From the American Tort Reform Association
The American Tort Reform Foundation issued its 2015-2016 Judicial Hellholes® report today, naming courts in California, New York City, Florida, Missouri, Illinois, Louisiana, Texas and Virginia among the nation’s “most unfair” in their handling of civil litigation.
“With both this annual report and a year-round website, our Judicial Hellholes program since 2002 has been documenting troubling developments in jurisdictions where civil court judges systematically apply laws and court procedures in an unfair and unbalanced manner, generally to the disadvantage of defendants,” began American Tort Reform Association president Tiger Joyce.
“Among others, this year’s report shines its harshest spotlight on increasingly plaintiff-friendly courts in the “Show Me Your Lawsuits State” of Missouri and America’s asbestos lawsuit capital, Madison County, Illinois,” Joyce continued.
“Missouri’s reputation for a judicial nominating process controlled by the plaintiffs’ bar, an outlier high court willing to strike down civil justice reforms, and a lax standard for admission of expert testimony continue to discourage private investment in the state’s economy and help earn a #4 Judicial Hellholes ranking,” explained Joyce. “Lawsuits in St. Louis are of particular concern, as plaintiffs’ lawyers enjoy excessive damage awards there and plenty of hospitable for those with asbestos lawsuits.
“Of course, no jurisdiction in the country is any more hospitable to asbestos plaintiffs than Madison County, the #5 Hellhole just across the river. Never mind that the overwhelming majority of asbestos cases there have no connection to the county or even the rest of the state, defendants’ motions to escape the plaintiff-favoring jurisdiction are continually denied and large numbers of trials may be scheduled for a single day, further eroding defendants’ rights to due process and ratcheting up pressure to settle claims out of court.”
#5 MADISON COUNTY, ILLINOIS. Asbestos litigation is an industry in Madison County, which handles about a third of all such lawsuits in the nation. Most of these cases have no connection to Illinois, much less Madison County. Hundreds of cases are set for trial in a single day, a tactic used to pressure defendants into settlements. Local plaintiffs’ law firms have significant sway with the county’s judiciary, getting their colleagues appointed to the bench. And the county’s past as a perennial Judicial Hellhole is the present and future as plaintiffs’ lawyers continue their attempt to resurrect a $10.1 billion judgment stemming from a class action against the tobacco industry that the state’s high court threw out a decade ago.