Only in hyper-litigious America would someone caught red-handed in the commission of an apparent armed robbery have the gall to consider a lawsuit against the civilian hero who courageously thwarted that robbery
Judicial HellholesNot everyone at NPR is zealously anti-business. And not all their reporting about lawsuits targeting American businesses necessarily takes the side, implicitly or explicitly, of plaintiffs’ lawyers and their clients. But most of the public radio network’s legal reporting does, and two stories airing on the same day last week showed enough bias-by-omission to leave listeners wondering if NPR has come to stand for National Plaintiffs Radio
UncategorizedCiting California’s stubborn and long criticized reluctance to adopt unambiguously the more exacting Daubert standard for expert evidence used in all federal courts and roughly 80% of state court systems, the American Tort Reform Association today pointed to “the latest giant-sized junk-science verdict” there to suggest it officially change its nickname to the “Golden State for Trial Lawyers.”
Judicial HellholesResponding to a defense motion that cited an important 8-1 U.S. Supreme Court decision rendered earlier in the day, a St. Louis trial judge yesterday declared a mistrial in the sixth such trial there in which plaintiffs allege, contrary to widely accepted science, that the makers of talcum powder are responsible for their ovarian cancer
Judicial Hellholes, Points of LightWith today’s announced decision of a third significant jurisdictional case by the U.S. Supreme Court this term, the American Tort Reform Association applauded the “trifecta,” calling the decisions “welcomed relief for corporate defendants targeted by personal injury lawyers, with plenty of help from plaintiff-friendly courts in California, Missouri, Montana, Texas and elsewhere
Points of LightContinuing its well established trend of expanding civil liability while disregarding U.S. Supreme Court precedent, the California Supreme Court did it again last week with its plaintiff-favoring decision in McGill v. Citibank, N.A.
Judicial HellholesLike aphids ravaging backyard tomato plants, parasitic plaintiffs’ lawyers and their clients have for years been ravaging businesses in the Garden State with shameless abuse of the Truth in Consumer Contract, Warranty and Notice Act (TCCWNA). But a federal judge in Trenton laudably sprayed a little pesticide on their racket earlier this week
UncategorizedNot that anyone should be surprised but, despite all their early talk about nobly pursuing justice for the injured, that blitz of plaintiffs’ lawyers who rushed to represent clients in the NFL’s concussion litigation have sacked common decency as they greedily look to clip one another and blindside former players and their families, according to ESPN
UncategorizedMissouri Rising, a pro-business advocacy group helping to push needed civil justice reforms through the Show Me Your Lawsuits State’s legislature, began airing television ads this month which note the fact that ATRA’s latest Judicial Hellholes report named St. Louis as the nation’s #1 hellhole
Judicial HellholesAs both state and federal courts in recent years have created confusion by ruling differently on questions of personal jurisdiction (whether a state’s courts should have jurisdiction over cases involving various out-of-state elements), high courts in Missouri and Oregon last week hewed closer to longstanding tradition and appropriately ruled that claims alleging out-of-state injuries against out-of-state defendants doing little business there should be brought elsewhere
Points of LightThe U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit yesterday vacated certification and directed the trial court to dismiss with prejudice the latest “empty suit” class action wherein class members suffered no real injury and wasted precious court resources merely to register their dissatisfaction with a product
Points of Light
In a major development in the civil litigation targeting energy producers in Louisiana over their alleged damaging of the receding coastline there, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit today unanimously affirmed the dismissal of the very first such lawsuit — wholly concocted by plaintiffs’ lawyers — filed on behalf of the Board of Commissioners of the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East (SLFPA-E)
Judicial Hellholes, Points of LightThe Florida Supreme Court’s plaintiff-favoring majority yesterday maintained its reputation for wholly disregarding the authority of duly elected state lawmakers with a 4-2 decision, refusing to adopt a 2013 reform law that raised the Sunshine State’s standard for expert testimony to that of all federal courts and 39 other state court systems
Judicial HellholesNews 7 Denver reporter Ryan Luby this week documented the spread of bogus wheelchair-access lawsuits, driven by parasitic personal injury lawyers, across the nation’s Southwest and the impact those suits are having on hardworking small business owners
UncategorizedIn attacking ATRA’s annually well-documented “Judicial Hellholes” report, which recently ranked St. Louis as the nation’s least fair civil court jurisdiction and criticized what we believe are scientifically groundless verdicts against makers of talcum powder, local personal injury lawyer Roger Denton claimed to have no involvement in litigation against one of those makers. But documents ATRA provided to the Post-Dispatch caught him in a lie
Judicial HellholesThough it’s still early in the new 115th Congress, a newly proposed House bill could help stop certain plaintiffs’ lawyer-driven class actions — featuring no discernible injuries — that ATRA calls “Empty Suit Litigation™”
Points of LightNoting Judge Neil Gorsuch’s “refreshing record of leaving lawmaking to elected lawmakers,” the American Tort Reform Association today voiced optimism about his nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court and “the perspective he’ll bring in helping to make our civil justice system more predictably fair”
UncategorizedLast week the Missouri Supreme Court doubled down on a horrible, anything-goes venue decision it made last fall by refusing to stay some 1,350 cases brought predominantly on behalf of out-of-state plaintiffs in St. Louis, the nation’s #1 Judicial Hellhole, which allege that talcum powder products cause ovarian cancer
Judicial HellholesAfter topping the annual Judicial Hellholes rankings in both 2010 and 2011, Philadelphia’s Complex Litigation Center (CLC) for mass torts undertook dramatic reforms in 2012 that significantly improved balance and fairness. But as judicial conduct there has again begun to encourage plaintiffs’ lawyers from across the country to bring their cases to Philly, the “City of Unbrotherly Torts” is backsliding toward its ignominious past
Judicial HellholesMissouri’s newly minted, reform-minded Governor Eric Greitens delivered his first State of the State address to a joint session of the legislature in Jefferson City yesterday, declaring his commitment to enacting critical tort reforms as a means to improving both the state’s civil justice system and its economic prospects
Judicial Hellholes, Points of LightThe American Tort Reform Foundation issued its 2016-2017 Judicial Hellholes® report today, naming courts in Missouri, California, New York, Florida, New Jersey, Illinois, Louisiana, Virginia and Texas among the nation’s “most unfair” in their handling of civil litigation
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