News
September 26, 2019
James (Jim) M. Hivner, Clerk of the Supreme Court of Tennessee, was confirmed by the Executive Committee to the office of Treasurer of the National Conference of Appellate Court Clerks (NCACC). Hivner was appointed to a six-year term as Clerk of the Supreme Court of Tennessee in 2014. In his…
September 24, 2019
The Davidson County Chancery Court Part III was recognized for its contributions to the lives of older Tennesseans recently at a conference of the Southeastern Association of Area Agencies on Aging. The Association bestowed its 2019 Outstanding Community Service Award on the Court in recognition of…
September 20, 2019
The Tennessee Supreme Court has affirmed the disbarment of Jennifer Elizabeth Meehan from the practice of law in Tennessee based on her conviction for bank fraud in federal court.Ms. Meehan served as president of a sorority’s housing board overseeing construction and furnishing of a new sorority…
September 18, 2019
The Tennessee Supreme Court today reversed the trial court’s dismissal of a legal malpractice claim against a Davidson County attorney, holding that sworn statements the plaintiff made in her divorce settlement agreement did not directly contradict sworn statements she made in the malpractice…
September 16, 2019
The Tennessee Court Talk podcast recently hosted two of the state's leading experts in drug trends to explore recent statistics and developments in the state. In July 2019, the Centers for Disease Control released the most recent opioid overdose mortality rates, which showed a decrease for…
September 5, 2019
For years, Wilson County General Sessions and Juvenile Court Judge C. Barry Tatum has worked with students enrolled in Wilson County Schools. Time and again he has proven to be a positive influence on those students, as Modified Academic Program Principal Shaun Caven explained in a recent article…
September 4, 2019
Today Tennessee Governor Bill Lee appointed Jennifer King of Carroll County to serve as the Chancellor of the 24th Judicial District. This vacancy was created by the appointment and confirmation of Judge Carma Dennis…
September 3, 2019
The Tennessee Supreme Court set effective dates of October 1, 2019, for rule amendments associated with the 2019 rules package, which the Tennessee House of Representatives approved on August 23, 2019 and the Tennessee Senate approved on March 25, 2019. These rule changes include revisions to the…
September 3, 2019
The Tennessee Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on September 4 and September 5, 2019. The details of the cases are as follows:Wednesday, September 4, 2019Jodi McClay v. Airport Management Services, LLC– This case comes to the Court by way of three certified questions from the United…
August 29, 2019
Administrative Office of the Courts Director Deborah Taylor Tate has been awarded the 2019 Janice M. Holder Access to Justice Award for her persistent efforts to extend legal assistance to Tennesseans in need. The award was presented during Equal Justice University, an annual conference hosted by…
August 27, 2019
Leslie Barrett Kinkead, the longtime coordinator of the Tennessee Court Improvement Program at the Administrative Office of the Courts, was recognized for her decades of service recently at a statewide conference for juvenile court professionals.
Kinkead, whose dedication and influence in the…
August 26, 2019
Tennessee Judge Duane Slone is the 2019 recipient of the National Center for State Courts’ (NCSC) William H. Rehnquist Award for Judicial Excellence, one of the highest judicial honors in the country. Judge Slone, of the Circuit Court in the Fourth Judicial District, is being recognized for his…
August 23, 2019
In an opinion released today, the Tennessee Supreme Court vacated the Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility’s Formal Ethics Opinion 2017-F-163, which provided guidance to prosecutors about ethical duties under Tennessee Rule of Professional Conduct 3.8(d).On March 15, 2018, the Board of…
August 21, 2019
In an opinion released today, the Tennessee Supreme Court held that a trial court acted within its discretion in excluding from trial a defendant’s videotaped statements given in a post-polygraph interview. In so doing, the Court reversed the decision of the Court of Criminal Appeals.The defendant…
August 21, 2019
Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts Director Deborah Taylor Tate will appear as a guest on OpenLine on Wednesday, August 21 from 7 -8 p.m. OpenLine is a nightly, live, current events based talk show hosted by NewsChannel 5’s Ben Hall and includes a viewer call-in segment.The August 21…
August 21, 2019
A number of Tennessee judges, including one of the longest serving judges in the state, received awards recently at the joint Tennessee Council of Juvenile Judges/Tennessee Juvenile Court Services Association Conference in Franklin.
These awards included annual service awards, as well as one award…
August 19, 2019
The toll that the opioid crisis has taken in Tennessee is clear.In 2017, 1,776 people in the state died of drug overdoses. Of those deaths, 1,268 were caused by opioids. From 2013 to 2017, the number of opioid deaths caused by heroin rose by over 300 percent. The number of deaths from fentanyl…
August 16, 2019
The Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts has launched a new podcast called Tennessee Court Talk, which brings together the very best law experts to discuss topics affecting judges, attorneys, law students, and the people of Tennessee. The intended audience is announced at the…
August 7, 2019
The Tennessee Supreme Court today ruled unanimously that the Court of Criminal Appeals should no longer vacate convictions when criminal defendants die during an appeal guaranteed by law, known as an appeal as of right from the conviction.In the case before the Court, Mr. Hassan Falah al…
August 5, 2019
The Tennessee Supreme Court has reversed a Court of Criminal Appeals’ decision construing the actions of defense counsel in a criminal case to have caused an amendment to the indictment, thus resulting in a criminal conviction for an offense that was not an enumerated lesser-included offense of the…