To paraphrase Daniel Patrick Moynihan: You are entitled to your own opinion about why the number of tort filings and trials are decreasing in Tennessee. You are not entitled to your own facts.

And here are some of the facts. Tort filings in Tennessee continue to decline, despite an increase in the population that, other things being equal, would tend to cause an increase in the number of incidents causing personal injury and death.

In the year ending June 30, 2005, there were 12,743 tort cases filed in Tennessee.[1] Ten years later, on June 30, 2014, our population was estimated to be 6,549,000, an increase of about 9 percent from the 6 million or so people living here a decade earlier. But, rather than tort cases increasing by the same percentage, the number of filings had dropped more than 20 percent to 9,856.

In 2004-05 there were 715 medical malpractice cases filed in state court. Ten years later, the number of filings of what we now refer to as “health care liability cases” had dropped to 376, a decrease of about 45 percent.

The number of tort trials has also declined significantly. In 2004-05 there were 324 jury trials in Tennessee state court. Ten years later, the number dropped 30 percent to 232 tort jury trials.

Our largest counties are a mixed bag when it comes to the number of jury trials in tort cases. In Shelby County the number of these trials actually increased in the last 10 years, from 26 jury trials to 55. Montgomery County added a trial, from six to seven, as did Hamilton County, from 20 to 21. Knox County trials dropped from 61 to 40, as did Davidson County (44 to 36) and Rutherford County (12 to 9). Note that in the year ended June 30, 2014, the six counties with the largest population had 168 tort jury trials — or about 70 percent of such trials in the entire state.

Nonjury trials have decreased, too. In 2004-05, state court judges heard 298 non-jury tort trials. For the year ending June 30, 2014, there were 184 such trials.

One type of trial (usually by jury) that has increased in the last 10 years is health care liability cases. In 2004-05, there were only three such cases tried. In 2013-14, the number of trials exploded to 29.

What is causing these changes?
There are many, many reasons for why we see what we see. For example, both motor vehicle wrecks and deaths are down in Tennessee. In calendar year 2005, there were 51,608 motor vehicle wrecks resulting in personal injuries and 1,172 resulting in fatalities. Ten years later, there were 30,465 wrecks resulting in injuries and 628 resulting in fatalities.[2] Fewer wrecks, combined with safer vehicles and safer roads, means fewer injuries and deaths and thus fewer claims, which means fewer lawsuits and fewer trials. This is good.

There are other reasons for the declines in tort filings and trials, some of which are legislative changes to tort law. People have various views about whether the changes are good, bad or neutral for society as a whole.

We can all agree, however, that (a) change has come to the tort system; (b) this change impacts our citizens, the judiciary, the bar and the development of the common law; and (c) further analysis is needed to determine whether current and additional proposed barriers to entry to the civil justice system further the long-range goals of our society.

Notes

1. All statistics concerning tort filings and tort trials are available from the website of the Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts.
2. Some crashes cause multiple deaths. For example, in 2014, 961 people died in the 628 crashes that resulted in at least one death.

JOHN A. DAY is a trial lawyer in Brentwood. He was an economics student in undergraduate school, has a rather unhealthy obsession with data, and does not believe that public policy decisions should be based on anecdotes.