It is, as the Second District Court of Appeals of Florida said, a “rather arcane”issue: who decides whether a dispute is subject to an arbitration provision – a judge or an arbitrator. Under the facts presented, the appellate court concluded that because the contract (a clickwrap agreement on AirBNB’s website) …
Under what circumstances can a Tennessee court insist that an out-of-state defendant submit to the jurisdiction of a Tennessee state court? The Tennessee Supreme Court is facing this issue in Crouch Railway Consulting, LLC v. LS Energy Fabrication, LLC. The case arose when the plaintiff, a Tennessee civil engineering company, …
The coronavirus has impacted the service of summons and complaints as many sheriff’s departments make the effort to reduce human contact. Indeed, the coronavirus is having not only a short-term impact on the civil justice system but will have a long-term impact as well. Today we discuss an alternative to…
The federal government has finished its investigation into a 2019 car crash involving a Tesla on autopilot. The report, by the National Transportation and Safety Board, reaches the following conclusions: the design of the Autopilot system contributed to the crash because it allowed the Tesla driver to avoid paying attention…
Where an attorney advised her client in a family law case that her husband’s actions in distributing a video of the client having sex with another man might be criminal and advised the client to make a true report to the police department, the attorney was not liable for any…
Where a plaintiff was running in the dark with no wearable light and was hit by a car while crossing the road, the Court of Appeals affirmed a jury verdict finding plaintiff 80% at fault. In Golden v. Powers, No. E2019-00712-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. Feb. 12, 2020), plaintiff and her…
The Tennessee Supreme Court recently reversed a Court of Appeals opinion and reinstated a trial court’s refusal to grant a motion to alter or amend. The trial court had granted defendant’s summary judgment motion based on plaintiff’s HCLA expert being unqualified to testify as to causation and plaintiff not obtaining…
Where plaintiff was injured when he was standing on the water meter box in his yard and the concrete cover unexpectedly moved, and the governmental water authority had noted that the box needed to be replaced four months before the incident, the Court of Appeals affirmed a finding that the…
Sometimes companies that do business or cause harm in Tennessee have not registered to do business in Tennessee or have not appointed a registered agent in the state. If you want to sue them in a civil action (but not a worker’s compensation action), on whom to you serve the…
The Tennessee Supreme Court yielded to the Legislature’s decision to impose a cap on the amount of money that can be awarded to people harmed by the carelessness of others. The law was passed in 2011. The law requires judges to reduce jury awards for human losses (called “noneconomic damages…