Members of the TBA YLD participated in the Marshall County expungement clinic last month. Eight people had their records expunged and 12 people were given packets to start the expungement process for convictions.

The Knoxville Barristers' CLE and Social will take place on Aug. 22 from 5:30-7 p.m. EDT at the ChildHelp Advocacy Center at Cedar Bluff located at 623 Lindsay Pl. SW, Knoxville. Click here for more information on their annual school supply drive.

Nashville lawyer Tenia Clayton has been selected as a diversity and inclusion fellow with the American Bar Association Health Law Section (ABA HLS) for the upcoming bar year. Four of the fellows attended the ABA HLS Leadership Meeting in Denver in July.

We are interested in sharing your news of significant life events, including marriages, birth/adoption announcements, travel and special awards and recognitions. If you have good news to share, please fill our our online form. We can't wait to read all about your news!

In this case, we review a trial court’s determination that a Montgomery County attorney violated Rule 5.5(a) of the Rules of Professional Conduct by practicing law while her license was suspended for failure to pay the professional privilege tax and the accompanying sanction of a public censure. Finding no abuse of discretion, we affirm.

This case involves a disputed easement. Appellee filed a complaint for declaratory judgment asking the trial court to conclude that an easement existed in its favor. Appellant filed a counter complaint requesting a declaratory judgment that no easement existed and requesting an injunction prohibiting Appellee from using the disputed easement. On Appellee’s motion for summary judgment, the trial court concluded that an easement existed in favor of Appellee, and it denied the relief Appellant sought. Thereafter, the trial court granted Appellee’s motion to dismiss Appellant’s counter complaint. We agree that an easement exists, and we affirm the trial court’s order granting the motion for summary judgment. Because the summary judgment order granted relief in Appellee’s favor, Appellant’s request for relief in the counter complaint was denied on the merits, rendering the counter complaint moot. As such, we vacate the trial court’s order on the motion to dismiss.

A landlord obtained a judgment from a General Sessions Court against his tenant for back rent and other damages. The tenant appealed, and the Circuit Court reduced the damages award. The landlord appeals to this court. The landlord, who is pro se, disregards the Tennessee Rules of Appellate Procedure in his filings. His filings render his argument indiscernible. The landlord also failed to provide a record that fully and accurately depicts the underlying proceedings. Because the landlord’s deviations from the Tennessee Rules of Appellate Procedure prevent this court from providing meaningful appellate review, we dismiss his appeal.

This appeal involves a complaint to quiet title and for declaratory and injunctive relief filed by a church. The church had purchased property in 1925 pursuant to a deed providing that if the property ceased to be used for the purposes and objects described in the deed, it would “revert”to the estate of an individual who was then serving as a trustee of the church. In 2019, an attorney informed the church that he represented several individuals who were heirs of said trustee and were concerned that the property was not being used in a manner consistent with the deed. Thus, the church filed the instant complaint and sought a declaration that the restriction in the deed was no longer valid and enforceable, or in the alternative, it had not violated the restriction by utilizing the property in a manner inconsistent with the deed. The parties filed cross motions for partial summary judgment on the issues surrounding the validity of the deed restriction. The trial court granted partial summary judgment to the defendants, concluding that the restriction remained enforceable. Thus, the trial court noted that the remaining issue to be decided was whether the church had adhered to the applicable restriction. The church filed a motion asking the trial court to either certify its partial summary judgment order as final pursuant to Tennessee Rule of Civil Procedure 54.02 or grant it permission to seek an interlocutory appeal pursuant to Tennessee Rule of Appellate Procedure 9. Before this motion was heard, however, an agreed order was entered certifying the trial court’s partial summary judgment order as final pursuant to Rule 54.02. The church appealed. We conclude that the trial court improvidently certified its order as final and dismiss the appeal.

This is an appeal from a jury verdict wherein the jury found that the defendant had met the burden to prove her counterclaims for breach of contract or conversion and a violation of the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act. Following the jury’s verdict, the trial court entered an order relative to the remaining motions; however, the order failed to dispose of two of the defendant’s counterclaims that had not been presented to the jury. Because these two claims remain outstanding, there is no final judgment entered by the trial court, and this Court lacks subject matter jurisdiction to consider this appeal. Accordingly, we dismiss this appeal and remand the case to the trial court for further action

Florida joins the list of states transitioning to the NextGen Bar Exam, making it the largest jurisdiction to do so. Reuters reports that the Florida Board of Bar Examiners said its bar exam would continue to include a component testing state law after the July 2028 switch to the NextGen test. Florida joins 21 other states in moving to the NextGen Bar Exam, including Tennessee, which will make the switch in July 2027.

The Tennessee government has agreed to remove individuals convicted of prostitution while they had HIV from its sex offender registry upon request. This decision comes after the state settled two lawsuits: one from the American Civil Liberties Union and four women who were convicted of aggravated prostitution, and one from the U.S. Department of Justice. The suits argued that Tennessee's laws were based on outdated science and unfairly labeled individuals with HIV as sex offenders. The Tennessee Lookout reports that at least 83 people are believed to be on the state sex offender registry solely because of those laws, with most living in the Memphis area, where undercover police officers and prosecutors most often invoked the the statutes. The Tennessee attorney general's office says it plans to “continue to defend Tennessee’s prohibition on aggravated prostitution,” which makes prostitution a misdemeanor in most cases but a felony for those who are HIV-positive.