Last year the American Tort Reform Association (ATRA) ranked California as the worst STATE judicial hellhole in America. But the corrupt courts in the city of Philadelphia gave that berg the top hellhole ranking of all.
Those days are behind us. The Philadelphia courts have since undergone some encouraging reforms, making California now the undisputed judicial hellhole ANYWHERE in America, according to ATRA’s new rankings just released. Sigh.
http://www.atra.org/newsroom/california-replaces-reforming-philly-atop-judicial-hellholes-%C2%AE-list-joined-jurisdictions
Here’s what ATRA’s new press release has to say about our state:
————-
California is the undisputed heavyweight champion of the consumer class action. Its plaintiff-friendly laws spur ridiculous lawsuits against companies that sell products ranging from breakfast cereal to bagged walnuts. California’s small businesses have been under siege from trolling disability-access lawyers and their professional plaintiffs who look for technical rules violations, then demand thousands of dollars to settle. The state enacted modest reform this year only after a threat of federal intervention. Los Angeles is seeing a surge of asbestos cases, as personal injury law firms from elsewhere have moved into in Southern California. California’s limit on pain and suffering awards in medical malpractice cases, which has contributed to a stable healthcare environment for many years, is under constant attack. Mounting cuts to the judiciary’s budget, and loss of court staff, particularly in Los Angeles, leave litigants to worry about delays and even the ability to appeal adverse rulings.
————–
Oddly enough, many California businesses are more and more anxious to put the Golden State in their rear view mirror. It’s a mystery.
Comments 2
Sorry Richard, but you lose me on this one. I believe in 7th amendment rights. So does Ben Stein.
http://www.nytimes.com/1995/07/30/opinion/tort-reform-is-a-license-to-steal.html
I agree, Bill. Bring on trial by jury, a “right” under the 7th Amendment. Note that nowhere in the amendment does is say that such access to court redress should be free, or riskless.
So lets make the loser pay the winner’s reasonable attorney costs. Hardly a barbaric idea — versions of “loser pays” is the rule followed by almost every country in the world. And they have only a fraction of the lawsuits we have in the U.S.
The “American rule” where one can use the courts to extort settlements has created a HUGE parasitic legal community, and we ALL play in their legal lottery — reflected in our insurance costs and the price of products.
Plus the added sad cost is that many of the best minds in America are channeled into litigation, robbing our country of some potentially brilliant doctors, business people and other valuable producers.
Too often U.S. litigation attorneys simply redistribute wealth (largely to themselves) or destroy wealth through discouraging risk taking in business.
Bill, are you perchance an attorney? It IS possible, I guess.
And BTW, Ben Stein makes his living training up future ambulance chasers. I would be surprised only if he felt otherwise about litigation. His article is compete crap.