Drew Wilson
Florida’s lawsuit climate hit an all-time low, sinking to No. 44 out of the 50 states, according to a national survey released Wednesday by the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform.
The No. 44 ranking is a dip from Florida’s No. 41 ranking last year and continues a downward trend from the state’s No. 33 ranking when the poll began in 2002. Delaware took the top spot in the ranking, with Vermont and Nebraska close behind.
According to ILR, the low rank is because of the Florida Supreme Court negating many of the legal reforms passed by the Legislature, including safeguards on medical malpractice damages and strictures on “bad faith” insurance lawsuits.
Florida’s scorecard included No. 45 rankings for its treatment of tort and contract litigation, how the state handles class action lawsuits, the timeliness of summary judgments and awarding of damages. Florida came in as the No. 39 state for judge impartiality, which was the state’s highest ranking across the poll’s 11 categories.
City and county courts were also ranked and rated in the survey, with Miami-Dade County sandwiched between San Francisco and Philadelphia on the list of least-fair local courts.
The nationwide telephone survey, conducted by HarrisPoll, solicited responses from 1,203 in-house general counsels, senior litigators and executives with experience in litigation for companies with annual revenues of more than $100 million. Their responses were given scores, and an overall average was computed to rank the states.
