Help

BI’s Article search uses Boolean search capabilities. If you are not familiar with these principles, here are some quick tips.

To search specifically for more than one word, put the search term in quotation marks. For example, “workers compensation”. This will limit your search to that combination of words.

To search for a combination of terms, use quotations and the & symbol. For example, “hurricane” & “loss”.

Login Register Subscribe

St. Louis named top ‘judicial hellhole’ for 2016

Reprints
St. Louis skyline

St. Louis tops the American Tort Reform Foundation’s list of “judicial hellholes,” the organization said in its annual report, issued Thursday.

“The City of St. Louis is a magnet for product liability lawsuits and consumer class actions,” says the executive summary of the Judicial Hellholes 2016-2017 report by the Washington-based organization.

“The local trial court hosted three gigantic verdicts this year, totaling $197 million, in cases asserting that talcum powder causes ovarian cancer, plus other multimillion-dollar awards. 

 “The recipients of these awards, and most of the individuals filing these types of lawsuits, are not from St. Louis or even Missouri” but travel to the city because of its “weak venue law and a lenient standard for expert testimony that allows ‘junk science,’” says the executive summary.

Also making the list, in descending order, are California; New York City asbestos litigation;, the Florida Supreme Court and South Florida; New Jersey; Cook, Madison and St. Clair Counties in Illinois; Louisiana; Newport News, Virginia; and Hidalgo County, Texas.

The report also criticizes the False Claims Act, which allows private individuals to sue on behalf of the federal government and obtain an award if successful. 

 “As a result of a series of legislative expansions and judicial rulings, this law, originally enacted to battle fraud in contracting during wartime, has morphed into a plaintiffs’ lawyer’s dream,” says the report’s executive summary.