Number of Cases Filed in Tennessee on Downward Trend According to Newly Released 2013 Tennessee Court Statistics

Newly released statistics on the number of Tennessee cases filed each year confirm the longstanding downward trend for Circuit and Chancery Court cases filed.  The Tennessee Judiciary recently published their annual report providing statistics on case filings and other important Tennessee legal system information.  This new report covers fiscal year 2012-2013 (July 1, 2012 – June 30, 2013) and is the most recent report available.    

I previously discussed the downward trend for case filings that has continued at least since 2005.  This new report shows this downward trend may actually be accelerating.  This is especially true in Chancery Court filings. 

The total number of annual case filings in Tennessee Chancery courts from 2005 to 2013 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

            2012-2013                                                                   59,471

This downward trend for Chancery case filings will likely get much steeper over the next 3 years.  This is due to the fact Tennessee Workers Compensation cases will no longer be filed in the Court system for injury dates on or after July 1, 2014.  These new statistics show an almost 5% decline over the last year and a 13.3% decline since 2005 despite the fact the State of Tennessee has had a good population growth over this same time period.

The total number of case filings for Tennessee Circuit courts from 2005 to 2013 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

            2012-2013                                                                   60,063

It appears this trend line is going to continue for the foreseeable future.  The Tennessee legislature continues to reform tort law and to turn various legal principles into statutes in order to reduce litigation.  I think this trend in the legislature will continue for the foreseeable future.  In the coming weeks, I will be discussing more statistics from this new report that should be interesting to Tennessee attorneys as well as those involved in Tennessee claims.