The landscape of medical malpractice law and procedure changed dramatically on October 1, 2008. Significant amendments to the Tennessee Medical Malpractice Act went into effect for all cases filed on or after that day. The changes include:

• Requiring medical malpractice victims and their lawyers to notify health care providers months before filing suit.
  
  
• Changing in some cases the amount of time victims have to file suit before their claims expire.
  
  
• Mandating a Certificate of Good Faith from a qualified health care provider, at or near the time a lawsuit is filed, to establish the case has merit.
  
  
• Imposing potentially strong sanctions on attorneys who do not comply with the amendments.

The attorneys of Day & Blair have been preparing themselves to best represent their clients under these new requirements. At the same time, Day & Blair's lawyers have been working to educate other attorneys on the practical impact of the new amendments to the Medical Malpractice Act, frequently speaking and writing on the subject:

• In May, Rebecca Blair spoke about the changes to the Medical Malpractice Act at the Medical Malpractice Conference for Tennessee Attorneys. (Excerpts from Rebecca's PowerPoint slides from the speech are available here.)
  
  
• In June, John Day spoke on the amendments to the Act at the Tennessee Association for Justice's Medical Malpractice Seminar.
  
  
• The September edition of the Tennessee Bar Journal featured an article by Rebecca Blair titled "Med-Mal Obstacles."
  
  
• Rebecca Blair and Brandon Bass spoke in a teleseminar covering the 2008 Medical Malpractice Act amendments in September.
  
  
• Also in September, Rebecca Blair and Brandon Bass addressed the changes to the Medical Malpractice Act at the Law Conference for Tennessee Practitioners.