The Chamber of Commerce does an annual ranking of the "lawsuit climate" in the fifty states. The winning state – Deleware – has the most pro-business climate. The losing state – West Virginia – has the most anti-business climate. How are the rankings determined? By a "sample of in-house general counsel or other senior corporate litigators to explore how reasonable and balanced the tort liability system is perceived to be by U.S. business."
Tennessee is ranked 22nd, down (or is that up?) from 6th last year.
That’s interesting, when one considers that there have been virtually no changes – and certainly no dramatic changes – in Tennessee’s substantive law in the previous year. And the judiciary is 95 percent the same. Perhaps Tennessee moved lower because other states moved higher.
Or perhaps the rankings have nothing to do with reality at all.
Here are the survey results for Tennessee.
Here is the full report.
Here is a complete copy of the survey.