Philadelphia Tops 2010 'Judicial Hellhole' List

Philadelphia has topped the list for the American Tort Reform Foundation's (ATRF) 2010/2011 "Judicial Hellholes" report due in part to the trial practices of its Complex Litigation Center (CLC).

The CLC, ATRF said, "handles mass tort litigation filed in state courts, such as thousands of pharmaceutical and asbestos cases." But ATRF said a new coordinating judge for the CLC has led to criticisms from attorneys that the CLC is encouraging "litigation tourism," consolidation of dissimilar claims and scheduling unfair to defendants.

ATRF said the new CLC leadership is "viewing the increase in lawsuits and out-of-town lawyers as a boost for the court's revenues and the local restaurants and hotels."

ATRF also said Philadelphia judges also use a procedure called "reverse bifurcation" in asbestos trials, meaning juries decide how much money should be awarded before considering whether defendants are at fault. "After hearing hours of pain and suffering and medical causation testimony based on matters defendants do not dispute, jurors understandably become sympathetic to plaintiffs," the report states.

Second on the Judicial Hellhole list is California, "particularly Los Angeles and Humboldt counties." The report said, "California has a history of wacky consumer class actions that further encourages plaintiffs' lawyers to seize on minor missteps as a means to lots of cash."

ATRF cited 2010 examples that include a $208.8 million verdict for a single asbestos claimant in Los Angeles--the largest such award in California's history--and a $677 million class action verdict against a nursing home provider for falling below state-required staffing levels in Humboldt.

Regarding the verdict in Humboldt, ATRF said, "The plaintiffs did not claim any injury but merely alleged that staffing at the facilities occasionally fell below 3.2 nursing hours per patient per day, the level required by the California health code." The verdict does not include punitive damages, which will be determined in a second phase of proceedings.

West Virginia ranked third on the list, with ATRF noting the state's inability to follow through on a pledge to adopt significant reforms to its system.

South Florida ranked fourth due to it being "the epicenter of the nation's tobacco litigation" and doling out "excessive awards" in other areas, ATRF said. But the report noted that the Florida legislature has taken some reform actions in 2010, including addressing "the state's notoriously lax standard" for filing slip-and-fall lawsuits.

Rounding out the top five for the Judicial Hellhole list is Cook County, Ill. ATRF said, "Statistics show that the county has consistently hosted nearly two-thirds of the state's litigation while serving as home to just over 40 percent of its population--a proportion that has gradually grown more lopsided over the past 15 years."

After moving off of the Hellhole list and onto ATRF's "Watch List," Clark County, Nev., is back on the Hellhole list at number six. ATRF cited a half-billion-dollar verdict this past year against two drug companies "in a case where injuries were clearly caused by others."

On the Watch List this year are Madison County, Ill.; Atlantic County, N.J.; St. Landry Parish, La.; The District of Columbia; New York City and Albany, N.Y.; and St. Clair County, Ill.