Day On Torts : Tennessee Injury Lawyer & Attorney : John Day : Personal Injury, Accidents : Serving Memphis, Nashville, Knoxville

The United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee has released for public comment proposed changes in the local rules.  Here is a red-lined version of the proposed rules.  The comment period ends October 31, 2009.

Most of the rule changes address of change of the time periods required for responding to motions, providing information for settlement conferences, designating deposition testimony for trial, etc.  The rule changes are necessary because of changes in the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

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The Tennessee Bar Association is sponsoring a seminar to educate lawyers on the new medical malpractice statute passed by the Senate on June 4, 2008.  If signed by the Governor, and there is no reason to believe that he will not sign the bill, the legislation makes major changes in medical malpractice procedural law.  The TBA has selected me as the speaker for this program.

The seminar will be webcast at 11:00 CDT on Monday, June 15, 2009.

A portion of the legislation is effective July 1, 2009 , but the transitional issues will be discussed in the seminar.  Each provision of the legislation will be discussed in detail.  I participated in all of the negotiations concerning this legislation and will provide a history of how the legislation developed.

Go here to register for the program.  The program will be held via webcast at a charge of only $45 for TBA members and $65 for non-members.  One hour of CLE credit will be given.

NOTE:  Why am I repeating this post?  Because this legislation represents a substantial change in this area and lawyers need to be aware of it before the effective date.   I am not getting paid to present the program or to market it.  I just do not want lawyers to make decisions on medical malpractice cases without being aware of this new legislation.

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The Supreme Court of the United States has ruled that the Chief Justice of the West Virginia Supreme Court should have recused himself in a case involving the company of a man who ran $3,000,000 of ads in favor of the judge's election.  Read the opinions here.

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Raymond P. Ward writes  "the (new) legal writer," where he shares his knowledge of the art of legal writing.  In this post he shares an excellent article that helps us understand techniques for emphasis and de-emphasis in our our writing.

An excerpt: "look for your favorite passage in that favorite book, the one that hit you in the gut the first time you read it. Is it in bold, italics, or all capital letters? Probably not. Good writers don’t need typographic gimmicks to pack their prose with power."

He is absolutely right!

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Raymond P. Ward writes  "the (new) legal writer," where he shares his knowledge of the art of legal writing.  In this post he shares an excellent article that helps us understand techniques for emphasis and de-emphasis in our our writing.

An excerpt: "look for your favorite passage in that favorite book, the one that hit you in the gut the first time you read it. Is it in bold, italics, or all capital letters? Probably not. Good writers don’t need typographic gimmicks to pack their prose with power."

He is absolutely right!

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The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure are being changed to make them more readable.  This post from Trial Ad Notes discusses the change and gives an example on how Rule 6 would be re-written.

All 250 pages of the proposed revisions may be found here.  The rules are still in the rule-making process and will not go into effect before December 1, 2007.

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