A reader sent me an article in September – October 2009 issue of Harvard Magazine that discusses the work of Dr. Atul Gawande. Dr. Gawande is very interested in patient safety. One of his interests is the use of medical checklists, a subject I have addressed in a previous post. Apparently, …
Post 20 (we are almost finished with this series folks, I promise) concerns judicial selection and evaluation. So much has been written about this subject the last four years. The bill is 16 pages in lengh and cannot be summarized here. If you are truly interest in reading this legislation,…
Last week I filed a post on the new members of the Judicial Selection Commission. Today, the appointees to the Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission were announced. The Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission, which replaces the Judicial Evaluation Commission, evaluates the performance of the appellate level judges who are up for re-election. Prior…
Post 19 addresses the liability of "agritourism professionals." What, in heaven’s name, is a agritourism professional? A person involved in agritourism, of course. And what is that? Agritourism is any activity carried out on a farm or ranch, eligible for greenbelt classification under Title 67, Chapter 5, Part 10, that allows members…
The September 2009 edition of the Tennessee Trial Law Report is in the mail. The lazy days of summer are upon us – this edition includes a summary of just 10 different cases addressing various aspects of the law of torts, civil procedure, evidence and trial as decided by Tennessee…
New Chrysler (Chrysler Group LLC) has announced that it will be accepting product liability claims on vehicles manufactured by its predecessor, now known as Old Carco, but only for accidents occurring after June 10, 2009. Chrysler yielded to pressure from consumer groups that aggressively lobbied for a law requiring warning…
Post 18 of this series brings to your attention a change in the law concerning the licensing of lawyers and pro hac vice admission of lawyers to practice in Tennessee. The language of T.C.A. Sec. 23-1-108 has been deleted and replaced with the following language: No person shall practice…
Post 17 of this series also addresses the subject of court reporting. This bill establishes: (1) licensure requirements for court reporters; (2) the Tennessee Board of Court Reporting; and (3) the Tennessee board of Court Reporting Fund. This bill prohibits any person from practicing court reporting or holding the person out as a…
Post 16 of this series addresses a change in the law applicable to taking of depositions. The bill summary set forth below describes the original bill as amended. The new law prohibit[s] the taking of a deposition before a person who is: (1) A party to the action or an…
Post 15 addresses the changes to Tennessee law concerning the proper way to give notice to potential defendants in medical malpractice cases and the changes in the law concerning the certificate of good faith. I have addressed this legislation in several other posts (here is a post with a complete…