I have a mea culpa. About a month ago I posted about The American Tort Reform Foundation’s (ATRF) 2023-2024 Judicial Hellholes Report and Executive Summary, giving everyone the impression it was ATR’s most recent publication on the topic. Because I thought it was. However, I got an email from ATRF’s Director of Public Affairs telling me that a new report was coming out in December 2024 and the one I had circulated and commented about was a year old. My bad.

The good news is ATRF made sure to send me the most recent version of the report (2024-2025) and most of usual suspects remain in the top 10 of the “hellhole” venue listing:

1. The Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court
2. New York City
3. South Carolina Asbestos Litigation
4. Georgia
5. California
6. Cook County, Illinois
7. St. Louis
8. The Michigan Supreme Court
9. King County, Washington
10. Louisiana

As before, the report is about a lot more than just judicial venues with a reputation for being problematic for business defendants. The 2024-2025 edition also lists at least three key litigation trends: (1) the increasing prevalence of nuclear verdicts, with multi-million and even billion-dollar awards becoming the norm in Judicial Hellholes; (2) junk science plaguing courtrooms, particularly in asbestos and talc cases, leading to unjustified verdicts; and (3) baby formula lawsuits based on junk science evidence emerging this past year, threatening to undermine established medical science and potentially harm premature infants who rely on these life-sustaining products.

Whether you agree with ATRF or not, this report is always a thought-provoking read. Especially for defendants who do business in multiple states.