Pennsylvania has been flagged by the American Tort Reform Foundation (ATR) as one of the USA’s top seven “Everlasting Judicial Hellholes”, a ranking of the jurisdictions with the most unbalanced and excessively litigious environments. Ahead of the 20th anniversary of its annual judicial hellholes ranking – which will be released in December, the ATR has compiled this new list to highlight jurisdictions in which there has been little to no improvement over the years to bring balance to civil litigation.
Over the past 20 years, Pennsylvania has frequently made ATR’s Judicial Hellhole list. In fact, last year both the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas and the Pennsylvania State Supreme Court had the dubious distinction of holding the number one spot. Various factors went into the ATR’s decision to put Pennsylvania on the “Everlasting Judicial Hellholes” list, including: “mass tort litigation related to pharmaceutical products and medical devices, especially in Philadelphia’s Complex Litigation Center, forum shopping, medical liability, and asbestos litigation.”
According to ATR, over the past four years, Pennsylvania trial lawyer ads have increased by more than 40 percent.
Additional information can be found on the ATR’s website.