Day on Torts
There were ten jury and non-jury awards of $1,000,000 or more in Tennessee tort cases in the year ending on June 30, 2011.
The number of million dollar verdicts was exactly the same as it was ten years earlier, a year when there were 50% more trials.
These are the counties with million dollar verdicts or judgments:
Davidson County – 3
Knox County – 2
Madison County – 3
Putnam County – 1
Shelby County – 1
The other 95 counties in Tennessee did not have any damage awards of $1,000,000 or more.
Indeed, there were only 45 jury and non-jury damage awards in excess of $100,000 in tort cases the entire state in the year ended June 30, 2011, with 35 of those verdicts being between $100,000 and $999,999. Ten years ago there were 50 damage awards between $100,000 and $999,999 in a one-year period. When one considers the substantial increase in the cost of healthcare during that period and the impact that health care costs have on personal injury and wrongful death awards, the evidence tends to indicate that Tennessee jurors remain conservative.