Supreme Court helped ‘judicial hellholes’ levy $6,000 tax on public

Rampant lawsuit abuse, aided by the Supreme Court, has boosted the “tort tax” on everything the public buys and uses to nearly $6,000 per household, according to a group working to limit the trend.

A new report from the American Tort Reform Association said a decision by the Supreme Court this year helped to open up the number of state courts that can accept suits against out-of-state companies, sparking a rise in “litigation tourism.”

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And the result has been an increase in lawsuits in courts considered more friendly to victims and a likely increase in legal victories against companies that end up spreading the costs of fines and fees across their products.

“The court missed a crucial opportunity this year to rein in litigation tourism, inadvertently opening the floodgates to file lawsuits in plaintiff-friendly courts with no direct tie to a claim,” American Tort Reform Association President Tiger Joyce said.

Citing the so-called Mallory decision by the court, Joyce added, “This ruling paves the way for trial lawyers to contribute to a climate of forum shopping, threatening to overwhelm courts in Georgia, Pennsylvania, St. Louis, and New York City. Regrettably, the Supreme Court played a hand in the mounting difficulties of securing a fair and impartial trial in ‘Judicial Hellholes.’”

The group each year lists the worst “Judicial Hellholes” around the nation, courts that welcome lawsuit shopping. This year, for the first time, there was a tie.

Both Georgia and Pennsylvania’s courts, specifically the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, shared the No. 1 spot.

The report essentially shows which states “ambulance chasers” like to go because they can win bigger verdicts.

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“Our legal system should promote fairness and support economic progress — not be a breeding ground for forum shopping and excessive verdicts,” Joyce said.

The costs can be high, and not just on the targets, Joyce said. The report said, “Excessive tort costs to the U.S. economy result in an annual ‘tort tax’ of more than $1,424 paid by every American — nearly $6,000 every year for a family of four. In many Judicial Hellholes, these figures are even more bleak.”