Day on Torts - New Post: Day on Torts Nugget – 2019 Tennessee Trial Data Part 2

Day on Torts Nugget – 2019 Tennessee Trial Data Part 2

Posted: 24 Feb 2020 06:22 AM PST

Today we follow up on our previous post about the number of civil trials in Tennessee and we concentrate on the number of trials in Tennessee personal injury, wrongful death and other tort cases. (Health care liability trials are excluded from these numbers.)

In the fiscal year ending June 30, 2019, there were 140 jury trials and 150 non-jury trials in Tennessee tort cases. Thus, there were a total of 290 such trials. Plaintiffs “won” 112 of those cases or, in other words, 38.6% of the time the plaintiff received a judgment in his or her favor. (Whether this is truly a victory for the plaintiff depends on whether there was a pre-trial offer and the amount of that offer when compared with the judgment amount.) The available data does not tell us the percentage of “wins” in jury cases or in non-jury cases but only the total number of judgments entered for the plaintiff in both types of cases.

Compare that for the prior year (ending June 30, 2018), when there were 130 jury trials and 207 non-jury trials. Therefore, the total number of tort trials that year was 337. Therefore, for the first time in recent memory, the number of jury trials actually increased slightly (130 to 140) while the number of non-jury trials decreased substantially (207 to 150). In FY 2018 a judgment was entered for the plaintiff in only 98 cases, or 29.1% of all cases tried.