ATRF Posts its 2018 Judicial Hellholes Report
Since 2002, the American Tort Reform Foundation’s (ATRF) Judicial Hellholes® program has identified and documented places where judges in civil cases systematically apply laws and court procedures in an unfair and unbalanced manner, generally to the disadvantage of defendants. More recently, as the lawsuit industry has aggressively lobbied for legislative and regulatory expansions of liability, as well, the Judicial Hellholes report has evolved to include such law- and rule-making activity, much of which can affect the fairness of any given jurisdiction’s civil justice climate as readily as judicial actions.
ATRF has now published its 2018 edition of Judicial Hellholes, listing nine venues that are hostile to defendants, and identifying seven courts that bear watching because they may be moving closer to or further away from a designation as a Judicial Hellhole.
Two Texas judgments were singled out for dishonorable mention: a Dallas County judgment for $242.1 million in damages to a couple whose children were injured in a car accident, and a $740 million Bexar County judgment arising out of a theft of trade secrets case, which is touted as the largest adverse judgment in the nation in 2018.
The ATRF is a District of Columbia nonprofit corporation, founded in 1997. The primary purpose of the Foundation is to educate the general public about how the American civil justice system operates; the role of tort law in the civil justice system; and the impact of tort law on the private, public and business sectors of society.
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