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ATRA Releases
"Judicial Hellholes 2004" Report
10 Jurisdictions Named By
ATRA Members As Hellholes
Wall Street Journal
Publishes "Judicial Hellholes" Op-Ed by Tiger Joyce
Download New ATRA
Hellholes Report
The
American Tort Reform Association released its new and
updated third
edition of the "Judicial Hellholes" report today,
identifying nine
Hellhole jurisdictions and four dishonorable mentions. Through
extensive research and follow-up,
ATRA members have
identified these 13 jurisdictions across the country as locations
where the trial bar has succeeded in creating a favorable
atmosphere for positive outcomes for their clients.
ATRA's newest report
helps to lead the fight against lawsuit abuse.
Madison County, IL
topped the list for the second
year in a row, followed by counties in South Carolina, Texas,
Louisiana, Southern Florida, Pennsylvania, California, and the entire
state of West Virginia.
As stated in the
Summary of Key Findings, "Judicial Hellholes can destabilize the
legal system of an entire region", and "needlessly harms consumer
access to affordable healthcare in doing so." Despite the devastating effects of these
Hellhole jurisdictions,
ATRA's
report finds
that reform is possible with combined effort from voters,
legislative and judicial branches.
Tiger Joyce reports in
his December 15th Wall Street Journal article that consumers
are also victims of lawsuit abuse. Writing about Madison and
St. Clair counties in Illinois, both of which are on the Hellholes
list, Joyce points out that "Defendants aren't the only victims --
local citizens also suffer. Lawsuit abuse has devastated the
region's health-care system. Over half the region's doctors have
been sued in the last four years, even though 85% of claims result
in no payment to the plaintiff. Many of the region's hospitals have
eliminated high-risk practices like on-call trauma care. The two
counties' hospitals have lost 161 physicians. In neighboring
counties, doctors pay about $20,000 less per year for liability
insurance, while doctors in states with caps on damages pay about
$150,000 less."
Good News: Legal
Reform Efforts Succeed in Mississippi
Proving that concerted
legal reform efforts can achieve good results, ATRA's report calls
the Mississippi litigation environment "the brightest point of
light" in this year's report, and "has dramatically improved over
the past three years. Each branch of government has had an
important role in restoring equal justice to the state's courts."
(See: A Tale of Two Cities, page 10, ATRA report.)
In his Wall Street
Journal article, Sherman sums up Mississippi's reform gains this
way: "The most important changes have come at the ballot box.
Voters have rejected candidates for governor and the state supreme
court who took large sums of campaign cash from personal-injury
lawyers with the implicit expectation that they would toe a
"pro-litigation" party line.
"A new majority on the Supreme Court slashed nonsensical jury awards
and changed rules that allowed junk science to proliferate in the
courts. And newly elected Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour crafted a
working majority with Democrats in the statehouse and enacted strong
legal reforms that are bringing businesses back to Mississippi.
"On the day the state's tort reform bill was signed into law, Mass
Mutual announced it would return to do business in the state; other
businesses have followed. And since then, medical-liability
insurance rates have also stabilized."
News Release
on ATRA Website
Legal
Reform Featured on NPR's "Justice Talking"
Link to Full Story and Listen to On-Air Interview
James Copland,
Director of the Center for Legal Policy of the
Manhattan Institute,
joined Arthur Bryant of Trial Lawyers for Public Justice and
NPR's Margot Adler on
award winning "Justice Talking" to debate the topic of litigation
abuses, and limiting lawsuits.
With questions from a
live studio audience, as well a lively debate format, Copland,
Bryant and Adler discuss the future of the tort system in America.
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Links to Other Recent Legal
Reform Articles and Resources
"Conversations With
..."
Bernie
Marcus, Hank Greenberg and Steve Hantler, Washington
Legal Foundation, Oct 2004
Turning Out Trial
Lawyers, Inc.
Jim Copland,
National Review Online, Nov 8, 2004
The Mounting Assault by Trial Lawyers, Inc.
Steve Hantler, Chief Executive Magazine, July 30, 2004
Solutions for the
Litigation Crisis, Bernie Marcus,
Philanthropy Monthly, May/June 2004
American Tort Reform Association
Washington Legal Foundation
Center for Legal Policy, The Manhattan
Institute
Center for Individual Freedom
U.S. Chamber
Institute for Legal Reform
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