Tennessee Injury Law Center

Unlike Kentucky, Tennessee does not have a law that permits each patient to have a free copy of his or her medical record from a health care provider.  Tennessee law permits health care providers to charge for each and every copy of a medical record.

It is important to have a copy of certain medical records to evaluate every personal injury and wrongful death claim, including car and truck accident cases and each and other cases.  The number of providers from whom records must be obtained depends on the facts and circumstances of each case.  Some cases require us to obtain medical records from only one or tow health care providers.  Other cases require us to obtain records from ten or more health care providers.  The cost of obtaining records can be as little as $75 to well over $1000.

Our firm pays for the cost of acquiring the medical records for our clients. Even the event the case is successful, our fee agreement with our client provides that our client reimburses us for the out-of-pocket expenses we incur in the case, including the cost of obtaining medical records.

A subpoena is a court order requiring a person to appear in court to give testimony, produce documents or things, or both.

Subpoenas are issued by the clerk of the court in which the case is pending.  In Nashville and Davidson County, Tennessee, there is a $6.00 fee to issue a subpoena.  if the witness lives in Davidson County and the lawsuit is pending in Davidson County, the Davidson County Sheriff’s office will serve the subpoena for $9.00.

Different charges apply if the witness must be served in a different county.  The Clerk of Court will answer questions about the charges in such cases.

A jury is considered "deadlocked" when it is unable to reach an unanimous decision.  In Tennessee personal injury and wrongful death trials a jury of twelve people sits in judgment of the case and all twelve must agree on all issues.  When they fail to do so they are "deadlocked."

A judge faced with a deadlocked jury has two choices.  First, the judge can send the jury home, declare a mistrial, and order the parties to another trial.  This is an expensive option, both for the parties to the lawsuit and the justice system, because of the money that will be spent on the new trial.

The other option is for the judge to give what is known as a "dynamite" or "Allen" charge.  A dynamite or Allen charge is a jury instruction that strongly encourages each juror to reconsider his or her views and work toward compromise.  It tells jurors that a new trial will be very costly to the parties and that the jurors should work harder to solve their differences.

Tennessee law requires juries of twelve citizens in injury trials and in all other types of civil and criminal jury trials.  Rarely, the lawyers in the case will agree that the case can be decided by less than twelve people, but a very, very high percentage of jury trials in Tennessee are decided by twelve jurors.  A judge cannot require that a case is decided by less than twelve jurors.

Depending on the anticipated length and complexity of the trial, a judge may also have one or more alternate jurors hear the case.  An alternate juror will replace one of the twelve jurors who have been designated to hear the case if one of those jurors becomes ill or for some other reason cannot continue serving as a juror in the case. If none of the group of twelve jurors is required to leave jury service for any reason the alternate jurors are dismissed from the case immediately before the jury begins to deliberate a verdict in the case.  No more than twelve jurors are permitted to decide the case.

In Tennessee a jury’s verdict must be unanimous.  In other words, all twelve jurors must agree on the result.  If the jurors are unable to reach an unanimous agreement, a mistrial is declared and the case must be tried to another jury at a later date.