Day on Torts
What to know more about the explosion of personal injury and wrongful death jury verdicts in Tennessee? A report released by the Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts revealed that the following Tennessee counties did not award one penny in damages in any tort case for the year ended June 30, 2011:
District 1 – *Johnson, *Unicoi
District 3 – Hamblen, Hancock, *Hawkins
District 4 – *Cocke, *Grainger, Jefferson
District 8 – Claiborne, *Scott, *Fentress, *Union
District 9 – Meigs, *Morgan
District 10 – Bradley, *McMinn, Polk
District 12 – Bledsoe, Rhea, *Grundy, *Sequatchie, *Marion
District 13 – *Clay, Cumberland, *DeKalb, Overton, *Pickett, *White
District 15 – *Jackson, *Macon, *Smith, *Trousdale, Wilson
District 16 – *Cannon
District 17 – Bedford, *Lincoln, *Marshall, *Moore
District 21 – *Hickman, *Lewis, Perry
District 22 – *Giles, *Lawrence, *Wayne
District 23 – Cheatham, *Houston, *Humpheys,*Dickson, Stewart
District 24 – Benton, *Carroll, *Decatur, *Hardin, Henry
District 25 – Tipton, Lauderdale, *McNairy, *Hardeman
District 26 – *Chester, *Henderson
District 27 – *Obion, *Weakley
District 28 – *Crockett, Gibson, Haywood
District 29 – Dyer, *Lake
District 31 – *Van Buren
Lest you think that fine people of these counties are stingy or down-right mean, the presence of an "*" next to the county’s name means that there was not a jury trial in a tort case in that county for the year ending June 30, 2011.
In other words, just under 50% of Tennessee’s counties (45 of 99) did not have a single jury trial in a tort case for an entire year.