Miscellaneous

November 15, 2010

Preparing for Oral Arguments in the Appellate Courts

Jay O’Keeffe has a written a great post called "10 Things I Wish I’d Known Before My First Oral Argument." An excerpt:

3. Anticipate hard questions.

As soon as I start working on an appeal, I create a document called "Tough Questions." This document includes every hard question I can think of, regardless of whether I can answer it. I update it constantly through the briefing and oral argument process. The goal is to anticipate every hard question the Court can throw at you, and prepare–and practice–your best answer.

November 13, 2010

Justice Programs Seminar in Nashville on November 18 and 19

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

Our Justice Programs seminar series will be held on Nov. 18 and 19 in Nashville. Former Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Penny White, Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Joe Riley, and I also will present the two-day programs in Memphis (Dec. 9 and 10) and and Knoxville (Dec. 2 and 3) . Each program provides the fifteen (15) hours required CLE and includes four (4) hours of ethics/professionalism/dual credit on Friday afternoon. You may register for both days (all 15 hours), one and a half days (11 hours), or the Friday afternoon ethics program (4 hours).

Here is what is on the agenda

Tort Law / Comparative Fault – John Day

November 7, 2010

Justice Programs Seminar – Johnson City – This Week

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

Our Justice Programs seminar series will be held on Nov. 11 and 12 in Johnson City. Former Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Penny White, Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Joe Riley, and I also will present the two-day programs in Memphis (Dec. 9 and 10), Nashville (Nov. 18 and 19), and Knoxville (Dec. 2 and 3) . Each program provides the fifteen (15) hours required CLE and includes four (4) hours of ethics/professionalism/dual credit on Friday afternoon. You may register for both days (all 15 hours), one and a half days (11 hours), or the Friday afternoon ethics program (4 hours).

Here is what is on the agenda

Tort Law / Comparative Fault – John Day

November 4, 2010

Justice Programs Seminar 2011

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

Our Justice Programs seminar series will be held on Nov. 11 and 12 in Johnson City. Former Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Penny White, Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Joe Riley, and I also will present the two-day programs in Memphis (Dec. 9 and 10), Nashville (Nov. 18 ans 19), and Knoxville (Dec. 2 and 3) . Each program provides the fifteen (15) hours required CLE and includes four (4) hours of ethics/professionalism/dual credit on Friday afternoon. You may register for both days (all 15 hours), one and a half days (11 hours), or the Friday afternoon ethics program (4 hours).

Here is what is on the agenda

Tort Law / Comparative Fault – John Day

September 11, 2010

Googling Potential Jurors

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

The Internet Cases blog alerted me to this case. Apparently, plaintiffs counsel in a medical malpractice case began using his laptop to "Google" potential jurors to learn background information about them. The Court questioned this effort as follows:

THE COURT: Are you Googling these [potential jurors]?

[PLAINTIFFS COUNSEL]: Your Honor, there’s no code law that says I’m not allowed to do that. I-any courtroom-

September 5, 2010

Justice Programs Seminar 2010

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

Penny White, Joe Riley and I are on the road again this Fall as part of our annual Justice Programs seminar. You wouldn’t be reading this blog if you didn’t have an interest in Tennessee tort law, and I will be doing my annual summary of changes in the law of torts as part of the two-day, 15-hour program..

Here is our schedule for this year:

EAST TENNESSEE

August 29, 2010

Tennessee Trial Law Report – Tort Law Edition

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

Have you subscribed to the Tennessee Trial Law Report – Tort Law Edition? Each month Brandon Bass and I summarize the recent Tennessee appellate decisions in the field of tort,civil procedure, evidence and trial law and publish those summaries in the TTLR. Importantly, we do not just regurgitate the opinion – we summarize it and give our opinion of whether the decision is consistent or inconsistent with prior law and the public policy of Tennessee.

The newsletter also includes an article by me on some aspect of the law of civil trial in Tennessee. Next month’s edition includes Part 4 of my series on the law of the use of depositions at trial.

Finally, the newsletter includes a list of all cases pending before the Tennessee Supreme Court that are of interest to tort lawyers, indicating the status of those cases before the court (as best we can tell from public data).

August 5, 2010

Thanks for the Book Orders

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

Thanks to each of you who has ordered the third edition of Day on Torts: Leading Cases in Tennessee Tort Law. Hundreds of books have been shipped in the last two months and orders are continuing to flow in.

Day on Torts identifies more than 300 Tennessee tort law subjects and provides summary of the leading case on each subject to give you a quick, readable synopsis of current state of the law. Many of the summaries include citations to other cases, giving you even more insight and helping narrow the scope of your research.

The good news is that books are still available. The bad news is that because the books are hard-cover and designed for pocket parts, once they are gone they will not be available again for three or four years (until the pocket part becomes so thick that a new edition of the book becomes necessary). The expense of a limited, second printing of the third edition is cost-prohibitive. Therefore, those lawyers who do not obtain a copy of the third edition will have to wait until the fourth edition is available to have their own copy of the book.

August 4, 2010

Nashville Bar Association Speech

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

Today (August 4) I will be speaking on behalf of the Nashville Bar Association about various tort and civil procedure topics that cause lawyers to lose sleep. The title of the speech is " KEY PRACTICE STRATEGIES FOR TORT LAWYERS: SOLVING ISSUES THAT KEEP YOU UP AT NIGHT." The program qualifies for 1.5 hours of CLE credit.

“Do Not Vote For My Dad!”

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

There are lots and lots of reasons to be a good dad, not the least of which is to avoid having your son or daughter actively oppose your effort to be a judge by taking out an ad in the local newspaper.