On June 29, 2016, a Shelby County (Tenn.) jury rejected Proffitt’s claim of self-defense and convicted him of attempted second degree murder. Proffitt was sentenced to fourteen (14) years in prison. He appealed the judgment to the Tennessee Criminal Court of Appeals. In a written opinion issued on December 13, 2018, the appellate court in State of Tennessee v. Joseph Proffitt upheld the jury’s verdict.    Former tow truck driver Arnold remains paralyzed and is confined to a wheelchair. Proffitt currently resides at the Trousdale Turner Correctional Center in middle Tennessee. He has a parole hearing scheduled in July 2020.

Murel Laughlin, owner of Laughlin Wrecker Service, in Greeneville, Tennessee, passed away in January 2014. But he left behind an important court ruling about assessing the value of used tow trucks.

Every automobile loan agreement contains a provision allowing for self-help repossession in the event of default.  If the borrower does not make the scheduled loan payments on time, a repossession agent is sent to pick up the vehicle.  The uniform code on secured transactions provides that a repossession must be accomplished “without breach of the peace.”

Back in 2013, Morristown towing company owner James Morgan unwittingly got involved in a stolen car ring.   Morgan, a one-truck operator, received a request to impound several dilapidated vehicles. The person requesting the tows indicated that he had bought the vehicles from their owners. It turned out that, in fact, he had not purchased some of the vehicles. He was using Morgan’s towing service to steal the cars.

At TowLawyer.com we often get calls from subscribers frustrated over the lack of enforcement of laws and regulations that apply to their local towing operations. Nothing is more infuriating that seeing a flagrant violation of a towing ordinance or police department regulation by a competitor that goes unenforced. For example, a local ordinance requires all tow trucks to carry a fire extinguisher and broom but none of your competitor’s trucks have that equipment. Or the police department rotation rules require a 10-foot chain-link fence capped with strands of barbed-wire but your competition only has a rickety 6-foot fence patched up with chicken wire and pieces of tin.