Beginning in 2002, the American Tort Reform Association (ATRA) issues an annual report on “judicial hellholes”. This report attacks the civil justice system in the fifty states and ranks them according to a clearly political agenda. ATRA is bankrolled by the insurance, tobacco and drug industries in an effort to affect voters’ attitudes, replace judges they don’t like and scare legislators into enacting pro-business laws. The problem is that the report is compiled using erroneous information and debunked methodology. The New York Times described the arguments in the report as making little sense, falling short on facts and having “no apparent methodology”.
Corporate giants Philip Morris, Exxon, State Farm, Dow Chemical, Pfizer, Nationwide Insurance, General Electric among others fork over contributions of up to $75,000 each to fund the effort to shut the courthouse door to more and more consumers. Their goal is to gain complete immunity for their negligent acts.
Errors in past annual reports have not deterred the ATRA. In 2005, ATRA was forced to admit they wrongly attacked the state of West Virginia and ranked it as the third worst “hellhole” in America. Despite having to admit to the errors, ATRA refused to change West Virginia’s ranking. West Virginia gradually rose in the rankings despite having passed caps on medical malpractice damages, elimination of third party bad faith, and significantly changed worker’s compensation rules. In 2002, Madison County, Illinois was labeled as one of the worst hellholes in America despite experiencing a sharp decrease in the number of lawsuits filed there. In fact, between 1986 and 2002, only 11 medical malpractice and wrongful death cases had resulted in a verdict- and only four of those verdicts were in favor of the plaintiff.
These type of “reports” along with dissemination of lists of outrageous case results which are total fabrications is simply another tool the insurance, pharma and manufacturing corporations use to cloud the truth about dangerous products and pressure state and federal lawmakers into more and more immunity from their negligent acts. If they had their way, no one would be able to file a wrongful death, defective products or medical malpractice claim. Consumers should be wary of these type of politically-driven publications. Look to see who is actually financially supporting the report and who benefits from any legislation being touted and you’ll discover the truth.
Richard J. Arsenault, 2011
