Brushing aside precedents from both the U.S. Supreme Court and its own state supreme court, a California appeals court has affirmed a trial court’s punitive damages award that is 16 times larger than the compensatory damages awarded in a tobacco case
Judicial HellholesCalifornia’s high court is expected to render its decision soon in a key “phantom damages” case, and Sacramento Bee columnist Dan Walters succinctly asseses the importance of the pending decsion
Judicial HellholesIf it’s not with phony wheelchair access claims or absurd consumer protection lawsuits, California plaintiffs lawyers also extort money from small businessmen and women by exploiting an environmental law that’s ripe for reform
Judicial HellholesA recent Los Angeles Times story reports that judges there are bemoaning sharp budget cuts. Pardon our lack empathy
Judicial HellholesMississippi’s Supreme Court has ordered a stop to all proceedings in an asbestos case that resulted in a record $322 million verdict last May.
Judicial HellholesReacting to an Associated Press story that circulated over the weekend, the American Tort Reform Association is pointing to health research reported by NPR last week that suggests “California’s latest wave of shameless class actions might enrich lawyers while actaully endangering the health of retail employees”
Judicial HellholesHaving defeated Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s modest medical liability reform proposals — including a $250,000 limit on noneconomic damages — earlier this year, New York’s trial lawyer-dominated legislature in Albany is now trying to take the already high-liability state’s law in the opposite direction
Judicial HellholesBorrowing from the playbook of parasitic personal injury lawyers who have made South Florida the auto accident insurance-fraud capital of America, an attorney from Bethesda, Maryland, got in over his head and has been popped in a sting operation
Judicial HellholesFor those who keep an eye on the parasitic personal injury bar, it comes as no surprise that the kings and queens of slip-and-fall will gather this July 9-13 for their annual convention in New York City, aka “Sue” York City
Judicial HellholesAs the General Assembly in Harrisburg considers a variety of civil justice reforms, the Pennsylvania Business Council has produced a persuasive YouTube video in support of those reforms
Judicial HellholesBy virtue of a single verdict, rural Smith County, Mississippi has vaulted itself into contention for being named a Judicial Hellhole
Judicial HellholesNo one will be surprised to learn that four states notorious for their Judicial Hellholes and Watch List jurisdictions — California, New York, Illinois and New Jersey — have been ranked by corporate CEOs as the worst in the nation for doing business
Judicial HellholesPast Judicial Hellholes reporting has documented ADA scam artists in California, Florida and elsewhere. But now Dallas-Fort Worth’s WFAA-TV reports that the scourge has spread to the Lone Star State, with help from a camera-shy shyster in the Sunshine State
Judicial HellholesSouth Florida drunk-driver defense lawyer Mark Gold is suing a strip club, claiming to have been too drunk one evening last November to be held legally responsible for the nearly $19,000 tab he rang up
Judicial HellholesA thin-skinned Madison County judge has been baited by a crafty plaintiffs’ lawyer into ordering into evidence irrelevant but plaintiff-friendly “evidence” in an important Illinois environmental case, further cementing the rural county’s reputation among the least fair jurisdictions in the nation
Judicial HellholesThe Florida Supreme Court has suspended for three years the license of a plaintiff’s attorney featured in the Rogues Gallery section of the latest Judicial Hellholes report
Judicial HellholesThe Alabama law firm headed by tort kingpin Jere Beasley has withdrawn its would-be class action against Taco Bell filed in California last January.
Judicial HellholesWith his recent home-job handling of a specious lawsuit brought by a local manufacturer against an out-of-state software company, Franklin County Circuit Court Judge Terry Dempsey appears singlehandedly determined to qualify his rural Alabama jurisdiction as the next notorious Judicial Hellhole
Judicial HellholesA new report by Florida’s Office of Insurance Regulation offers the latest confirmation of the fact that costly auto accident fraud is on the rise in Florida
Judicial HellholesTo the Mississippi Bar’s credit, it has leveled a serious disciplinary complaint against two personal injury lawyers found liable last year for civil fraud in connection with asbestos lawsuits. Now, as a special tribunal prepares to hear their defense, ATRA renews its call for stiff discipline.
Judicial HellholesA recent study of insurance “loss costs” in Washington State indicates that the 2007 passage of a plaintiffs’ bar-backed liability expansion has, duh, led to higher costs and higher premiums
Judicial Hellholes