Tennessee Injury Law Center
One question asked by many people with Tennessee personal injury or Tennessee wrongful death cases is how long it will take to get their case to trial. There are lots of variables that impact the answer to that question, including whether the case is in Tennessee federal court or Tennessee state court and then in which federal or state court the case is pending. The complexity of the case also makes a material difference, as does the number of parties who bring suit or who are sued in the case.
The federal government recently released statistics about how long it gets a civil case to get to trial in federal court in Tennessee and the rest of the nation.
First of all, it is important to note that most cases do not ever get to trial – they are settled or otherwise resolved before trial. Here are the statistics for the average (median) time to get an average civil case resolved in Tennessee federal court:
- Eastern District of Tennessee – 12.4 months
- Middle District of Tennessee – 9.1 months
- Western District of Tennessee – 11.9 months
Here is the length of time it takes to get a case to trial in each of the three districts:
- Eastern District of Tennessee – 23.0 months
- Middle District of Tennessee – 26.5 months
- Western District of Tennessee – 23.5 months
Note that this includes all types of civil cases, not just personal injury and wrongful death cases.
It would be unlikely for a simple car wreck case that was in federal court to require 25 months to get to trial. On the other hand, a complicated automobile products case or a case involving multiple parties could easily take 25 months in any of the three federal courts in Tennessee.