To The Legal:

I appreciated the opportunity to discuss with your editor, Zack Needles, the American Tort Reform Association's characterization of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas as a “judicial hellhole” and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court as a “potential hellhole.” At the risk of giving that so-called report any credibility, I am writing to make clear two additional points that I shared last week which were not included in the article, presumably due to the large amount of material that needed to be covered in that article. First, was that these so called “rankings” are made solely to intimidate judges and legislatures in venues that keep the litigation playing field level, which is all any litigant and attorney could ask. I, and the members of the Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association (and I'm sure our defense colleagues) recognize and appreciate that the judges and staff of the First Judicial District work hard each and every day to ensure that every litigant, whether plaintiff or defendant, powerful corporation or “average Joe,” are given the opportunity for a fair and impartial trial. We have an administration and bench in our Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas of which all Philadelphians should be proud. It is anything but a “hellhole.” Similarly, the appellate courts in Pennsylvania are second to none. The judges and justices on these courts are intelligent, dedicated, hard-working, fair and balanced. Labeling our Supreme Court a “potential hellhole” is as absurd as it is offensive.

Their “hellhole report” is designed to poison the jury well and intimidate courts and legislatures into changing rulings and laws to tip the scales of justice in favor of the corporate wrongdoers that fund ATRA. Similar propaganda years ago led the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to put into place a system to monitor medical malpractice cases in this commonwealth. Thus, we now have 17 years of objective, quantifiable data in this commonwealth on this area of tort law. That data shows that last year the number of medical malpractice cases filed throughout Pennsylvania was only one half of the number filed in 2002! When those malpractice cases go to trial, the statistics show that the defendants consistently win roughly 80 percent of the trials. Last year in Philadelphia County the defense won 13 of the 21 medical malpractice trials, and three of the plaintiff verdicts were less than $500,000. Of the five remaining verdicts, only two exceeded $1 million; and neither of those exceeded $5 million. I believe the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas also keeps verdict statistics for all civil cases. This is the quantitative data that ATRA chooses to ignore.

The Constitution protects every citizen's right to a fair jury trial to settle their civil disputes.  When that system works, big businesses and the liability companies that insure them cry foul and start the name-calling.

Sincerely,

Timothy R. Lawn

Raynes Lawn Hehmeyer

President, Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association