The Tennessee Supreme Court has transferred the law license of Williamson County lawyer James L. Woodard to disability inactive status. Woodard may not practice law while on disability inactive status. He may return to the practice of law after reinstatement by the Tennessee Supreme Court by showing that the disability has been removed.

KAREN NELSON MOORE, Circuit Judge. Five of the approximately 32,000 current and former Parker-Hannifin Corporation employees who participate in the Parker Retirement Savings Plan brought this action against the Parker-Hannifin Corporation and related boards, committees, and board members, alleging that Parker-Hannifin violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”). Specifically, the plaintiffs allege that Parker-Hannifin breached its fiduciary duties by imprudently retaining the Northern Trust Focus Funds, imprudently providing participants with higher-cost shares, and failing to monitor its agents in their fiduciary duties. The district court dismissed plaintiffs’ claims. For the following reasons, we REVERSE the district court’s judgment and REMAND for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

The court received a petition for rehearing en banc. The original panel has reviewed the petition for rehearing and concludes that the issues raised in the petition were fully considered upon the original submission and decision. The petition was then circulated to the full court.* Less than a majority of the judges voted in favor of rehearing en banc. 2024, and in his dissent (pp. 8–9) to this order.

In 2022, the Petitioner, Jaslene Washington, pleaded guilty in the Marion County General Sessions Court to assault and resisting arrest and received an effective sentence of eleven months and twenty-nine days of unsupervised probation conditioned upon the payment of fines and costs. The Petitioner filed a petition for post-conviction relief, alleging multiple claims including ineffective assistance of counsel. Following a hearing, the post- conviction court denied relief. On appeal, the Petitioner maintains that counsel was ineffective in providing erroneous information regarding the expungement of her convictions and that the Petitioner relied upon this erroneous information in deciding to enter the guilty pleas. After review, we affirm the post-conviction court’s judgment.

In 2021, the Petitioner, Christopher Matthew Taylor, pled guilty to the offense of unlawful possession of a weapon by a convicted felon. The trial court sentenced the Petitioner to a term of six years and placed him on probation. After his suspended sentence was revoked, the Petitioner filed a petition for post-conviction relief in April 2023, alleging that his original plea was not knowingly and voluntarily entered and that he was denied the effective assistance of counsel. After a hearing, the post-conviction court dismissed the petition as untimely, and the Petitioner appealed. Upon our review, we respectfully affirm the judgment of the post-conviction court.

The Defendant, Tommy Gene Couch, Sr., appeals from his guilty-pled conviction for aggravated assault. Pursuant to the terms of the plea agreement, the trial court was to determine the length and manner of service of the Defendant’s sentence. Subsequently, the trial court denied the Defendant’s request for alternative sentencing and imposed a three-year sentence in incarceration. On appeal, the Defendant challenges the denial of alternative sentencing as an abuse of the trial court’s discretion. After review, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.

The trial court granted Appellees’ respective motions averring that Appellant’s lawsuit failed to state a claim against them. Discerning no error, we affirm.

The parents of a man who died in the Hamilton County Jail after a suspected drunk driving violation have filed a wrongful death suit against the sheriff's office and its health care team, alleging deliberate indifference and inadequate care. The lawsuit seeks $4.5 million in damages from the county over the death of their son, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reports. A jail log allegedly indicates that staff were aware of the man's deteriorating condition long before he was found unresponsive on a shower floor. He was later sent to the hospital and pronounced dead just over an hour later. According to the newspaper, the jail has faced multiple allegations of inadequate medical care, inhumane living conditions and inmate-on-inmate violence, with at least 16 in-custody deaths since the sheriff's office took control of the jail in 2020.

TennCare is seeking a $975 million budget increase for next year, largely driven by rising medical costs. According to the Tennessee Lookout, two main factors are contributing to the increase: an estimated $165 million in price hikes for medical care and $41 million to cover the cost of new classes of drugs for treating obesity, heart disease and diabetes. This year's budget request follows significant cuts in TennCare enrollment, with 300,000 people losing coverage last year. A federal judge ruled in August that those cuts violated Tennesseans' rights following a 2020 class action lawsuit. In presenting the proposed budget to Gov. Bill Lee earlier this month, TennCare officials said the agency is on more solid fiscal ground and providing more services than ever before.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced Tuesday it would call for an Office of Inspector General (OIG) investigation into an employee who directed personnel to bypass houses with Trump campaign signs during the federal response to Hurricane Milton. According to The Hill, FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell testified before Congress that the employee was fired for issuing the order, which she called “completely at odds with FEMA’s mission.” The fired employee told media on Monday that she has been framed and denied violating the Hatch Act, which restricts political activity by government employees. Earlier this month, Gov. Bill Lee announced plans to investigate whether Tennesseans were discriminated against during FEMA's relief efforts following damage in the state from Hurricane Helene.