South Florida topped the American Tort Reform Foundation's (ATRF) annual Judicial Hellholes report for being one of the nation's most unfair and costly civil court jurisdictions.

According to the Dec. 18 report, “South Florida has a reputation for high awards and plaintiff-friendly rulings that make it a launching point for class actions, dubious claims and novel theories of recovery.” Some events to get South Florida to the top include a $521 million award against an accounting firm; an appellate court overturning a $60 million award against an automobile manufacturer in a case in which the driver fell asleep at the wheel; and a lawyer who went to prison for stealing $13.5 million from roughly 4,500 clients. (Presumably some of that money went to the lawyer's Key Biscayne waterfront mansion, leased apartments in New York and Los Angeles, $1.2 million condo in Colorado and staff of servants.)

The Rio Grande Valley and the Gulf Coast of Texas came in second place and is recognized as one of the toughest places in America for corporate defendants to receive a fair trial. This year, according to the report, there was a surge in personal injury lawsuits related to dredging and a $32 million award against a pharmaceutical company in a case where a juror knew and had taken loans from the plaintiff.

Cook County, Ill., came in third. American Tort Reform Association (ATRA) general counsel Victor Schwartz said in a statement, “Though long regarded as an environment that is hospitable to class actions and hostile to corporate defendants, Cook County has now expanded its repertoire with awards for noneconomic damages in wrongful death actions.”

Schwartz said the 2007 Hellholes report details the personal injury bar's aggressive efforts to expand liability and craft new opportunities for litigation. “Plaintiffs' attorneys are pushing their now well-positioned allies in Congress and state legislatures for what I call 'trial lawyer earmarks'–hard-to-find provisions tucked into legislation that may seek, for example, to provide new private rights of action, limit federal preemption laws, or prohibit mutually agreed upon arbitration agreements,” he said.

The report, released by Wash., D.C.-based ATRA, listed the Missouri Supreme Court decision in Meyer v. Fluor Corp. among its “Dishonorable Mentions” because, Schwartz said, “Few principles are as sacred and fundamental within our tort system as the notion that a plaintiff looking to sue someone must first demonstrate some kind of injury or loss.”

The report's rankings include:

2007 Judicial Hellholes
1. South Florida
2. Rio Grande Valley and Gulf Coast, Texas
3. Cook County, Illinois
4. West Virginia
5. Clark County, Nevada
6. Atlantic County, New Jersey

Watch List
Madison County, Illinois
St. Clair County, Illinois
Northern New Mexico

South Florida topped the American Tort Reform Foundation's (ATRF) annual Judicial Hellholes report for being one of the nation's most unfair and costly civil court jurisdictions.

According to the Dec. 18 report, “South Florida has a reputation for high awards and plaintiff-friendly rulings that make it a launching point for class actions, dubious claims and novel theories of recovery.” Some events to get South Florida to the top include a $521 million award against an accounting firm; an appellate court overturning a $60 million award against an automobile manufacturer in a case in which the driver fell asleep at the wheel; and a lawyer who went to prison for stealing $13.5 million from roughly 4,500 clients. (Presumably some of that money went to the lawyer's Key Biscayne waterfront mansion, leased apartments in New York and Los Angeles, $1.2 million condo in Colorado and staff of servants.)

The Rio Grande Valley and the Gulf Coast of Texas came in second place and is recognized as one of the toughest places in America for corporate defendants to receive a fair trial. This year, according to the report, there was a surge in personal injury lawsuits related to dredging and a $32 million award against a pharmaceutical company in a case where a juror knew and had taken loans from the plaintiff.

Cook County, Ill., came in third. American Tort Reform Association (ATRA) general counsel Victor Schwartz said in a statement, “Though long regarded as an environment that is hospitable to class actions and hostile to corporate defendants, Cook County has now expanded its repertoire with awards for noneconomic damages in wrongful death actions.”

Schwartz said the 2007 Hellholes report details the personal injury bar's aggressive efforts to expand liability and craft new opportunities for litigation. “Plaintiffs' attorneys are pushing their now well-positioned allies in Congress and state legislatures for what I call 'trial lawyer earmarks'–hard-to-find provisions tucked into legislation that may seek, for example, to provide new private rights of action, limit federal preemption laws, or prohibit mutually agreed upon arbitration agreements,” he said.

The report, released by Wash., D.C.-based ATRA, listed the Missouri Supreme Court decision in Meyer v. Fluor Corp. among its “Dishonorable Mentions” because, Schwartz said, “Few principles are as sacred and fundamental within our tort system as the notion that a plaintiff looking to sue someone must first demonstrate some kind of injury or loss.”

The report's rankings include:

2007 Judicial Hellholes
1. South Florida
2. Rio Grande Valley and Gulf Coast, Texas
3. Cook County, Illinois
4. West Virginia
5. Clark County, Nevada
6. Atlantic County, New Jersey

Watch List
Madison County, Illinois
St. Clair County, Illinois
Northern New Mexico