Texas Courts Improve in National Ranking

For only the second time since 2002, Texas is not among the nation’s worst civil court jurisdictions, according to the American Tort Reform Foundation’s eighth annual Judicial Hellholes® report released today. The state’s Gulf Coast and Rio Grande Valley, long ranked among the nation’s worst jurisdictions for litigation abuses, remains on the “watch list.”

“Texas is no longer the ‘world’s courtroom,’” said George S. Christian, president of the Texas Civil Justice League. He commended the Texas Legislature, which the report highlights as a “point of light” for resisting efforts to reverse landmark legal reform earlier this year. “State lawmakers understand that Texas needs more jobs, not lawsuits. Legal reform fuels business expansion and job growth.”

Although the Gulf Coast and Rio Grande Valley’s “reputation has improved in recent years,” the area is “still known for being skewed toward plaintiffs,” according to the American Tort Reform Foundation. Texas also remains a concern for asbestos litigation as entrepreneurial personal injury trial lawyers look for “home run” jurisdictions. More encouraging, the report also notes that the “plaintiffs’ bar has joined with tort reform groups to stop ‘barratry,’ a fancy legal word for ambulance chasing.”

The report’s findings are based on surveys of American Tort Reform Association members and litigation in “judicial hellholes” verified through independent research of media accounts, academic and public policy studies, court dockets, judicial branch statistics and other publicly available information.

Founded in 1986, the Texas Civil Justice League was the state’s first business liability and legal reform coalition and is a founding state partner of the American Tort Reform Association.

NOTE: The American Tort Reform Foundation’s 2009 Judicial Hellholes® report is available at www.atra.org.

June 25, 2010

---

From the Blog

Yearly Cost of Medical Malpractice

A new study by Harvard University and Brigham and Women's Hospital shows that the yearly cost of medical malpractice in the United States tops $55.6 billion per year—about 2.4 percent of the nation's annual health-care spending.

Stauffer Ruling Could Cause Barrage of Patent-Marketing Suits

Intellectual property lawyers had been waiting on the verdict of the case of Stauffer v. Brooks Brothers, which would predict the fates of dozens of the suits that were being held up until then. The ruling is in.

Speculative Claims for BP Lawsuits

Much of recent environmental litigation has centered around the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and its subsequent damages to the surrounding coasts and water. While many of these lawsuits are necessary and involve real damages, unfortunately some lawyers will choose to pursue more "speculative claims related only tangentially, if at all, to actual injury."

blog

From Twitter