Every lawyer who has crossed the threshold of a Tennessee courthouse door knows mentally competent adults are subject to a one-year statute of limitations for Tennessee personal injury tort cases. The Tennessee legislature has lengthened the period to file suit for personal injury cases for mentally competent adults under three circumstances, one of which involves the presence of the initiation of criminal charges against the defendant. Read about it in John Day's column this month, "Traffic Citations: Their Impact on Statutes of Limitations in Personal Injury and Wrongful Death Cases."

The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA), the $1.9 trillion economic stimulus package signed by President Biden on March 11, includes two major provisions likely to have an impact on employers (and employees). In their column "The Law at Work," Edward Phillips and Brandon Morrow give us the details.

Issues surrounding gender identity, and many legal ramifications that flow from that identity, are changing rapidly. Marlene Eskind Moses writes in her column about how new laws involving people who are transgender affect divorce and custody, including a law that requires Tennessee athletes to compete under their birth genders rather than the gender that they identify with. She also looks at a recent addition to the criminal code that makes it an offense for a transgendered person who has not yet transitioned, to use the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity rather than their birth sex.

Registration for the in-person option for the 2021 TBA Annual Convention has closed, but the virtual option is still available. It includes all the same CLE and key programs as the in-person option but at a significant savings. Programming will be offered each day the week of June 14. Early in the week, Tennessee law school alumni will gather for virtual mixers, while virtual programs will focus on civility, the TBA’s Practice Management Center and legal trends beyond COVID. On Thursday, join colleagues gathered in Memphis for the annual Bench Bar program and popular Better Right Now CLE via Zoom. And on Friday, don’t miss the annual Legislative Update CLE and Lawyers Luncheon, where colleagues will be honored for their service to the bar and the profession, and Nashville lawyer Sherie Edwards will be sworn in as TBA's 142nd president. Register here for the virtual option.

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