Assessing Economic Damages in Personal Injury and Wrongful Death Litigation: The State Of Tennessee

This article presents the legal framework for determination of economic damages by forensic economists (FEs) in personal injury (PI) and wrongful death (WD) cases in Tennessee. Section II presents an overview of the court system, including discussions on where cases are filed and the appellate process for both Tennessee state courts and federal courts sitting in Tennessee. Section III examines both PI (non-statutory) and WD (principally statutory) laws on damage-assessment in Tennessee and distinguishes between PI and WD cases including the types of damages available in each. It also presents in detail two recent, oft-cited Tennessee cases (Overstreet v. Shoney’s, 1999, and Lawrence v. Town of Brighton, 1998), in which no FE testified but which address general issues of concern to the FE, and which when read together offer the best exemplar available of the way in which a damages case proceeds through the Tennessee judicial system. Section IV delves more deeply into particular FE issues, explores the role of the FE in damage calculation, and considers particular valuation issues; however, comments regarding FE practice appear throughout the article. Section V identifies selected special issues related to determining damages in Tennessee, including pre-judgment interest, income tax factors, the collateral source rule, and the statute of limitations. Section VI provides a summary. In keeping with the purpose of this series as expressed in JFE 15(3), 2002, pp. 317-318, we do not describe the intricacies of calculating damages but refer the reader to some relevant sources, such as Ireland, Horner and Rodgers (1998); Martin (2006); and articles in the JFE and Journal of Legal Economics.