Minnesota Again Makes the Judicial Hellholes List

It has been a little while since Minnesota was on the list, which lead to my last couple of posts:

Are Trial Lawyers All Moving To The Legal Hellholes?, Mike Bryant | Jan 5, 2011

Pack the Bags Kids: We Are Moving To a Legal Hellhole, Mike Bryant | Jan 10, 2012

So this year I guess there will be no need to move. The annual American Tort Reform Association legal hellhole list has come out.

Most people ignore the list and the rest of us laugh at it. Like 2009, Minnesota received a dishonorable mention and again it really is for  ridiculous reasons.  This year on page 46  the issue is that the Court of Appeals allowed for private attorneys to pursue claims against actual defendants.  They are outraged that it isn’t just a governmental issue.  I guess  they are calling for more governmental action.  Seems that, at best, it’s a great press release for tort reformers to shake their fists at.

Looking at this year’s main list we have:

– #1 CALIFORNIA, which seems to be for claims involving food,  asbestos,  and lead paint.  Most of which involve dead plaintiffs.

– #2 LOUISIANA is on the list due to all of the BP lawsuits  after the big oil spill.  Check out all of the items Thomas Young has written about on the topic.
– #3 NEW YORK CITY is on the list also for asbestos claims.
– #4 WEST VIRGINIA’s looks like an attack on the jury system as the issue was a punitive damages award in a mortgage lender claim and a claim where a man fell down stairs after a store owner had removed handrails.

– #5 MADISON COUNTY, ILLINOIS is due to asbestos claims and some recent suits against drug makers.

– #6 SOUTH FLORIDA involves bad faith claims against insurance companies.

One little extra point is who funds this list? Looks like a great bunch of corporate citizens. Philip Morris, Dow Chemical, Exxon, General Electric, Aetna, Geico, State Farm, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, and Nationwide.

Responsibility and accountability must look like hell.