Following Horwitz Law, PLLC Amicus Brief, Tennessee Supreme Court Designates as “Not for Citation” Judge Tim Easter’s Opinion Precluding Review of Post-Conviction Claims Based on a Form Deficiency
Supreme Court of Tennessee Blog
by DanielAHorwitz
1w ago
By Daniel A. Horwitz: Tim Easter was an unlikely candidate to become a judge for the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals.  In his youth, while driving 54 miles per hour in a 35-mile-per-hour zone, the Williamson County jurist killed a woman on her way to church.  According to Metro police officer William Bay, the skidmarks ..read more
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Victims of SLAPP-Suits Cannot Recover Their Legal Fees If Plaintiffs Withdraw Their Claims Before Hearing, Holds Tennessee Supreme Court
Supreme Court of Tennessee Blog
by DanielAHorwitz
3w ago
By Daniel A. Horwitz: Strategic lawsuits against public participation—better known as “SLAPP-suits”—use the legal system to punish constitutionally protected speech.[1]  The Tennessee Supreme Court has explained that “[t]he primary aim of a SLAPP is not to prevail on the merits, but rather to chill the speech of the defendant by subjecting him or her to ..read more
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Intermediate Scrutiny for January 5, 2024
Supreme Court of Tennessee Blog
by DanielAHorwitz
10M ago
ScotBlog Readers: The delinquent editor of this unreliably updated blog has started a new project: A weekly newsletter devoted to Tennessee Court of Appeals opinions.  The first version is reprinted below, though future versions won’t be published here.  If you like what you see, you can subscribe here: https://horwitz.law/intermediate-scrutiny-blog-signup-form/. A snappy weekly newsletter from the lawyers at Horwitz Law, PLLC summarizing the week’s decisions from the Tennessee Court of Appeals. January 1–5, 2024 “Extremely intoxicated, hostile, and belligerent” Army lieutenant ma ..read more
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Tennessee Supreme Court Examines What is “Knowing” in “Severe Child Abuse” Law
Supreme Court of Tennessee Blog
by DanielAHorwitz
1y ago
By David L. Hudson, Jr. The Tennessee Supreme Court unanimously reversed a Tennessee Court of Appeals opinion that had found there was clear and convincing evidence that both parents of a young infant found with 22 rib fractures had committed “severe child abuse.”   Instead, the state high court found in In Re Markus E. that there was insufficient evidence that the parents’ actions or omissions were “knowing.” The case involved a prematurely born infant – known in court papers as Markus E. – who suffered from a variety of ailments, including neonatal Graves disease, an overactive thy ..read more
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Amended Complaints Supersede Earlier Complaints, Holds Tennessee Supreme Court
Supreme Court of Tennessee Blog
by DanielAHorwitz
1y ago
By Daniel A. Horwitz: Procedural rules matter.  They help ensure that litigation moves along in an orderly and understandable way.  They can also be used as a shield and, when an opponent has misunderstood them, as a sword. That is the story of Ingram v. Gallagher, a healthcare liability action (better known as a “medical malpractice” claim) filed against a physician, a hospital, and two other defendants.  After filing suit, the plaintiff filed an amended complaint naming only the physician as a defendant.  Under Tennessee law—Tennessee Rule of Civil Procedure 15.01, in par ..read more
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Tennessee Supreme Court Shuts Door On Nearly All Malicious Prosecution Claims That Arise Out of Criminal Proceedings
Supreme Court of Tennessee Blog
by DanielAHorwitz
1y ago
By Daniel A. Horwitz: Malicious prosecution—a common law tort claim—is designed to afford civil redress to people who are subjected to maliciously false lawsuits or criminal charges.  Between the two, being an innocent person who is wrongfully charged with a crime based on malicious falsehoods is worse.  As the U.S. Supreme Court has observed, “[a]rrest is a public act that may seriously interfere with the defendant’s liberty, whether he is free on bail or not, and that may disrupt his employment, drain his financial resources, curtail his associations, subject him to public obloquy ..read more
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New Tennessee Court of Appeals Ruling Settles Previously Unanswered Questions About the Tennessee Public Participation Act
Supreme Court of Tennessee Blog
by DanielAHorwitz
1y ago
By Daniel A. Horwitz: As news of Dominion Voting System’s record-shattering settlement in its defamation case against Fox News spread across newswires, the Tennessee Court of Appeals quietly issued a landmark defamation decision of its own.  In particular, in a little-noticed April 18, 2023 ruling in Pragnell v. Franklin, No. E2022-00524-COA-R3-CV, 2023 WL 2985261 (Tenn. Ct. App. Apr. 18, 2023), the Court of Appeals settled three critical and previously unanswered questions about the Tennessee Public Participation Act, Tennessee’s still-novel anti-SLAPP statute. Prangell arose from a nast ..read more
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Horwitz Law, PLLC Client Kenneth Mynatt Wins Federal Tort Claims Act Appeal, Unanimous Reversal of District Court Order Before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
Supreme Court of Tennessee Blog
by DanielAHorwitz
1y ago
In a unanimous panel opinion issued on August 12, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has ordered that Horwitz Law, PLLC appellate client Kenneth Mynatt’s malicious prosecution and civil conspiracy claims against the United States—maintained under the Federal Tort Claims Act—be reinstated and permitted to move forward.  The Court’s unanimous ruling, authored by Judge Richard Griffin, sets critical Circuit precedent that presenting false evidence to secure an indictment is not “discretionary” conduct within the meaning of the Federal Tort Claims Act’s “discretio ..read more
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Tennessee Court of Appeals Affirms Trial Court Order Invalidating School Board Censorship Clause in Ex-Director Shawn Joseph’s Severance Agreement
Supreme Court of Tennessee Blog
by DanielAHorwitz
1y ago
In a pair of separate opinions issued June 20, 2022, the Tennessee Court of Appeals affirmed a ruling by Davidson County Chancery Court Judge Ellen Hobbs Lyle in favor of Plaintiffs Amy Frogge, Fran Bush, and Jill Speering, all represented by Horwitz Law, PLLC.  The ruling arose out of a lawsuit filed against Metro and ex-MNPS Director Shawn Joseph regarding the legality of the School Board Censorship Clause contained in Joseph’s severance agreement.  In a September 2020 Memorandum Order, Chancellor Lyle struck down the censorship clause as unconstitutional on multiple grounds ..read more
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The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Lacks Authority to Violate Court Orders, Rules Tennessee Supreme Court
Supreme Court of Tennessee Blog
by DanielAHorwitz
1y ago
“The determination of whether an offense is eligible for expunction is an obligation entrusted to courts, not the TBI[,]” the Tennessee Supreme Court has ruled.  Accordingly, “the TBI lacked authority to refuse to comply” with a final and unappealed expungement order that no statute “authorize[d] the TBI to disregard or revise[.]”  The Tennessee Supreme Court’s unanimous opinion powerfully vindicates expungement rights under Tennessee law, the right of Tennesseans to sue the government for acting illegally, and citizens’ right to demand that the government comply with court orders. T ..read more
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