Get ready for the 2016/2017 Judicial Hellholes report, with a new #1 ranked hellhole from America’s heartland. ATRA and ATRF will rollout the
UncategorizedDespite President-elect Donald Trump’s history of litigiousness, the American Tort Reform Association today declared the “lawsuit industry” to be “the biggest loser in last night’s historic election”
Points of LightA decision last week by the Supreme Court of Missouri effectively rolls out a “Show Me Your Lawsuits State” welcome mat for lawsuits by out-of-state plaintiffs against out-of-state defendants over alleged out-of-state injuries
The state’s notoriously weak venue law has long allowed plaintiffs’ lawyers to shop their cases to the friendliest courts. Now there is virtually nothing stopping plaintiff’s lawyers from picking their preferred judge and jury.
Judicial HellholesThough her lawyers had sought home confinement, Pennsylvania’s much-criticized former attorney general Kathleen Kane received a sentence of 10 to 23 months in prison yesterday following her mid-August convictions for felony perjury and assorted misdemeanors
UncategorizedA federal judge Tuesday bluntly dismissed a putative nationwide class action filed on behalf of consumers pretending to be imbeciles who were oblivious to plainly labeled pill-counts on packaging of over-the-counter medication
Points of LightPerennial Judicial Hellhole Madison County, Illinois is not ready to give up its dubious distinction as the top asbestos litigation destination anytime soon.
According to a recent midyear report and earlier annual report by KCIC Consulting, Madison County’s asbestos filings increased by 5% from 2014 to 2015 and continued to increase during the first half of 2016. The riverside county of fewer than 270,000 people was home to 29% of the nation’s asbestos filings in the first half of 2016 – up from 25% of the nation’s asbestos filings in 2015. Now, the county sits atop the ranking with more than twice as many filings as second place Baltimore City.
Judicial HellholesEdwards’ Performance Sure to Win Starring Role in Upcoming ‘Judicial Hellholes’ Report WASHINGTON, D.C., October 4, 2016 – The American Tort
UncategorizedNoting the extraordinary influence that wealthy plaintiffs’ lawyers have wielded throughout the executive branch during President Obama’s eight years in office, the American Tort Reform Association today called a new rule prohibiting the use of arbitration clauses in contracts between nursing homes and those they serve “the administration’s latest gift to Democrats’ most reliably generous campaign donors”
UncategorizedA consulting group’s annual report shows that the percentage of large corporations facing high-risk “bet-the-company” lawsuits has quadrupled in the past two years
UncategorizedA federal judge presiding in Georgia over multidistrict litigation (MDL) that alleges certain pelvic mesh implants caused painful infections in women has fired a Rule 11 warning shot across the bow of plaintiffs counsel still floating “frivolous” claims in his courtroom
Points of LightThough release of ATRA’s annual Judicial Hellholes® report is still more than three months away, this special bulletin alerts readers to a new report, Justice for Sale III, issued by the Illinois Civil Justice League, detailing and quantifying the campaign contributions and enormous political influence that plaintiffs’ lawyers Madison County, Illinoisexert on policymakers and judges throughout the hellholes riddled state
Judicial HellholesCalifornia, already the nation’s #1 ranked Judicial Hellhole for three years running, has, like, thrown open its doors to out-of-state plaintiffs with claims similar to California plaintiffs’ claims against national defendants, discarding due process and effectively ignoring several U.S. Supreme Court opinions
Judicial HellholesA federal judge last Friday emphatically dismissed a preposterous would-be class action that alleged Starbucks deceived customers by underfilling its iced beverages with liquid and overfilling them with ice
Points of LightOn Monday, August 15, Pennsylvania’s Attorney General, Kathleen Kane, was convicted on nine criminal charges, including felony perjury and felony criminal conspiracy
Points of LightThe U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit yesterday endorsed the Delaware Court of Chancery’s January ruling that so-called “disclosure-only” settlements in shareholder class actions need to reveal a “plainly material misrepresentation or omission,” and reversed a district court’s approval of a disclosure-only settlement between Walgreen Co. and investors
Points of LightFederal courts in both California and New York — two perennial Judicial Hellholes — issued refreshingly reasonable decisions in two closely-watched cases last week
Points of LightAfter ATRA and others criticized abuse of multidistrict litigation, the federal panel overseeing such litigation denied more requests for MDL consolidation than it granted last year — the first time that’s happened in a decade
Points of Light, UncategorizedIn answering a certified question of law posed to it by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit as that federal court considers a case of “take-home” liability, New Jersey’s high court last week effectively ignored its own 2006 precedent to expand such liability into an open-ended guessing game that defendants are bound to lose
Judicial HellholesIn contrast to two recent high court decisions in the currently ranked top two Judicial Hellholes, the Georgia Supreme Court
Judicial Hellholes, Points of LightAs expected, New York’s highest court Tuesday upheld two plaintiff-favoring trial court decisions from the New York City Asbestos Litigation court, better known as NYCAL, assuring that the jurisdiction will again be ranked among Judicial Hellholes when ATRA issues its annual report this coming December
Judicial Hellholes
Owned and operated by personal injury lawyers, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon yesterday vetoed two bipartisan tort reform bills that could have helped make civil litigation a little more fair in his notorious Judicial Hellhole
Judicial Hellholes