The National Practitioner Data Bank collects data about medical malpractice settlements of $10,000 and more. Here is some recent information about Tennessee physician judgments and settlements as reported to the Data Bank: There were 155 reported payments in 2011, down from 192 10 years earlier in 2001. 31 of those…
Ok, State v. Zimmerman was a criminal case, not a civil case. much less a tort case. (Zimmerman may be sued by Martin’s family – more on that below). But, in the "for what it’s worth department, here are my comments on the criminal verdict: 1. I don’t know if…
For many years, the Tennessee statute of limitations was tolled for those of "unsound mind." That law has now changed, and the statue of limitations is tolled only for those who are "adjudicated incompetent." Tenn. Code Ann. Section 28-1-106. Here is the text of the newly worded statute: If the…
About eight years ago I wrote a guest post for Legal Underground that addressed the importance of case selection by plaintiff’s lawyers. The post got lots of discussion, and in fact I ended up doing a series of speeches about the topic at seminars sponsored by various state lawyer associations…
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…
Negligent infliction of emotional distress is a relatively new tort in Tennessee. True, the tort existed in the early days of Tennessee tort law (not by that name, but the root concept was out there) but the circumstances giving rise to liability were extremely narrow. All of that changed a…
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…
Tennessee law has a one year statute of limitation in a medical malpractice (now called a health care liability) case. Formal legal notice must be given to health care providers who are going to be sued in the case and this notice must be given before the expiration of the…
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that a private Medicare Advantage Organization plan cannot sue a plan participant’s survivors for reimbursement of medical payments out of the proceeds of an automobile insurance policy. The case is Parra v. PacificCare of Arizona, No. 11-16069 (9th Cir. April 19, 2013), Parra was…
The news that Pilot Flying J, a company largely if not exclusively owned by Governor’s Haslam’s family and run by his brother, is the subject of a criminal investigation has made a lot of news in the last week. Headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee, Pilot Flying J has over 600 retail…