Tennessee Jury Verdict Reporter

An unidentified lawyer gratuitously sent me the above one inch thick 2017 volume which purports to list all jury verdicts from 2005-2017 in the State of Tennessee.

            Since we are daily bombarded by the five-six law firms on their radio-television commercials expressing what great trial lawyers they are I decided to check out their records on jury verdicts.

            Starting with the longest running lawyer advertising team, the firm claiming to have Inside Information, the record shows that the number two member of the firm went to court in 10 cases, with 7 being car wrecks and lost 5 of the 10 cases during this period.  A $150,000.00 verdict was obtained in Davidson County and in Hamilton County the largest verdict was $50,000.00.  The other member of the firm was more active as he allegedly tried 23 cases, winning 17 with a high verdict of $125,000.00.

            The self-appointed “Best Law Firm” in the Chattanooga Times Free Press poll reported only two defense verdicts for one attorney and the other superstar had two cases that he tried and lost both.

            The guy you have “got to get” to represent you lost two car accident cases from 2005-2017.

            The biggest billboard advertisers from Birmingham, Alabama, listed three FELA (Railroad) cases with verdicts between $172,000.00-$200,000.00 but no Hamilton County cases.   Two verdicts are from Shelby County and one from Knox County.  When those verdicts were obtained is not listed. Since they have only been spending their million dollar advertising campaign on television and billboards for about two years they may not have had time to get cases to trial.

            The “Had a wreck, need a check” lawyer from Huntsville, Alabama, has entertaining commercials but no reported jury verdicts during the reporting period and no lawsuits ever filed.

            Lastly, the dog loving firm that has two self-acclaimed champions of the injured has tried a total of one case from 2005-2017 with a jury verdict awarding their client $4,000.00.

            Each of these law firms have settled many cases that they acquired primarily though the power of advertising campaigns.  Does it accurately reflect their legal talents or does it suggest puffing and deception?

            Do these results match the glowing self-serving commercials expressing their ability to cause insurance companies and civil defense lawyers to cringe and cave in to their demands?

            The bigger question is whether clients are receiving full value of their cases when the other side (defense) knows that in the vast majority of cases they want a fast settlement to resolve the cases without expending a lot of time and expense to get the maximum recovery for the client?

            Below are their records as recorded in the Tennessee Jury Verdict for the years 2005-2017!

I encourage you to buy local products and hire local, reputable attorneys!