The Hamilton Firm Blog

A recent opinion, Gardner v. R & J Express, LLC, 2018 Tenn. App. LEXIS 248 by the Tennessee Court of Appeals demonstrates that spoliation is not a one-sided affair. Plaintiffs may be subject to sanctions as well as defendants who do not preserve material evidence. Mr. Gardner was an owner/operator pulling a trailer owned by…

Tennessee has joined Georgia and many other states in prohibiting handheld use of cell phones while driving. T.C.A. § 55-8-199, amended effective July 1, 2019, prohibits drivers from operating a motor vehicle on any road or highway in Tennessee, while physically holding or supporting a cell phone, with any part of the driver’s body, except…

Tamarin Lindenberg had to sue Jackson National Life Co. to recover $350,000 she was owed as the primary beneficiary of a life insurance policy on her ex-husband, Thomas, after he died in 2013. There were contingent beneficiaries listed, to his “surviving children equally”, but there appeared to be no question but that Tamarin was entitled…

After passing Congress late in 2012, the President has signed the SMART Act into law. The Medicare Secondary Payer Act is supposed to guarantee that Medicare does not pay medical bills that are the primary responsibility of a third party. The SMART Act amends the Medicare Secondary Payer Act to streamline and improve the reimbursement…

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), has released a new report, September 3, 2020, which found that: “Equipping large trucks with forward collision warning and automatic emergency braking (AEB) systems could eliminate more than 2 out of 5 crashes in which a large truck rear-ends another vehicle . . . ” “IIHS Director of…

Although we generally confine our blog posts to developments in the law from Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama (as well as law firm announcements), this California case is worthy of comment. In Alexander v. FedEx Ground Package System, Inc., a major decision by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals (August 27, 2014) the Court determined that…

“ . . . it costs a lot to win, and even more to lose” (Jerry Garcia) Cases involving a tractor trailer (18-wheeler, semi, big rig) or other commercial motor vehicle(s) should not be handled like the typical car wreck case! In an article just published in the The Tennessee Trial Lawyer, the journal of…

Effective June 6, 2017, self-driving or “robot” cars are legal in Tennessee, provided a human being is in the car, and provided that the vehicle is covered by at least $5,000,000 in liability insurance (Senate Bill 151). The new law defines “automated driving system” or “ADS” as “technology installed on a motor vehicle that has…

Hubert Hamilton recently posted (2/6/14) the following comment to Regulations.gov concerning the proposed changes to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, particularly as to the dramatic limitations on the scope of discovery as well as shortening the time to complete service of process: “These changes seem designed to tilt the playing in favor of defendants…

On Wednesday afternoon, November 9, 2011, a Hamilton County jury returned a $784,676.65 verdict in Circuit Court in favor of Norma O’Neal, whose Chattanooga home at 1706 Estrellita Circle went up in flames just two weeks before Christmas Day in 2009. Hubert Hamilton and Patrick Cruise served as trial counsel for the Plaintiff. Mrs. O’Neal…