Trial Lawyers Decry Chamber's Annual Legal Climate Survey
Even before the U.S. Chamber of Commerce formally released its annual survey assessing state liability systems, trial lawyers were crying foul.
The survey, “Lawsuit Climate 2008: Ranking the States,” was released today by the Chamber’s Institute for Legal Reform has yet again ranked Delaware with the best legal climate and West Virginia as the worst, the National Law Journal (sub. req.) reports.
The American Association for Justice, pre-empted publicity of the study with its own release Tuesday, calling the rankings “phony” and designed to serve an “extreme corporate agenda.”
The “U.S. Chamber seems to believe that giant corporations should get a free pass for their negligence or misconduct,” the AAJ’s CEO Jon Haber says in the release. “All Americans should have a fair chance to receive justice through the legal system—even when it means taking on the most powerful corporations.”
The AAJ points to several problems it has with the study, including that only corporate defense lawyers from companies earning $100 million or more were surveyed. The AAJ also maintains there is no margin of error or evidence that the rankings are statistically valid.
In this year’s survey, Nebraska, Maine, Indiana and Utah joined Delaware in the top five. Rounding out the bottom five were Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Illinois. Legal Newsline reports that attorneys in those states complained of corruption, unfair judges and high awards.
“We’ve been telling state policymakers for seven years now that they need to improve their state’s lawsuit system in order to attract new business and grow jobs and, at least in some states, the message appears to be getting through,” the Chamber’s president and CEO Tom Donohue said in a release about the ILR/Harris Poll survey. “But some states are learning that changing the law isn’t enough—they also need to make sure their courts correctly apply the law.”
Updated at 12:50 p.m. to clarify that West Virginia was rated to have the worst legal climate.
