In the year ending June 30, 2011 (the most recent year for which statistics are available) there were 499 trials in Tennessee personal injury and wrongful death cases.
Only 222 of these trials were jury trials. The other 277 trials were non-jury trials.
Shelby County had 44 jury trials in personal injury and wrongful death cases, the most jury trials of any county in the state. Davidson County was next with 31 jury trials. Knox County had 28 jury trials and Hamilton County had 19 jury trials.
Physician assistants (PAs) are increasing in number in Tennessee. Physician assistants are licensed by the state and are supposed to assist a physician in the practice of medicine.
The State of Tennessee has issued rules concerning the work done by physician assistants. A physician assistant must have formal training in an approved program and must pass an examination to be licensed by Tennessee.
Physician assistants have the right to prescribe certain drugs under the supervision of a physician. In fact, all of the activities of the physician’s assistant must be under the supervision of a physician. The regulations concerning the supervision of a physician assistant by a physician are set forth in the link (look at section 18).
There were six jury trials in tort cases in Nashville, Davidson County, Tennessee during the month of September, 2012.
Here are the results:
There is a one-year deadline (called a "statute of limitation") for bringing a Tennessee medical malpractice case.
Changes to the law several years ago means that a person must give formal notice to each defendant in a medical malpractice case before a lawsuit can be filed in the court system. That notice must be sent no more than one year from the date of the negligent act or negligent omission causing an injury.
The statute that mandates pre-suit notice has some very specific requirements about what the notice must say and how it must be sent to the potential defendant or defendants. Tennessee appellate courts have not yet had the occasion to do an in-depth examination of how strictly these requirements must be met to satisfy the requirement of pre-suit notice, and thus it should be assumed that each of the statutory requirements must be followed to the letter until we have more guidance from Tennessee appellate courts. It would be a mistake for any consumer to attempt to give notice of a potential medical malpractice case without the assistance of an experienced Tennessee medical malpractice lawyer.
Tennessee law does not permit the recovery of prejudgment interest in personal injury or wrongful death lawsuits .
However, if you win a case and a judgment is entered by the court you are permitted to recover interest on the amount of the judgment. Under the law in effect before July 1, 2012, interest accrued at the rate of 10% per year on the amount of the judgment that is unpaid. Now, the interest rate varies from time to time; the interest rate on judgments as of December 3, 2012 is 5.25%.
The inability to collect interest on personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits (unless a judgment is entered) is yet another reason why you want to hire a lawyer who will work to finish your case promptly. To learn how we can help you with your case, call me at 866.812.8787 for a free consultation. You may also complete our Contact form and we will get in touch with you.
We have a significant number of people who contact us several months after a Tennessee automobile wreck, after most of the physical evidence is gone and poor decisions have been made about pursing appropriate health care. When we ask why the person waited so long to contact us, the response is usually something like "the insurance adjuster was just so nice in the beginning."
Well, sure.
The job of the insurance adjuster is to resolve an insurance claim as quickly and inexpensively as possible. It just makes good sense – and good business – for the adjuster to be polite and indeed downright friendly. Why? Because you as the claimant are more likely to cooperate with the adjuster and give the adjuster the information he or she needs if the adjuster is friendly. The insurance company doesn’t want you to cut off communication and seek a lawyer, and the best way keep you from doing so is to be nice.
The litigation of certain types of personal injury and wrongful death cases, particularly medical malpractice, products liability, and tractor-truck cases, can be very expensive. Most Tennessee personal injury and Tennessee wrongful death lawyers are willing to work on a contingent fee, but there must be money available to finance the other expenses of litigation (court reporters, expert witnesses, demonstrative aids and exhibits, etc,)
A personal injury lawyer who accepts those cases for consumers must have the financial ability to advance money for those expenses because most consumers are unable to do so. Some lawyers are very under-capitalized, i.e., they lack the ability to adequately finance a case to completion. The lack of financial resources can affect the outcome of the case, because the lack of financial resources can impact the quality of expert witnesses the lawyer employs to assist in the case, the number of expert witnesses, the number of depositions that are taken (court reporters are paid to transcribe depositions, and they are expensive), the quality of demonstrative exhibits at trial, etc.
So how does a consumer evaluate this factor? It is very difficult. Most lawyers will not turn over their balance sheets to prove to you that they have the financial resources to finance the case. One way a client can gain information about this issue is by determining if the lawyer is asking the client to borrow money or pay interest on the money the lawyer borrows to finance case expenses. This indicates one of two things: either the lawyer lacks the ability to finance the case, or the lawyer has the ability to do so but is shifting the cost of financing case expenses to the client (which increases the total cost of hiring that lawyer and increases the lawyer’s profit).
The Law Offices of John Day, P.C. recommends that you never hire a lawyer, much less a personal injury lawyer, that does not have insurance to protect you in case the lawyer makes a mistake that causes you harm.
There is no law that requires that a Tennessee personal injury lawyer (or any other type of lawyer in Tennessee) have malpractice insurance coverage. Some lawyers try to save money and not purchase insurance that would protect their clients from loss in the event of a lawyer error.
This is plain stupid and puts you as a client at risk. Lawyers, like everyone else, can make mistakes. Most of those mistakes can be corrected without causing harm to a client, but it is possible that an error cannot be corrected and will result in harm to a client. A responsible lawyer knows that such errors can occur and protects a client from financial loss through the purchase of malpractice insurance.
John Day of the Law Offices of John Day, P.C. has been named to the Tennessee Super Lawyers list as one of the top attorneys in Tennessee for 2013, No more than 5 percent of the lawyers in the state are selected by Super Lawyers.
In addition, John was again named to the Top 100 Lawyers in Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi in the 2013 Super Lawyers publication.
We are also proud to announce that two of the firm’s other lawyers, Brandon Bass and Laura Baker, were named to Super Lawyer’s Rising Star List.
As lawyers who have represented people in Tennessee truck and car accidents for over thirty years, we cannot over-emphasize the need to seek prompt medical attention for injuries received in auto and truck accidents.
Here is the problem: if you delay seeking medical attention, the at-fault driver’s insurance company will argue that you were not hurt, that your injuries were not serious, or that your complaints are related to something other than the motor vehicle accident.
There is a tendency for good people NOT to seek medical attention promptly, out of fear that they will be deemed whiners. This thought process, while admirable, actually works against a person when they later try to resolve a personal injury claim.
