"Tort Reform - The Song" — Day on Torts

Nashville is the home of country music, and country music is filled with wonderful stories. I envy the ability of country music songwriters to tell a complete story in three minutes, purposefully injecting a handful of magical words called "the hook" to make that story stick in your mind and heart forever. "He Stopped Loving Her Today" is a famous example.

Stories about life and love, adversity and hope, tractors and trucks. About death and broken hearts, revenge and forgiveness, patriotism and God. Sometimes downright silly, sometimes frighteningly real, country songs, written and performed by those with a true gift, result in unforgettable stories.

But there are no songs about tort reform. You would think the subject is ripe for such a song – there is more than enough human tragedy in tort reform to give rise to one heck of a country song.

Wait no longer. "Tort Reform – The Song" has filled that void. The work was written by a group of lawyers (including the spouses of several of them) and an amazingly talented law student. Each of the writers do not share the same opinion of every aspect of tort reform, but each was willing to have a little fun with the subject.

Sure, the song will probably never be as popular as "You Never Even Called Me By My Name." It will make few karaoke lists. But Steve Goodman and John Prine were able to work with the more common country music themes, "mama, trains, trucks, prison and getting drunk, " and not stuck with topics like insurance premiums and damage caps. (Although mama was hit by a train in Prine and Goodman’s song, and if that train had been the Music City Star, economic and non-economic damages would have been capped at $2,000,000 per person and $30,000,000 per incident. T.C.A. Sec. 29-20-107(g)(1)(C).)