Judicial Hellhole Rankings

The 2018-2019 Judicial Hellholes rankings have been released. St. Louis City, MO and Madison & St. Clair Counties, IL all made the top ten in the nation. St. Louis is ranked 4th due primarily to the permitting of forum shopping as well as allowing junk science into the courtroom.  Moreover, the Missouri legislature was unable to pass any much needed litigation reform.  Madison & St. Clair Counties tied for 8th place which is further down the list than last year, though they are still favorite venues for plaintiffs. St. Clair has become a haven for “no injury” class action litigation while Madison remains the popular favorite for asbestos litigation with a total of 6,071 asbestos cases filed last year with 68 percent filed on behalf of out-of-state plaintiffs. That coupled with the fact that there is little chance of any tort reform in Illinois, earned these counties a place in the top 10.  To its credit, Cook County avoided being included in the main list this time but earned a “Dishonorable Mention” primarily due to its being a popular choice for class actions against employers and others under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act. These suits target social media sites like Facebook for the photo “tagging” feature and more recently against employers who use fingerprinting as part of their punch clock systems.PDF