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Each year the Tennessee Judiciary
publishes an annual report discussing the Tennessee judiciary. This report provides helpful statistics on
case filings and other important legal system information for Tennessee. The fiscal year, 2011-2012 report is the most recent
report that has been released to date (the 2012-2013 report should be out
soon).
One thing that stands out in the report is
the continued decline in the number of cases filed in Tennessee Circuit and
Chancery Courts. The trend line is
pretty clear for both courts from 2005 to present (the data from the prior
years was pulled from prior annual statistical reports). This downward trend exists despite the fact
that Tennessee has had good population growth since 2005 of approximately
(approximately 9% from 2005 to present going from around 5.97 million to 6.51
million people).
The total number
of case filings for Tennessee Chancery courts from 2005 to 2012 is as follows:
2005-2006 68,567
2006-2007 66,994
2007-2008 63,256
2008-2009 64,715
2009-2010 64,631
2010-2011 62,721
2011-2012 62,392
The number of case
filings will likely continue this downward trend that will most likely get even
steeper because Tennessee Workers Compensation cases will no longer be filed in
the Court system for injury dates on or after July 1, 2014. I expect this will cause even a steeper
decline in Chancery cases that are filed.
If the number of cases filed in Tennessee Chancery courts simply kept up
with population growth since 2005, then the total number of cases filed in
Chancery court would have been approximately 74,738 in 2011-2012 fiscal year,
not 62,392.
The total number
of case filings for Tennessee Circuit courts from 2005 to 2012 is as follows:
2005-2006 67,090
2006-2007 64,837
2007-2008 62,204
2008-2009 64,296
2009-2010 63,536
2010-2011 62,733
2011-2012 62,243
It will be
interesting to see if these declines level off or if they continue. There have been steps taken by the Tennessee
legislature to adopt “tort reform” that may also have some impact on these
numbers. If the number of cases filed in
Circuit courts simply kept up with population growth since 2005, then the total
number of cases filed in Circuit court would have been approximately 73,128 in
2011-2012 fiscal year, not 62,243.
Follow me on Twitter at @jasonalee for updates from the Tennessee Defense Litigation
blog.
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