Category: Judicial Hellholes

01.08.2013

Case Gives SCOTUS Chance to Rein in Class-Action Extortionists in Once and Future Judicial Hellhole

Miscarriages 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 Hellholes

12.21.2012

Asbestos Racketeers Suffer Huge Loss, Plaintiffs’ Bar PR Campaign Devastated

With 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 Light

11.15.2012

ATRA ‘Disappointed’ by Jindal’s Endorsement of Hughes for High Court

The 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 Hellholes

11.07.2012

WV Voters Finally Cast Out AG McGraw, and Other Good & Bad Election News from Judicial Hellholes

Voters 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

10.18.2012

Leading West Virginia Newspaper Endorses Challenger Morrisey for Attorney General

West Virginia’s leading newspaper has endorsed challenger Patrick Morrisey over four-term incumbent Darrell McGraw in that state’s closely watched race for attorney general

Judicial Hellholes

10.17.2012

Group Working for ‘Judicial Integrity’ in Madison County Getting Media’s Attention

With election season heading for the homestretch, a grassroots group in once-and-future judicial hellhole Madison County, Illinois continues to garner plenty of regional media attention as it works to convince voter’s there to vote “no” on four judges up for retention

Judicial Hellholes

10.04.2012

Wheelchair Lawyer Alleged to Be Pervert and Fraud

In what might best be described as a what-goes-around-comes-around lawsuit, four female former employees of an infamous California wheelchair lawyer allege that he is guilty of sexual harassment, employment discrimination and fraud

Judicial Hellholes

10.03.2012

New York City’s Tort Liability Soars

Led by a record 2,004 lawsuits against the police department, New York City’s tort liability for the year ending July 31 reportedly grew a whopping 28%

Judicial Hellholes

10.02.2012

Reforms Drive Down Mass Tort Filings in Philadelphia

Even though some personal injury lawyers still deny that Philadelphia was a judicial hellhole in the first place, much-needed reforms imposed earlier this year by the chief administrative judge seem to have dramatically halted the explosive growth in recent years of new mass tort filings there

Judicial Hellholes

09.26.2012

Louisiana Appeals Court Upholds Another Pay-to-Play Verdict, AG’s Political Patrons Get Richer

A Louisiana appeals court has upheld a $258 million jury verdict reached in a 2010 pharmaceutical case and criticized in that year’s Judicial Hellholes report for its “disproportionate enormity”

Judicial Hellholes

09.13.2012

California Wheelchair Hustler Disbarred

One of California’s most notorious “frequent filers” of ginned up disability-access lawsuits has finally been disbarred

Judicial Hellholes

09.07.2012

Texas Two-Step: Starbucks Sued, Shyster Screwed

Despite all the tort reform progress that has been made in the Lone Star state during the past decade, parasitic personal injury lawyers and their personal responsibility-shirking clients persist in their conniving and scheming efforts to get rich at someone else’s expense

Judicial Hellholes

08.20.2012

Tobacco Trial Lawyers Look for Next Payday, Set Eyes on Food Industry

With the record Tobacco Settlement in the books, opportunistic plaintiffs’ attorneys are now looking for their next big payday and it seems they have their target set on food manufacturers. More than a dozen lawyers who took on the tobacco companies have filed 25 cases aginst industry players like ConAgra Foods, PepsiCo, Heinz, General Mills and Chobani.

Judicial Hellholes

08.15.2012

Washington State Ruling Expands Liability for Asbestos Injuries

On August 9, 2012, in what was a sharply divided decision, the Washington Supreme Court ruled that makers of respirators designed to prevent asbestos exposure can be held liable for failing to warn of the contaminant’s risks. This decision unfairly opens up safety product manufacturers to more lawsuits over asbestos-related injuries.

Judicial Hellholes

08.07.2012

Delusional Old Fool Sues Dancer Who Allegedly Conned Him into Buying Her a Manhattan Condo

An aging and apparently delusional Italian theater director has made the costly mistake of believing a lithe young dancer had looked past his ear and nostril hair, bad breath, and receding gums and hairline to fall in love with the virile and artistic genius (read: sugar daddy) that he has always believed himself to be

Judicial Hellholes

08.02.2012

ATRA Questions NSO Musician’s Lawsuit against Airlines

Citing a report yesterday by the Blog of LegalTimes (BLT), the American Tort Reform Association today questioned the “shameless” slip-and-fall lawsuit that a National Symphony Orchestra musician has filed against two airlines

Judicial Hellholes

08.01.2012

ATRA Critical of Missouri High Court Decision Striking Down Limits on Noneconomic Damages

Reacting to the Missouri Supreme Court’s 4-3 decision yesterday to strike down a legislated limit of $350,000 for pain and suffering awards in medical liability lawsuits, ATRA today issued a news release, saying the court’s “activist majority has sided with personal injury lawyers over doctors and hospitals”

Judicial Hellholes

07.30.2012

Taxpayers Bear Huge Costs Imposed by NY’s Antiquated ‘Scaffold Law’

When New York Daily News columnist Bill Hammond wrote two weeks ago that the shrinking Empire State’s taxpayers would pay hundres of millions, maybe more than a billion dollars, more to renovate the Tappan Zee Bridge than they’d have to if it weren’t for the so-called “scaffold law,” the labor unions and trial lawyers let him have it

Judicial Hellholes

07.23.2012

The Trial Bar Burns on With a Blitz Attack

As reported this week by the Wall Street Journal, Blitz USA- the nation’s No. 1 consumer gasoline-can producer, based in Miami, Oklahoma, has filed for bankruptcy due to an abusive attack of frivolous lawsuits led by the trial bar.

Judicial Hellholes

07.13.2012

Deaf, Dumb & Blind?

An Oregon mother is seeking more than $9 million in a lawsuit targeting pop idol Justin Bieber, a concert promoter, and an arena owner, claiming she suffered significant and permanent hearing loss as a result of tweeny-bopper screams during a 2010 concert

Judicial Hellholes

07.13.2012

Long Island Trollop’s Lawsuit Hard to Swallow

A Long Island woman who willingly engaged in a seven-month love affair with a Nassau County policeman — mostly while he was on duty — now intends to sue the county for not better supervising and keeping its employee out of her, er, bed

Judicial Hellholes