News

November 28, 2016
From WBIR.comSome East Tennessee children will be celebrating the holidays with the best present of all this year – a new family and a place to call home.National Adoption Day is held…

November 28, 2016
From The TennesseanFor years she was trafficked, sold to others for sex by her husband. The woman said she used drugs, leading to an addiction, and was…

November 22, 2016
The Access to Justice Commission's Tennessee Faith & Justice Alliance partnered with the Music City Community Court to host an Expungement Clinic in Davidson County on Saturday, November 19, 2016. The event was held in the Andrew Jackson Residential Community at the Andrew Jackson Boys and…

December 8, 2016
From the Ofice of the GovernorTennessee Gov. Bill Haslam issued the following statement on the nomination of Rep. Beth Harwell to another term as speaker of the House of Representatives:“Speaker Harwell has been central to the conservative leadership of…

November 22, 2016
From the Ofice of the GovernorTennessee Gov. Bill Haslam today issued the following statement on the nomination of Sen. Randy McNally for lieutenant governor:“I want to congratulate Sen. Randy McNally on his unanimous nomination for lieutenant governor and…

November 28, 2016
From LIPSCOMBnow: November 19 More than 250 judges, attorneys, elected officials, college presidents, ministers, faculty, students and friends gathered Saturday evening, Nov. 12, at Nashville’s Frist Center for the Visual Arts to…

November 28, 2016
Director Tate joined The Day on the Hill with over 500 Tennessee Intercollegiate State Legislature delegates representing over 44 college and universities.This program offers college students the opportunity to learn about state government, the political process, and to appreciate other viewpoints.…

November 28, 2016
Deborah Taylor Tate, Director of the AOC, recently spoke to Leadership Nashville's 2016 class at the First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University. She shared insights from her governmental service and discussed not only the Tennessee Court system and Access to Justice

December 7, 2016
At 4:00 p.m., on Monday, December 19, 2016, the portrait of former Chief Justice Gary Wade will be unveiled in the courtroom of the Knoxville Supreme Court. Members of the bench and bar are invited to attend. A reception will follow.

November 17, 2016
Attorneys and community leaders gathered November 16, 2016 at the home of Colleen Conway Welch  to celebrate the “A Step Ahead of Middle Tennessee” Program with founder Claudia Haltom, attorney and former Juvenile Magistrate from Memphis.The event honored one of the founding Board members (the…

November 16, 2016
The Tennessee Supreme Court has ruled that the Drug-Free School Zone Act does not apply when a defendant is convicted of facilitating the sale of drugs in a school zone.In 2008, police raided a house in Davidson County where Stanley Bernard Gibson was visiting his girlfriend and found two duffel…

November 16, 2016
From http://www.tn.gov/attorneygeneral/newsAttorney General Herbert H. Slatery III today announced James R. Newsom III of Memphis as lead attorney in the Memphis regional office. In his role as Special Counsel for the…

November 10, 2016
From The Leaf-ChronicleNovember 8, 2016Veterans and their families celebrated the fall season with the Montgomery County Veterans Treatment Court on October…

November 8, 2016
The Lawyers' Association for Women gathered today at The Music Center in Nashville to welcome new admittees to the Tennessee Bar. Judge Sheila D. Calloway of Davidson County Juvenile Court gave the inspirational keynote address encouraging them to become engaged in Access to Justice activities. To…

November 8, 2016
The Tennessee Supreme Court admitted new attorneys to the bar at a ceremony held Tuesday, November 8 in Nashville at War Memorial Auditorium.  For a list of the successful applicants to the Tennessee bar, visit the

November 7, 2016
Based upon the current language of the applicable statute, the Tennessee Supreme Court has reversed and dismissed the convictions of a Knoxville-area man for especially aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor in a case in which he secretly videotaped his 12-year-old daughter in various states of…

November 3, 2016
The Tennessee Supreme Court has recognized a good-faith exception to the exclusionary rule, which means that evidence obtained in violation of a suspect’s constitutional right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures need not be excluded from a criminal trial if the law enforcement…

November 2, 2016
Graduation for the Tennessee Government Executive Institute's Class of 2016 was held November 1st at the TBI headquarters in Nashville. Along with Department of Human Resources Commissioner Rebecca Hunter, AOC General Counsel Rachel Harmon was a featured speaker at the graduation. Rachel was…

November 1, 2016
The Tennessee Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in four cases when it meets this week in Jackson.The details of the cases:State of Tennessee v. James Hawkins – This is a Supreme Court review of a death penalty case in which James Hawkins was sentenced to death in Shelby County for premeditated…

October 31, 2016
The Tennessee Supreme Court has adopted a set of plain-language forms and instructions for use in uncontested divorces between parties with minor children in an effort to simplify divorce proceedings for parties that fall into that category.The forms are approved by the Court as universally…