St. Louis has dropped to 8th place from 7th place in the American Tort Reform Foundation’s Judicial Hellhole ranking due to the legislature approving venue reform and a COVID liability statute, according to the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
“The General Assembly has passed significant legal reforms, but the work is not over,” said Kara Corches, vice president of governmental affairs with the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry. “There is still a lot that needs to be done to make sure that no city in Missouri is on this list.”
The Judicial Hellholes list documents venues where civil cases are adjudicated in a way that is perceived to be unfair, unbalanced, or disadvantageous to defendants. In previous years, St. Louis landed the top spot partly because the state of Missouri is home to more than 168 drug manufacturers, including Sanofi-Aventis, Eli Lilly & CO, and Hoffmann-La Roche Inc.
Kara Corches
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“Certainly, they are going to be a target for trial attorneys who are probably looking to make a quick buck, which is detrimental to our economy because when businesses are spending more time in court, that means they have less time to spend in the Research and Development and innovation that creates economic benefits for decades to come,” Corches said.
The ranking further found that St. Louis Circuit Court has historically allowed forum shopping and junk science to permeate, which can lead to ‘nuclear’ verdicts.
“If Missouri has this reputation in their courts, and St. Louis specifically, of allowing this junk science, then we anticipate more frivolous lawsuits being filed in the state when they know this type of junk science is allowed in the courtroom,” Corches said. “Luckily, some judges see through it but that doesn’t mean they will always see through it so we need to make those reforms to prevent that from happening.”
Nuclear verdicts are exceptionally large jury awards exceeding $10 million.
For example, Dugan v. Hyatt Corporation was the top plaintiff's verdict in 2022 in which a St. Louis jury awarded $177 million in compensatory and punitive damages to a hotel guest named Shannon Dugan who was sexually assaulted in her Hyatt Regency St. Louis at the Arch hotel room by a security guard in 2016. Dugan alleged she was aggressively groped by the employee as she slept.
"Those nuclear verdicts are job killers for the companies that are sued because the money has to come from somewhere," Corches added.