Divided Tennessee Supreme Court Adopts “Good-Faith Exception” to the Exclusionary Rule
In Tennessee, the protections provided in the Article 1 Section 7 of the state constitution regarding search and seizure have long been held to be identical to the protections provided by the 4th Amendment to the United States Constitution. However, the Tennessee Rules of Evidence do not always track the Federal Rules of Evidence. In criminal cases, this can mean that, even though the...
read moreTort Law Blog: Is the Common Knowledge Exception Obsolete?
Last month we wrote about the common knowledge exception, and it crops up again this month. Lawyers, be warned: Even if the common knowledge exception applies in a health care liability case so that expert testimony is not required, the failure to file a certificate of good faith may still be fatal… Background This health care liability action was filed following a fall by Plaintiff, Vicki...
read moreIs a Picture Worth a Thousand Words of Medical Testimony?
In the recent Tennessee Court of Appeals case, Garvin v. Malone, the Plaintiffs wanted to introduce pictures of a damaged vehicle to prove the extent of the physical injuries they suffered in a car crash. It does raise an interesting question: what correlation is there between the damage that appears on a car following a collision and the injuries to the bodies inside that car? And does this...
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