Apparently tired of living in the shadow of Las Vegas, Nevada, jackpot justice capital of the Mountain West, little Las Vegas, New Mexico, in rural San Miguel County, has now become notorious for forum shopping as it vies for Judicial Hellholes status in its own right
Judicial HellholesNevada’s leading newspaper has condemned the latest absurd verdict and half-billion dollar award for punitive damages in a string of deep pocket-targeting cases that has helped make Clark County courts look more and more like Las Vegas casinos
Judicial HellholesIn an op-ed published today by the State Journal in West Virginia, ATRA president Tiger Joyce offered support for the state’s new attorney general, Patrick Morrisey, and his proposed transparency policies aimed at providing the public with more information about the hiring of outside counsel
Judicial HellholesPicking up where the latest Judicial Hellholes report left off, the Wall Street Journal this week editorialized about the consolidation game that asbestos kingpin Peter Angelos is trying to play in Baltimore
Judicial HellholesThe U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit this week threw a hard fastball under the chin of plaintiffs’ lawyers from the firm of Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP for their habit of making allegations they couldn’t prove and possibly knew to be false
Judicial HellholesA unanimous decision last week by the U.S. Supreme Court adds credence to the notion that Circuit Court Judge Kirk Johnson in Miller County, Arkansas may well be the very worst judge in America
Judicial HellholesUrging justices of Alabama’s Supreme Court to reconsider their January decision that absurdly held a brand-name drug maker liable for the allegedly negative side effects of a generic drug made by a competitor, the Wall Street Journal today adds to the criticism of Wyeth v. Weeks
Judicial HellholesCalifornia’s leading journal for legal news has published a worthwhile story about the growing wave of preposterous consumer class actions that target the packaging and marketing of various food and beverage products, and which have found a welcoming embrace in the arms of judges comprising the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California
Judicial HellholesThe federal District Court for the Northern District of California, known increasingly for its plaintiff-friendly embrace of preposterous food and beverage consumer class actions, is where apparently alcohol-obsessed litigants have filed a new, multimillion-dollar lawsuit against Anheuser-Busch, alleging that the actual alcohol content of various beers is marginally lower than labels indicate
Judicial HellholesDespite ongoing legislative reform efforts, Louisiana seems headed for a Judicial Hellholes ranking this year thanks to a recently horrendous state supreme court decision and a continuing pay-to-play shakedown racket known as the “Buddy System”
Judicial HellholesAn unsuccessful former graduate student in Pennsylvania, who was apparently indulged by her professor father, has lost a $1.3 million lawsuit against Lehigh University wherein she alleged breach of contract and sexual discrimination
Judicial HellholesA new analysis of that horrible drugmaker liability decision by the Alabama Supreme Court last month shows that the decision is not only out of step with virtually all of American tort law, but also is predicated on unsound public policy
Judicial HellholesATRA’s chief ally in the Judicial Hellhole known as New York is the author of an insightful letter to the editor in today’s Wall Street Journal
Judicial HellholesThe all too cozy relationships between Louisiana’s attorney general and various personal injury lawyers and law firms that were criticized in the latest Judicial Hellholes report appear to be continuing in the New Year
Judicial HellholesIt only took eleven days for a state supreme court to issue the first outrageous liability-expanding ruling of 2013. The ruling abandons a core principle of law– that manufacturers are liable only for injuries caused by their own products, not the products of others — and replaces it with, what is known in strict legal terms as, the “someone has to pay” approach.
Judicial HellholesShortly before the New Year, the Illinois Supreme Court announced a long-awaited decision that may appropriately serve to limit forum shopping somewhat in a state full of Judicial Hellholes notorious for the practice
Judicial Hellholes, UncategorizedMadison County, Illinois, currently ranked as the #3 Judicial Hellhole nationwide, managed in 2012 to shatter its old record for newly filed asbestos lawsuits
Judicial HellholesMiscarriages of civil justice in plaintiff-friendly Miller County, Arkansas are nothing new (see the 2006 Judicial Hellholes report, p. 22), but now they’re the makings of an important case on appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court — a case that invites the justices to rein in once and for all the class-action extortionists that continue to thrive, despite the best intentions of a 2005 federal reform law.
Judicial HellholesWith the personal injury bar gearing up a multimillion-dollar public relations and lobbying campaign in 2013 aimed at winning back some of the ground lost to ATRA and other tort reform groups in recent years, a federal jury in West Virginia took just two-and-a-half hours yesterday to return civil verdicts on all counts against two personal injury lawyers and a discredited former physician for conspiring to file fraudulent asbestos claims
Judicial Hellholes, Points of LightThe American Tort Reform Association is voicing its disappointment with Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal’s recent endorsement of the “trial lawyers’ candidate” in an upcoming runoff election for a seat on the state’s supreme court
Judicial HellholesVoters in perennial judicial hellhole West Virginia have finally had enough of long-serving anti-business Attorney General Darrell McGraw. Californians rejected trial lawyer-written, lawsuit-promoting Proposition 37. And Madison County, Illinois voters incredibly retained shamed pay-to-play Judge Barbara Crowder who fomrerly oversaw the small rural county’s crooked and largest-in-the-nation asbestos docket
Judicial Hellholes, Points of Light