I would bet you haven't heard about the Hannan v. Alltel Publishing Co. case brought down from the mountain by the Tennessee Supreme Court on All Hallows Eve last year. That's certainly understandable, though it's regrettable, because it is a landmark state court ruling, and it will affect your life.
In sum, the court's radical departure from Tennessee and Federal precedent in Hannan and in Martin v. Norfolk Southern Railway Company will make it more difficult--much more difficult, to avoid the time and expense of unnecessary trials--i.e., to have frivolous lawsuits dismissed.
If you are interested in a full legal analysis of the case, I'd recommend this insightful article from the Tennessee Bar Journal, but a quick list of Hannan's consequences are that (a) lawyers will file more expansive (onerous) discovery requests, (b) lawyers will litigate more frequent (and arguably more necessary) motions to compel party opponents to hand over information, (c) lawsuits will be dragged out longer, and (d) lawyers will file a higher number of frivolous lawsuits. Wow.
To put it mildly, this errant ruling is far from a high point in the history of Tennessee jurisprudence. But what should we expect? It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out that we'll have decisions like this as long as special lawyer's groups control the process of selecting Supreme Court judges.
Let us know what you think . . .
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