The number of products liability lawsuits filed in federal courts is declining.
According to an article posted at www.insurancejournal.com, the number of federal products liability lawsuits declined by 14% last year and are on pace to decline 16% this year. Read the article here.
The study itself may be found at www.lexisnexus.com; the report is here. Tennessee is a “third-tier” state in products liability filings in federal court, with between 1000 and 5000 filings over the 50 months ending 3/1/06.
This made me start thinking about the so-called litigation explosion and what proof there is of it in the federal courts in Middle Tennessee. So, I went to www.uscourts.gov and discovered that civil filings are down in Tennessee, from 2198 in 2001 to 1729 in 2005. That is a decrease of 21.3%. See the data here.
There were 81 “Personal Injury / Product Liability” lawsuits filed in the Middle District of Tennessee in 2005; there were 93 such lawsuits filed in 2001. (See 2001 data here.)
Explosion?
Not quite.