifically single out Music City, but opponents argued that no other municipality fell within the statute’s definition.

A new study by the RAND Corporation, American Bar Association and National Advisory Commission on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals recommends that caseload guidelines for public defenders be updated to reflect modern-day realities. The current guidelines, issued in 1973, recommend that public defense lawyers devote an average of 13.9 hours to felony cases and 5.2 hours to misdemeanor cases. The new National Public Defense Workload Study recommends guidelines be increased to an average of 35 hours per felony case and 22.3 hours per misdemeanor case. It also increases the average time depending on the seriousness of the case, an element that was omitted from older guidelines. The ABA Journal has more on the study.

For the week of September 18, 2023 - September 22, 2023