Well, it ain’t much, but the Tennessee Legislature has fixed one small problem with the tort reform legislation that impacts all tort cases arising on or after October 1, 2011. The original legislation included a provision that required all future damages to be broken down "on an annual basis" for…
Under the law of wrongful death in Tennessee, the spouse of the decedent typically has the principle right to pursue a wrongful death claim. However, from time to time cases have arisen where the marriage effectively but not legally ended before the death of one spouse, and squabbles arose…
As regular readers know, the Tennessee Bar Association has published a regular column in the Tennessee Bar Journal called "Day on Torts" for many years. I enjoy writing for these articles and am thankful for the many calls, letters and emails I have received over the years from my fellow…
The Tennessee General Assembly has now placed arbitrary caps on damages in personal injury and wrongful death cases. And the House of Representatives just passed HR 5, which placed a caps on damages in medical malpractice cases. But how does the federal government value life when weighing regulatory burden? The…
We all know that the services provided by homemakers have a substantial value, but this article from Vestopedia puts some numbers on it. The author notes that " The life of a homemaker is one that includes an endless amount of demands and to-dos. Depending on the size of the…
Will the President sacrifice the rights of patients injured by medical malpractice to get Republicans to sign-off on a health care bill? Steven Olsen explains why the President should not in this article titled "Why Shouldn’t Obama Throw Injured Patients Under the Bus to Get Heath Reform? Ask Steven Olsen." Steven…
The Georgia Legislature imposed a cap on noneconomic damages in meritorious medical malpractice cases in 2005. The cap is $350,000. In a case tried in Fulton County several years ago, the jury’s verdict exceeded the cap, and the Georgia Supreme Court is now considering whether the cap is…
Post 10 addresses changes to the Personal Rights Protection Act of 1984, codified at TCA Title 47, Chapter 25, Part 11. Here is a summary of the new law: Under present law, the Personal Rights Protection Act specifies that an individual is entitled to recover the actual damages suffered as…
Economists in personal injury cases and wrongful death cases often consider work life expectancy tables in calculating future economic losses. As explained on this website, "[m]any laypersons (and some experts) assume that [worklife expectancy] is the number of years until the person turns 65, the historic age for full social security…
This report published by Rueters says that if "the typical stay-at-home mother in the United States were paid for her work as a housekeeper, cook and psychologist among other roles, she would earn $138,095 a year." Is this data that can be reasonably relied upon by an economist in a…