A Guide for Plaintiffs' Attorneys... or Defendants' List of Places To Avoid

Forbes caters to the business elite, so the latter title for this post is probably the most appropriate one. But ATL readers could wind up on either side of one of these suits, so read with whichever lens you prefer.
The article talks about some of the worst courts for certain types of defendants to land in. Los Angeles is knocked because “California allows disabled persons to recover monetary damages for ADA violations.” Here are some of the other named districts:

“There is a high degree of stability in what most people think are the most problematic places to get sued,” said Walter Olson, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and author of The Rule of Lawyers. “If you put pins on a map for the top 50 most outrageous verdicts, bizarre run-away juries and so forth, you would find this belt around the Gulf Coast that runs from southern Texas across Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama and Florida. These are also some of the places people consider the worst places to get sued.”

Hmmm. These are also some of the states from which we get our most interesting stories. Florida seems to have the weirdest news stories by far, such as the recent Cheerleader group beating. What’s in the water down there?

Forbes.com asked the American Tort Reform Association (ATRA), which surveys hundreds of defense attorneys and corporate executives every year for its report on litigation abuse on “Judicial Hellholes,” to list the places identified by the largest number of survey respondents as the worst possible places to be a defendant in particular types of lawsuits. The list they produced has a surprise or two for nearly everyone.
Hit with a personal-injury lawsuit? Better hope it’s not in Starr County, Texas. Class actions? Hopefully you won’t find out why John Grisham sets so many legal thrillers in Mississippi. Construction suits? Building’s not the only thing booming in Clark County, Nev. And journalists hoping to avoid libel suits may wish to avoid courts in Philadelphia, according to ATRA’s report for Forbes.

Consider yourself advised or warned. Depending on your lens.
Also, ATL will no longer report news out of Pennsylvania.
The Worst Places To Get Sued In America [Forbes via Overlawyered]

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