By Judge Brian Addington, Gray I can still remember when the first Cars movie came out. I was excited because I thought my son, who was three at the time, would love it. Sure enough he did, and eventually he decorated his room with Cars memorabilia. His love of the Cars movies led to a love … Continue reading Life is a highway
Year: 2018
Taking the next step after benefits end
By Brian Holmes, Director, Mediation and Ombudsman Services of Tennessee, Nashville The Tennessee Bureau of Workers’ Compensation recently launched the Next Step Program. This new program assists injured workers who are unable to return to their pre-injury employment. Many receive their workers’ compensation benefits and are unsure how they will support their families in the future. … Continue reading Taking the next step after benefits end
Five Things in Five Minutes
By Penny Shrum, Court Clerk, Nashville As the holidays approach, I am feeling crunched for time! This made me think of what could be done in five minutes to make my life easier. While a nap would make me happier, it certainly would not be productive. I have done three of the five items listed … Continue reading Five Things in Five Minutes
Better Get it in Writing: A Few Takeaways
By Jane Salem, Staff Attorney, Nashville Judge Robert Durham’s most recent blog post generated comments from court reporters, which deserve some follow-up. So here goes. [Official Disclaimer and Apology: These are the musings of a staff attorney, rather than official pronouncements of law from the Court. OK? Good. Also, unlike Judge Durham, I’m incapable of … Continue reading Better Get it in Writing: A Few Takeaways
Better Get it in Writing
By Judge Robert Durham, Cookeville Considering an appeal? I have an important tip for you: give the Appeals Board something to read. Trying to win on appeal without a transcript of the evidence is regrettably like trying to beat Alabama in college football—theoretically, it can be done, but don’t hold your breath. In fact, I … Continue reading Better Get it in Writing
Slip sliding away
By Judge Brian Addington, Gray I was sitting in our car in Nashville years ago when I heard a catchy tune from Paul Simon, Slip Sliding Away. I later learned the Oak Ridge Boys backed him up. I really liked that song, but I was used to hearing the Oak Ridge Boys sing gospel. I … Continue reading Slip sliding away
Panel probes undocumented workers’ eligibility for increased benefits
By Jane Salem, staff attorney, Nashville Can undocumented injured workers collect increased permanent partial disability benefits in Tennessee under section 50-6-207(3)(B)? A Special Workers’ Compensation Panel of the Tennessee Supreme Court considered that question at oral arguments on November 19. Employee Salvador Sandoval asked the Panel to strike as unconstitutional the provision within the statute … Continue reading Panel probes undocumented workers’ eligibility for increased benefits
You’re Invited!
The Clerk of the Tennessee Court of Workers’ Compensation Claims, Penny Shrum, is holding training on TNComp at three locations in December. There may be a surprise guest. The goal is to train lawyers, paralegals and legal assistants on how to upload documents to TNComp. We will also discuss filings with the Court. Please mark … Continue reading You’re Invited!
Honoring law enforcement
By Judge Brian Addington, Gray I recently came across the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial. This happened while researching coins; I used to collect them and was wondering about the price of a coin I previously owned. While doing so, I discovered that the U.S. Mint issued a National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Silver Dollar … Continue reading Honoring law enforcement
Mediation and Ombudsman Services of Tennessee welcomes new staff
By Brian Holmes, Nashville The Tennessee Bureau of Workers’ Compensation continues our tradition of hiring high-quality talent to the mediation program. We’re pleased to announce that Sam Keen, Derrick Shorter and George Maifair recently joined the Bureau as workers’ compensation mediators. Sam joined the Bureau last month. He previously worked as a staff attorney with … Continue reading Mediation and Ombudsman Services of Tennessee welcomes new staff
See you next week
The public hearing on the proposed revisions to the Mediation and Hearing Procedures for the Court of Workers’ Compensation Claims is Tuesday, October 30, at 10:00 a.m. Central Time at the Bureau of Workers' Compensation in the Tennessee Room, 220 French Landing Drive in Nashville. This is your opportunity to voice your opinion. Members of … Continue reading See you next week
It’s not that funny
By Judge Brian Addington, Gray I like having fun. Through the years, I’ve had some great times with friends and family. I won’t tell who, but another judge on the Court of Worker’s Compensation Claims and I almost got thrown out of the University of Tennessee Law Library because our study group was laughing so … Continue reading It’s not that funny
Rules Reorganization is Under Way
By Chief Judge Kenneth M. Switzer, Nashville When the Court began operating in July 2014, we already had a set of “rules” called the Mediation and Hearing Procedures. These rules were prepared before any judges were appointed and any “new law” injuries occurred. They were based on the statute and anticipated how the process would … Continue reading Rules Reorganization is Under Way
Honoring the Constitution
By Judge Lisa Lowe, Knoxville On September 17, 2018, we celebrated Constitution Day. The Knoxville Barristers, which is the young lawyers division of the Knoxville Bar Association, always has a school community outreach program during Law Week. For years and years (yes, for so long that they were doing it, even when I was president … Continue reading Honoring the Constitution
Good writing matters
By Judge Dale Tipps, Murfreesboro Judges in the Court of Workers’ Compensation Claims spend a lot of time writing, thinking about writing, and learning about writing. We receive writing instruction at least a couple of times per year and regularly submit samples of our orders to outside writing experts for individual evaluation. The obvious idea … Continue reading Good writing matters
Look, Ma, I’m on the World Wide Web!
By Judge Robert Durham, Cookeville In my early days as a lawyer, I would often take up quill and parchment and walk next door to the Legal Aid office where I could obtain my own personal legal charity—access to an honest-to-goodness law library. Ah, the good old days. Row upon row of casebooks, digests, and … Continue reading Look, Ma, I’m on the World Wide Web!
Between a rock and a hard place
By Judge Brian Addington, Gray, and Jane Salem, staff attorney, Nashville As we just celebrated Labor Day, and as we approach the 100-year anniversary of workers’ compensation in Tennessee, both are excellent reminders of the importance of the Workers' Compensation Law. As you know, workers’ compensation was conceived as the “grand bargain,” in that employees … Continue reading Between a rock and a hard place
It’s Who You Know
By Penny Shrum, Clerk of Court, Nashville Has anyone else noticed that there are a lot of owl commercials on TV? Cold medicine, education, travel – apparently we need a wise owl to tell us what to do. It’s no wonder that I immediately thought of the saying, “It’s not what you know, it’s who … Continue reading It’s Who You Know
Rough as cob, sweet as corn
By Judge Brian Addington, Gray As summer winds up, soon we’ll be saying farewell to fresh corn on the cob. Sigh. I love corn: corn on the cob, popcorn, grilled corn with cheese, creamed corn, and plain old frozen or canned corn. My Nana could cook the heck out of corn. I used to fight … Continue reading Rough as cob, sweet as corn
Let’s be TNComp buddies!
By Penny Shrum, Clerk of Court, Nashville It’s been over six months since the Court’s electronic filing system, TNComp, went live. The Court has received 744 requests to access cases in TNComp since February. But only 35 cases have had attachments uploaded by parties through TNComp in that same time period. TNComp has lots of … Continue reading Let’s be TNComp buddies!
From the Bench 