There are some significant changes in the newly revised edition of “Judicial Hellholes” compiled annually by the American Tort Reform Association (ATRA). One thing remains the same though, and that is the fact that unscrupulous predatory class-action lawyers and sympathetic judges continue to undermine America’s civil justice system. It’s time for Congress to make abusive lawsuits and predatory venue shopping a thing of the past.
The biggest change in the 2008 rankings is that West Virginia has reclaimed the top spot, after falling to fourth in 2007. West Virginia has been described by a judge as “a field of dreams for plaintiffs’ lawyers.” This is in part due to West Virginia being one of just two states that do not guarantee civil defendants the right to appeal. So West Virginia’s courts have a long, seedy history of awarding damages to those who are not injured, welcoming plaintiffs’ lawyers from other states, and happily tolerating other abuses of the legal system.
The rankings include states like West Virginia and local jurisdictions, including President-elect Barack Obama’s home, Cook County, IL, which is third this year for throwing out a 2005 state law limiting malpractice awards and a “surge” in new asbestos claims, which catapulted it ahead of Illinois’ notorious Madison County. ATRA downgraded Madison to its “Watch List” after national coverage of lawyers gone wild there forced court officials to start cleaning up their act.
Judges’ too-cozy relationships with class-action plaintiffs attorneys who bankroll their reelection campaigns make it “almost impossible to get a fair trial if you’re a defendant in some of these places,” Richard “Dickie” Scruggs admitted. He should know. Once one of the nation’s most powerful plaintiffs’ attorneys, Scruggs is now doing time for conspiring to bribe a judge.
The report’s “Tort Deform” section explains how the plaintiffs’ bar lobbies lawmakers to insert the equivalent of legal landmines in legislation that greatly expands liability – and triggers new business for them. These “trial lawyer earmarks” often go unnoticed until defendants realize they’d face better odds of winning at a Vegas roulette wheel.
The “Rogue’s Gallery” includes convicts Melvyn Weiss and William Lerach – already well-known to Examiner readers for participating in a plaintiff kickback scheme. But a roster of shady newcomers has joined them, including a West Virginia law firm that filed a claim signed by a nonexistent “Dr. Oscar Frye” and another in California that was caught blaming their clients’ asbestos-related illnesses on both their workplace and cigarettes, prompting Judge Harry Hanna to brand them liars and ban the entire firm from his Cleveland courtroom. How long before Congress acts?
