CLM recently held a special webinar presentation entitled, “Journey to the Center of the Hellholes,” which discussed the American Tort Reform Foundation’s most recent Judicial Hellholes® report along with some of the most recent trends and strategies being employed by the plaintiff’s bar. Below are a few takeaways from the presentation.
12:00:00pm
THE SPEAKERS
Ronna Ruppelt, Chief Executive Officer, CLM
Lauren Sheets Jarrell, Director & Counsel, Civil Justice Policy, American Tort Reform Association
12:05:30pm
Ronna Ruppelt
“If you take a look at the [Judicial Hellholes] report, there were two topics identified for each venue: The first was attorney advertising spend.… Can you talk to us about what the American Tort Reform Foundation is seeing on this issue regarding attorney advertising?”
12:06:25pm
Lauren Sheets Jarrell
“We’ve seen the spends really increase exponentially over the past decade.… By increasing the number of claimants in class actions, you really increase the pressure on defendants to settle. So [trial lawyers] spend millions of dollars trying to get additional claimants to increase the numbers in their class actions, putting that pressure on defendants.”
12:08:34pm
Ronna Ruppelt
“The second item that is highlighted in the report for each of the venues is what is called a ‘tort tax.’ Can you define this tort tax for the audience please?”
12:08:47pm
Lauren Sheets Jarrell
“The tort tax is basically an increase in prices of consumer goods and services that are a result of the increase in litigation costs that are being placed on these companies. Our reports look at the ‘excessive’ tort tax because it’s never going to be zero. There’s always going to be litigation costs that play a factor in prices that consumers pay.”
12:10:22pm
Ronna Ruppelt
“In more than half of the venues on the [Judicial Hellholes] list, [runaway] verdicts was one of the factors. Are we seeing more of them, and are they higher than they have been in the past?”
12:10:33pm
Lauren Sheets Jarrell
“We are definitely seeing more of them, specifically in these hellhole jurisdictions. Part of it is due to an anti-business sentiment, but then other factors include things that are being allowed by the courts, specifically anchoring, where plaintiff’s lawyers are allowed to suggest a very large number…and that becomes the starting point in the jury’s mind.”
12:29:24pm
Lauren Sheets Jarrell
“Georgia’s civil justice system has been deteriorating over the last several years.… However, this year, with that $1.7 billion verdict against Ford in a rollover case, it really reached a fever pitch. The facts of that case, and what was allowed to happen at the trial court level, were very concerning.… That really propelled it to the top [of the Judicial Hellholes ranking].”
12:35:43pm
Lauren Sheets Jarrell
“California is the plaintiffs’ bar’s laboratory. They bring every new novel theory of liability that they’re thinking about, and they try it in the California courts. And if they get success—which, unfortunately, most often courts do allow these novel theories to go on—then they export it to the rest of the country.”