The Tennessee Supreme Court on Feb. 21 dismissed a petition from Williamson County lawyer Connie Lynn Reguli to dissolve a temporary suspension that had been imposed on Nov. 20, 2023, after the court found that Reguli posed a threat of substantial harm to the public. On Nov. 28, Reguli filed a petition seeking “immediate relief of reversal” of the suspension or, alternatively, an evidentiary hearing. On Nov. 30, the court granted the request for a hearing but dismissed the petition for reversal. On Jan. 23, Reguli filed a proposed order of voluntary nonsuit. The Board of Professional Responsibility objected to the proposed order and recommended the court dismiss the dissolution petition without prejudice. The court adopted the board’s recommendation.

The Defendant, Joshua Moore, was convicted of first degree premeditated murder. On appeal, the Defendant argues that the evidence is insufficient to support his conviction, specifically regarding whether he acted with premeditation. Additionally, he argues that the trial court erred by admitting a responding police officer’s body camera (“bodycam”) footage, contending that the recording was overly prejudicial in violation of Tennessee Rule of Evidence 403. After review, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.

This is an accelerated interlocutory appeal as of right under Tennessee Supreme Court Rule 10B from a circuit court judge’s denial of a motion to recuse. The plaintiffs moved for recusal based primarily on an alleged attorney-client relationship between the judge and counsel for the defendants. We affirm the trial court’s denial of the motion to recuse.

After seven years of marriage, a wife filed a complaint for divorce against her husband. The primary issues before the trial court pertained to the classification of the marital residence and custody of the parties’ child. After a hearing on those issues, the trial court determined that the marital residence had once been the husband’s separate property but had transmuted into marital property. The court then ordered the property sold and the proceeds distributed equally between the parties. Regarding custody, the court designated the wife as primary residential parent and severely restricted the husband’s parenting time. Discerning that the trial court erred in its valuation of the marital residence, we modify the court’s order to reflect the amount submitted by the husband. We affirm the trial court in all other respects.

Putnam County lawyer Michael Robert Giaimo received a censure from the Tennessee Supreme Court on Feb. 22. The court found that after Giaimo filed lawsuits on behalf of a client, he failed to communicate with the client for more than a year, inform the client that he moved to a different firm, properly serve process on a defendant and correct that mistake before the statute of limitations ran on the claim. His actions were determined to violate Rules of Professional Conduct 1.1, 1.3, 1.4, 1.16 and 3.2.

After a Shelby County jury trial, Defendant, Matthew Smith, was convicted of aggravated rape, aggravated burglary, robbery, and theft of property valued at $10,000 or more but less than $60,000. The trial court sentenced him to an effective term of thirty years in the Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC). On appeal, Defendant argues the evidence produced at trial was insufficient to sustain his convictions and that his dual convictions for robbery and theft violate his protections against double jeopardy. We conclude the evidence was sufficient to sustain Defendant’s convictions, but we also conclude the trial court should have merged Defendant’s convictions for robbery and theft. We, therefore, remand the case to the trial court to merge the appropriate counts but affirm the judgments of the trial court in all other respects.

Three opinions in today's issue of TBA Today are corrected versions of opinions that ran earlier this week and last week. A correction in the case of Jimmiko Driskell v. State of Tennessee, issued by the Court of Criminal Appeals on Feb. 29, included the wrong case summary in that day's issue of TBA Today. An opinion from the Court of Criminal Appeals in the case of State of Tennessee v. Matthew Smith ran in the wrong section of the Feb. 29 issue of TBA Today. And, an opinion from the Tennessee Supreme Court on March 7 in the case of State of Tennessee v. Tony Thomas and Laronda Turner omitted an opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part by Justice Sharon Lee. The court also today issued a corrected version of an opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part to that case by Justice Sarah Campbell.

The TBA Women in the Profession Committee will host a free webcast on March 21 on the topic “The Nuts & Bolts of TLAP: Who We Are, Who We Help and How We Do It.” The event will feature Tennessee Lawyers Assistance Program (TLAP) clinical staff Erin Lynch and Lauren Castor, who will discuss how the program can be a valuable resource to women attorneys. The event will run from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. CDT. Registration is required. One hour of dual CLE credit will is available to attorneys who certify attendance for and watch this webinar live.

The Petitioner, Jimmiko Driskell, appeals the denial of her petition for post-conviction relief from her second degree murder conviction, arguing that she received ineffective assistance of trial counsel and was denied due process of law because she lacked the knowledge to enter a knowing, intelligent and voluntary guilty plea. Based on our review, we affirm the judgment of the post-conviction court.

Over the past week, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti joined with fellow state attorneys general to urge action at the federal level. Efforts included an amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold citizens’ constitutional rights to make laws through their elected officials rather than laws being made through administrative actions; and a letter calling on three federal entities to respond to an inspector general report that tens of thousands of unaccompanied migrant children were released into unsafe situations, including human trafficking operations. Skrmetti’s office also published a reminder of the free IRS-approved tax filing options available for Tennesseans.