Well, it was nice while it lasted.

Six years ago, the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas took the top spot in the American Tort Reform Association's annual “Judicial Hellholes” report, which featured a three-page lambasting of the court's alleged pro-plaintiff bias with subheads like “Forum Shopping: A Philly Phenomenon” and “The Complex Litigation Center: Efficiency Over Fairness?”

But thanks to a slate of rule changes for mass tort cases adopted by the First Judicial District in 2012, Philadelphia was relieved of its “hellhole” designation in the 2012-13 report and was instead placed within the relatively more comfortable confines of ATRA's “Watch List,” where it remained for the next four annual reports.