AUSTIN, Texas, Dec. 19, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- The Rio Grande Valley and the Texas Gulf Coast ranked second in the American Tort Reform Association's annual Judicial Hellholes report released Tuesday. Both areas have been named in every Judicial Hellhole report since the project began six years ago.
"Yet another national judicial hellholes report makes it clear that the fight against lawsuit abuse is not over in Texas," said TLR Chairman Richard Weekley. "Despite significant reforms over the past dozen years, there are regions of our state that remain notorious for the lack of integrity and fairness in their civil justice system."
ATRA defines a judicial hellhole as a place "where judges systematically apply laws and court procedures in an unfair and unbalanced manner, generally against defendants in civil lawsuits."
The report noted that in the two identified Texas judicial hellholes, there was "a surge in personal injury lawsuits related to dredging," a loophole in Texas venue law that was addressed in the most recent legislative session. The report also cited a "judge's 'pocket veto' of an appeal of a $32 million award against a pharmaceutical company in a case where a juror knew and had taken loans from the plaintiff."
South Florida topped the list of judicial hellholes. Cook County, Illinois, West Virginia, Clark County, Nevada and Atlantic County, New Jersey followed the Rio Grande Valley and the Texas Gulf Coast on the list.
To read the report go to http://www.atra.org/reports/hellholes/
Texans for Lawsuit Reform, the state's largest civil justice reform organization, is a bipartisan, volunteer-led coalition with more than 16,000 supporters residing in more than 757 Texas communities and representing 1,253 different businesses, professions and trades.