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National News

California Scores #1 Judicial Hellhole Title

January 01, 2013 posted by Steve Brownstein

Despite “occasional glimmers of hope,” the American Tort Reform Association has nonetheless placed West Virginia high on its list of annual list of Judicial Hellholes again.

ATRA ranked West Virginia as the No. 2 hellhole in the country, trailing only California. The report, released every December, ranks jurisdictions wherein ATRF feels judges in civil cases systematically apply laws and court procedures in an unfair and unbalanced manner, generally against defendants.

West Virginia has made the list every year since 2002, when the list was created. It was ranked No. 3 the past two years, and claimed the top spot in 2006 and 2008.

Behind California and West Virginia on the Hellhole list are:

-Madison County, Ill., which is known for its large asbestos docket;

-New York City and Albany, which, ATRA says, remain under the heavy influence of the plaintiffs’ bar; and

-Baltimore, which has seen its asbestos docket increase since 2008.

Philadelphia, which had been named No. 1 the last two years, fell to the watch list. The city’s Court of Common Pleas underwent several reforms. Among them were the elimination of reverse bifurcation, the limiting of consolidation in all mass tort cases and the limiting of the number of cases that can be tried by out-of-state attorneys annually.

 


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