Articles Posted in Miscellaneous

The Tennessee Supreme Court has just released the 2006-07 “Annual Report of the Tennessee Judiciary.” It has some amazing, indeed alarming, information.

• There were 584 medical malpractice cases filed in Tennessee last year. To put that in perspective, there were 10,165 general “Damages/Torts” cases filed. Indeed, there were less medical malpractice cases filed than there were kidnapping (660) and homicide (1622) cases.
• There were 28 jury trials in Chancery Court and 393 civil jury trials in Circuit Court in the entire state.
• There were just 590 jury and non-jury personal injury and death cases tried in the entire state; 289 of those were jury trials. In 242 jury and non-jury cases the plaintiffs recovered money (about 40%).
• Davidson County had 54 of the jury trials; Shelby County had 31. Knox Courty had 45 jury trials of personal injury and wrongful death cases, Hamilton County had 23 and Montgomery County had 6. Forty-three counties had no personal injury or wrongful death jury trials.
• There were only 15 medical malpractice trials in the entire state during the one year period covered by the report. ]
• About 5% of all personal injury and tort cases end up going to trial (jury or non-jury).
• Total damages awarded ($44,600,000) in personal injury and death cases is down from $94,500,000 a year previously.
• The total number of tort cases filed has dropped in the last ten years.
• This data is for the one year  period ending June 30, 2007.

Read the statistical section of the Annual Report here.

I will have some comments about  this data in later posts.

I have an early morning meeting and won’t be able to post until closer to Noon.  Check back later for another in the Great Lawyer series.

The Economist reports about a new study that links physical appearance and income.

The article says that " a series of surveys in the United States and Canada [show]  that when all other things are taken into account, ugly people earn less than average incomes, while beautiful people earn more than the average. The ugliness “penalty” for men was -9% while the beauty premium was +5%. For women, perhaps surprisingly considering popular prejudices about the sexes, the effect was less: the ugliness penalty was -6% while the beauty premium was +4%."

But there is more:  "The difference also applies within professions. Dr Hamermesh [the author of the study] looked at the careers of members of a particular (though discreetly anonymous) American law school. He found that those rated attractive on the basis of their graduation photographs went on to earn higher salaries than their less well-favoured colleagues. Moreover, lawyers in private practice tended to be better looking than those working in government departments."

Dahlia Lithwick at Slate has selected the Bush Administration’s Dumbest Legal Arguments of the Year. 

The list stopped at ten arguments; the writer was obviously working with a severe space limitation.

Here is an excerpt from the article: 

The Tennessee Supreme Court has appointed me to the Advisory Commission on the Rules of Practice and Procedure effective January 1, 2008.  I am honored by the appointment; I have always attempted to be a student of the rules of evidence and procedure and look forward to being a part of the process of improving them.

Do you have a proposed rule change that you think will advance the just, speedy and inexpensive resolution of disputes?  Write me an email and give me your thoughts.  Please don’t just pass on an idea – take a stab at drafting the language that you think should be adopted.  Indicate why you think the rule change is appropriate.

Day on Torts:  A Handbook for Tennessee Tort Lawyers 2008 has been updated.  The updates are free and may be found at http://www.dayontortsbook.com/lawyer-attorney-1251567.html.

To order the book go to http://www.dayontortsbook.com/lawyer-attorney-1251565.html.

There is no better way to spend a rainy day than update a book (or so says the dullest man in America).

Day on Torts :  A Handbook for Tennessee Tort Lawyers has been updated.  Seven new cases have been added to "electronic pocket part" of the book.  To update the  book, scroll  to the relevant section here and open it to find links to important cases that have been decided since the book has been published.

Still don’t own a copy?  Order here.  Want to get a feel for what you are buying?  Read a sample chapter.

Today I am in Memphis for the last of our fourth annual Justice Programs seminars.  Former Justice Penny White, former Judge Joe Riley and I  created a company to offer "annual review" type CLE and ethics for civil trial practioners and it has done great.  We have  a great crowd in Memphis and in fact have had a great crowd across the state this year.

There is nothing like teaching substantive law at a CLE program to keep your knowledge level where it needs to be in your law practice.  It takes scores of hours to prepare for my talks on tort law and civil procedure, but I find that the preperation helps me serve my clients.

To those of you who joined us at a Justice Programs seminar this year:  Thank you.  To those of you who missed us I encourage you to give us a try.  I think you will find that our program gives you much more than CLE credit – it gives you information you can use to better serve your clients.

Updates to A Handbook for Tennessee Tort Lawyers – 2008 have been posted on the book’s website.  The updates are available in the "free updates" section of the site.  To utilize this service, simply scroll down to the relevant chapter and section and click on it to see if there are any new cases in the relevant subject matter.

Book sales are brisk.  Two good-sized firms who handle primarily personal injury work have purchased a copy for virtually every lawyer in the firm. 

Recall that the book contains the leading Tennessee tort case on 233 subjects; here is a table of contents for that section of the book.  The book also contains selected statutes of interest to tort lawyers and a complete set of the Tennessee rules of civil procedure, evidence and appellate procedure. 

Read this heart-warming article by a doctor from Memphis as published in the November 12, 2007 Commercial Appeal.

Thanks to Lang Wiseman from Memphis for alerting me to the article.