South Dakota has replaced Delaware as the No. 1 choice of in-house counsel and business executives for handling corporate lawsuits, according to a new report from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Institute for Legal Reform.

The new Harris poll announced Tuesday morning at a Chamber conference in Washington, D.C., showed Vermont, Idaho, Minnesota and New Hampshire closely following South Dakota in the rankings. Delaware had been the top state in the studies for the past 15 years, but finished 11th this year.

The report suggested Delaware dropped so much because of its treatment of class action and mass consolidation suits, as well as its handling of proportional discovery. The state also angered companies when in 2015 it sided with plaintiffs lawyers and overturned “loser pays” provisions in company bylaws.