ST. LOUIS — St. Louis is ranked No. 3 on the 2017-2018 “judicial hellhole” rankings by the American Tort Reform Foundation (ATRF), but it has improved since last year when the St. Louis Circuit Court was ranked as the worst court in the nation by the group.
The improved ranking is due to “...a change in gubernatorial leadership, a good start by state lawmakers on an agenda of much needed statutory reforms and a powerful U.S. Supreme Court decision curbing forum shopping in 2017,” the ATRF reports.
The ATRF issues the report every year in order to spotlight “...places where judges in civil cases systematically apply laws and court procedures in an unfair and unbalanced manner, generally to the disadvantage of defendants,” according to the organization's website.
The ATRF cited a number of factors in ranking St. Louis as the No. 3 hellhole, including the rash of talc trials, preposterous consumer class actions and the growing asbestos docket.
The talc trials are actions claiming talcum powder causes ovarian cancer, and the ATRF report cites the flood of lawyers advertising for clients for those cases.
“Those lawyers knew Missouri was among a dwindling minority of holdout states with an outdated standard for expert testimony that allowed juries to hear speculative testimony that is disallowed elsewhere," the ATRF report notes. "So they brought more than a thousand junk-science claims by out-of-state plaintiffs against out-of-state talc makers in St. Louis courts. And they enjoyed early success, presumably beyond their wildest dreams.”
Plaintiffs in talc cases have won more than $300 million in St. Louis courts, according to the ATRF.
State courts in St. Louis are friendly also to plaintiffs' attorneys filing class actions alleging misleading labeling on bags of candy and doughnuts as to the amount of food inside.
Called “slack fill” cases, they are often filed in Missouri because of the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act. Because they ask for less than $5 million in damages, they stay in the more consumer-friendly state court and out of federal court. A recent ruling in such a case by Judge Nanette K. Laughrey asked whether a reasonable consumer would be misled by the packaging in the Murphy v. Stonewall Kitchen LLC case, opening the door to more such lawsuits.
In concluding its report, the ATRF points out that St. Louis has improved its legal climate from the No. 1 hellhole to No. 3 “...with a governor and legislative majorities further determined to improve their state’s economy by making their state decidedly less hospitable to out-of-state plaintiffs and meritless lawsuits.”
The ATRF also said that “...reform momentum can be maintained and more progress can be made.”