PART II (Seven year review) - What Tennessee jurisdictions were the most conservative or liberal for personal injury or death trials over the last seven years (July 1, 2005 – June 30, 2012)?

Every year the Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts publishes the “Annual Report of the Tennessee Judiciary” to provide information on cases filed and decided in Tennessee.  I previously provided an article showing the percentage of trials in each Tennessee jurisdiction that resulted in damages (for personal injury or death cases) for fiscal year 2011-2012.  Based on the positive response to that article, I decided a longer term review was warranted to get more accurate numbers on how conservative or liberal a particular Tennessee jurisdiction is for trials involving personal injury cases.  The statistics in the below chart are for a seven year period from July 1, 2005 – June 30, 2012.  I will list the counties in order with the most conservative at the beginning of the list (and the most liberal at the bottom of the list) by percentage of personal injury or death trials where damages were awarded:

The prior post on these same statistics for the 2011-2012 fiscal year showed that Shelby County was the most liberal of the large jurisdictions with 63.3% of trials resulting in damage awards.  Davidson County had a rate of 52.2% of trials resulting in damage awards.  Knox and Hamilton counties, expectedly, showed up as the most conservative of the large Tennessee jurisdictions where 37.7% and 35.7% of trials resulted in a damages award.  Interestingly, a seven year look at the numbers changes the order and Davidson County becomes the most liberal of the large jurisdictions for this time period.  A total of 62.9% of personal injury or death trials in Davidson County resulted in damage awards.  Shelby County showed a rate of 54.1% in the seven year review.  Knox County was next on the list with 45% of trials resulting in damage awards.  Hamilton County had the lowest percentage for the large counties with 36.1% of trials resulting in damage awards.

Using these statistics, the award for the most liberal jurisdiction over the last seven years goes to Coffee County with a rate of 63.6% (something must be in the coffee in that county – sorry, I could not resist).  The award for the most conservative jurisdiction goes to District 29 (Dyer and Lake Counties) with a rate of 0%!  Dyer and Lake Counties have a very small sample size so an honorable mention award goes to District 25 (Fayette, Hardeman, Lauderdale, McNairy, Tipton Counties) with a 12.9% rate even with 62 trials.

I hope this information is helpful to allow you to better assess likely verdicts in Tennessee.  Let me know if you have any suggestions for other statistical studies on Tennessee jurisdictions.  There is a lot of information provided in the annual reports of the Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts.  It is simply a matter of drilling down into the information to make it more usable.