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I have a mea culpa. About a month ago I posted about The American Tort Reform Foundation’s (ATRF) 2023-2024 Judicial Hellholes Report and Executive Summary, giving everyone the impression it was ATR’s most recent publication on the topic. Because I thought it was. However, I got an email from ATRF’s Director of Public Affairs telling me that a new report was coming out in December 2024 and the one I had circulated and commented about was a year old. My bad.The good news is ATRF made sure to send me the most recent version of the report (2024-2025) and most of usual suspects remain in the top 10 of the “hellhole” venue listing:<ol><li><a href="https://www.judicialhellholes.org/hellhole/2024-2025/philadelphia-court-of-common-pleas-and-pennsylvania-supreme-court/">The Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court</a></li><li><a href="https://www.judicialhellholes.org/hellhole/2024-2025/new-york-city-5/">New York City</a></li><li><a href="https://www.judicialhellholes.org/hellhole/2024-2025/south-carolina-asbestos-litigation-5">South Carolina Asbestos Litigation</a></li><li><a href="https://www.judicialhellholes.org/hellhole/2024-2025/georgia-5/">Georgia</a></li><li><a href="https://www.judicialhellholes.org/hellhole/2024-2025/california-10/">California</a></li><li><a href="https://www.judicialhellholes.org/hellhole/2024-2025/cook-county-illinois-2/">Cook County, Illinois</a></li><li><a href="https://www.judicialhellholes.org/hellhole/2024-2025/st-louis-4/">St. Louis</a></li><li><a href="https://www.judicialhellholes.org/hellhole/2024-2025/the-michigan-supreme-court/">The Michigan Supreme Court</a></li><li><a href="https://www.judicialhellholes.org/hellhole/2024-2025/king-county-washington/">King County, Washington</a></li><li><a href="https://www.judicialhellholes.org/hellhole/2024-2025/louisiana-10/">Louisiana</a></li></ol>As before, the report is about a lot more than just judicial venues with a reputation for being problematic for business defendants. The 2024-2025 edition also lists at least three key litigation trends: (1) the increasing prevalence of nuclear verdicts, with multi-million and even billion-dollar awards becoming the norm in Judicial Hellholes; (2) junk science plaguing courtrooms, particularly in asbestos and talc cases, leading to unjustified verdicts; and (3) baby formula lawsuits based on junk science evidence emerging this past year, threatening to undermine established medical science and potentially harm premature infants who rely on these life-sustaining products.Whether you agree with ATRF or not, this report is always a thought-provoking read. Especially for defendants who do business in multiple states.<input type='hidden' id='passle-remote-hosting-tracking-shortcode' value='102jtm4'/><blockquote class="wp-block-quote passle-quote has-cite-link">[ATRF claims that] [d]ata on the economic impacts of excessive tort costs in the U.S. reveals that each American pays a hidden “tort tax” of $1,561 each year, or $6,244 every year for a family of four. These figures represent a nearly 20% increase in just two years, far outpacing inflation. Excessive tort costs further lead to a loss of roughly 4.8 million jobs across the country each year, amounting to more than $330 billion lost in personal wages annually.<cite><a href="https://www.atra.org/2024/12/10/judicial-hellholes-24-25/" aria-label="www.atra.org/..." title="https://www.atra.org/2024/12/10/judicial-hellholes-24-25/" target="_blank">www.atra.org/...</a></cite></blockquote>

My bad. Here is ATRF’s most recent “Judicial Hellholes” report, with a new top10 list and more.

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