Governor Bredesen has signed the "Uniform Interstate Depositions and Discovery Act" into law. The Act is effective for discovery requests after July 1, 2008. The legislation establishes a procedure for litigants in other states to do discovery in Tennessee. However, the Act is a uniform act, so Tennessee lawyers will…
The United States Supreme Court has ruled that a successful plaintiff may recover paralegal fees in a case against the government covered by the Equal Access to Justice Act. Although not binding on Tennessee courts in those limited cases where attorneys’ fees are recoverable, the result can be used as…
The Tennessee Supreme Court has released an opinion that settles (and changes) the law on the "prior suit pending" doctrine. The issue rises infrequently in tort cases, but is still worthy of note. In Tennessee a worker’s compensation lawsuit cannot be filed until after a benefit review conference (BRC) does not…
The website of the Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts maintains a set of all of the Local Rules for the state’s circuit and chancery courts. View. The site makes it clear that the AOC only posts what it has been given, so it would be prudent to check with the…
Grandstaff v. Bowman, No. E2007-00135-COA-R3-CV, (Tenn. Ct. App. May 29, 2008), is a case that reminds careful readers of the perils of filing a personal injury case on the eve of the statute and then simply sitting on it. As a result of this conduct, the plaintiff lost the opportunity…
Closing Thoughts As I said in my first post on this subject, a great trial lawyer need not have all of the attributes set forth in this series of posts. Admittedly, the "great trial lawyer" hurdle has been set high. Very high. Indeed, if complete fulfillment of all of these…
Thanks to Trial Ad Notes for telling me about the American Society of Trial Consultants website and, more importantly, about their electronic newsletter, The Jury Expert. The newsletter is published bimonthly. A subscription is free. You can download past issues here.
The Knowledge That You Are Only as Good as Your Next Verdict. I stole this idea from a friend in Atlanta who told me about it over a decade ago. While I disagree with the notion some might take from this statement (that a lawyer has to win or has done a…
I have been in Washington, D.C. since Sunday attending the 85th Annual Meeting of the American Law Institute. Thanks to Howard Vogel, Judge Cissy Daughtrey, Chief Justice Mickey Barker, Bill Wagner, and Lucian Pera I was elected to membership in the ALI in the Fall of 2006. We heard from…