Unfortunately, I’m not talking about Texas winning the BCS National Football Championship.
Rather, the American Tort Reform Association has named the Texas Rio Grande Valley and Gulf Coast region as the number one “judicial hell-hole” for 2005. The ATRA describes a judicial hell-hole in the following manner:
Judicial Hellholes are places that have a disproportionately harmful impact on civil litigation. Litigation tourists, guided by their personal injury lawyers, seek out these places because they know they will produce a positive outcome – an excessive verdict or settlement, a favorable precedent, or both.
Hat tip to Walter Olson for the link.
This is news? Why do you think the first Vioxx trial was there? Or so many Firestone trials? My wife’s ex-boss spent at least half her time down there doing insurance defense.
I am privledged enough to be called to jury duty on a fairly regular basis. Any case involving anything related to science pretty much eliminates me from the pool. Immediately. It has happened at least three times. I have served on a criminal and municipal case, though. I guess an engineer is OK in those trials.