The following graphs demonstrate the resolution of personal injury, wrongful death, and other tort cases in Dickson County, Tennessee during the last six fiscal years ending June 30, 2023.
BirdDog Law shares this information for every county in Tennessee. Click on BirdDog’s County Pages, go to the county of choice, and click on Court Statistics.
Click on the link for more information on the Dickson County court system.
Who needs to haul the Tennessee Supreme Court rules, the Tennessee Rules of Appellate Procedure, etc. to a trial court? No one.
That is why I created a new book that contains only the Tennessee Rules of Civil Procedure and Evidence (Courtroom Edition). It has the rules you need on motion day or in trial, and no other rules that only add only bulk.
The Courtroom Edition includes rule changes effective July 1, 2024.
The Court of Appeals affirmed dismissal of a personal injury case because the defendant qualified as a statutory employer of plaintiff under Tennessee’s workers’ compensation laws. Under the “exclusivity doctrine” in worker’s compensation law, an employee cannot sue his or her employer under tort law. Instead, the exclusive remedy for the employee is under worker’s compensation law.
In Coblentz v. Tractor Supply Company, No. M2023-00249-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. Apr. 26, 2024), plaintiff worked as a sales representative for a hardware company. The hardware company supplied certain products to defendant retail store. Plaintiff’s job therefore included visiting defendant store, along with many other stores, to check its inventory. While at the store, plaintiff would determine whether additional inventory from his hardware company should be sent, stock any new product, and generally straighten the area where his company’s products were displayed. Plaintiff typically visited defendant store every four to six weeks.
During one visit, a large barn door fell off its track and hit plaintiff. Plaintiff filed a workers’ compensation case against the hardware company he worked for, which was settled. He also filed this personal injury case against defendant retail store. Defendant moved for summary judgment, arguing that it was a statutory employer under Tennessee’s workers’ compensation laws, and that workers’ compensation was therefore plaintiff’s exclusive remedy. The trial court agreed, granting summary judgment to defendant, and the Court of Appeals affirmed.
The following graphs demonstrate the resolution of personal injury, wrongful death, and other tort cases in Roane County, Tennessee during the last six fiscal years ending June 30, 2023.
BirdDog Law shares this information for every county in Tennessee. Click on BirdDog’s County Pages, go to the county of choice, and click on Court Statistics.
Click on the link for more information on the Roane County court system.
Where plaintiff offered only circumstantial evidence consisting of witnesses’ opinions of what might have caused a car accident, summary judgment for defendants was affirmed.
In Wright v. Doe, No. W2023-00084-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. Apr. 17, 2024), plaintiff filed suit against a tow truck driver and the company for which he worked. During the underlying car accident, plaintiff was stopped on the right shoulder of the interstate behind a disabled vehicle. The tow truck was in front of the disabled vehicle, and though it was parked on the shoulder, it also protruded into the far right lane. While the tow truck was present, an unidentified driver left the roadway and struck plaintiff’s vehicle, injuring plaintiff, then fled the scene.
Plaintiff filed this suit, asserting that the accident was caused by the negligence of the tow truck driver. Plaintiff claimed negligence, negligence per se, and negligent hiring, supervision and training against defendants, all of which require “proof of both causation in fact and proximate cause.”
There has been lots of confusion in Tennessee over how to obtain medical records of a deceased person.
Some providers require that an estate be opened and a HIPAA-compliant authorization be signed by the personal representative of the estate before they will turn over medical records. This is a ridiculous position – no one should have to go to the expense of opening an estate simply to gain access to medical records.
The Tennessee General Assembly came up with a fix. A new statute, embodied in Public Chapter 739, amends TCA Section 68-11-304 by deleting subdivision (a)(1) and substituting the following:
The following graphs demonstrate the resolution of personal injury, wrongful death, and other tort cases in McMinn County, Tennessee during the last six fiscal years ending June 30, 2023.
BirdDog Law shares this information for every county in Tennessee. Click on BirdDog’s County Pages, go to the county of choice, and click on Court Statistics.
Click on the link for more information on the McMinn County court system.
Plaintiffs must show substantial compliance, not strict compliance, with HCLA requirement that HIPAA authorization be included with their pre-suit notice.
In a memorandum opinion in Moxley v. AMISUB SFH, Inc., No. W2023-00220-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. April 24, 2024), the Court of Appeals vacated dismissal of an HCLA claim because the trial court used the wrong standard to determine whether plaintiff had complied with pre-suit notice requirements.
Before filing suit, plaintiff sent pre-suit notice to twelve potential defendants. Plaintiff included HIPAA authorizations, but those notices did not specifically authorize the providers to obtain medical records from the other providers. Instead, each pre-suit notice included twelve separate HIPPA authorization forms, with each authorizing the named provider to release records to one of the twelve providers sent notice.
The following graphs demonstrate the resolution of personal injury, wrongful death, and other tort cases in Jefferson County, Tennessee during the last six fiscal years ending June 30, 2023.
BirdDog Law shares this information for every county in Tennessee. Click on BirdDog’s County Pages, go to the county of choice, and click on Court Statistics.
Click on the link for more information on the Jefferson County court system.
Where decedent was survived by two children, and those two children filed a wrongful death claim pro se purporting to assert claims on their own behalf and on behalf of the other four children, the complaint was only proper to the extent the two plaintiffs were asserting their own right under the wrongful death statutes.
In Grose v. Stone, No. W2023-00090-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. April 25, 2024), decedent died in a car accident. Thereafter, two of decedent’s six children filed a wrongful death claim. The complaint stated that plaintiffs were acting on their own behalf, and on behalf of decedent’s other four children as administrators of decedent’s estate.
After multiple opportunities to hire counsel and several court dates, the trial court ultimately dismissed the complaint as a whole. The trial judge found that the complaint was void ab initio and constituted the unauthorized practice of law by the two plaintiffs. Plaintiffs appealed this ruling, and the Court of Appeals reversed dismissal, finding that the complaint was partially proper.
