JUDICIAL HELLHOLES 2025…AND WHY IT IS VITAL TO YOUR COMPANY

WHY IT MATTERS:? You need to know the worst places to be sued. ?And not just for litigation purposes.? You need to be mindful of these locations in pricing loads, recruiting drivers, routing trips…?

WATCH:? List creator Lauren Sheets Jarrell gives an overview and insight in this 20 minute video at TransportCenter

LISTEN:? Our listen to Lauren on the TransportCenter podcast.

THE LIST:? It’s that time of year—chill in the air, lights on the houses, and your Spotify Wrap drops.? Every December, the American Tort Reform Association (ATRA) drops its list of “Judicial Hellholes”—the worst places to be sued.

The List provides the bases for the locales “recognition” as well as the impact—“tort tax” per person, lost jobs, the tsunami of advertising,…

THE “WINNERS:? This year, the list is topped by the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas and PA Supreme Court.? A regular at or near the top of the list.? As reliable as a Kelce podcast.? Cue the Mummers.

“Lawsuit abuse in the City of Brotherly Love has reached a fever pitch with nuclear verdicts becoming the norm and novel theories of liabilities flourishing.”

Rounding out the list are the following:

2. New York City:? Nuclear verdict and a “Fraudemic”:

3.? South Carolina:? Based on Asbestos Litigation

4. Georgia:? “[S]kyrocketing nuclear verdicts?, inflated awards for medical costs,…”

5.? California:? “[T]he trial bar’s laboratory…”

6.? Cook County, Illinois:? :”[H]ome to a disproportionate amount of the state’s litigation and nuclear verdicts?.”

7.? St. Louis:? “Judges in St. Louis issue plaintiff-friendly rulings and embrace junk science,…”

8.? Michigan Supreme Court:? “[M]ixed signals about junk science, continues to take an expansive approach to premises liability and created innovative new ways for employees to sue their employers.”

9.? King County, Washington:? “[P]roclivity for unfair group trials, allowing junk science,..”

10.? Louisiana:? “Nuclear verdicts? plague the state’s civil justice system…”

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THE IMPACT:? Litigation.? That’s the obvious.? Get sued in one of these venues and be warned and beware.?

However, as they’d say in an infomercial, “But wait.? There’s more.”

“Hellholes” are one of what I call a “Risk Point.”? An point of potential risk that you need to avoid, or at least minimize, to reduce your “Total Cost or Risk” (premium + deductible/retention).? And increase your Bottom Line.

And these “Hellhole” “Risk Points” impact multiple areas of your operation.?

SALES:? Does your sales “risk price” loads?? Price a load to a “Hellhole” the same as one to Des Moines?? You need to consider what that load can cost you if you fall prey to the Billboard Attorneys in one of the “Hellholes.”

RECRUITING:? Are you hiring drivers from “Hellholes.”? In today’s world of a driver shortage, you got to do what you got to do.? But just beware that their residence in a “Hellhole” could create jurisdiction there and expose you to that Court.

ROUTING:? Does Operations/Dispatch consider risk when routing a load?? The alternative, if possible, to going through a “Hellhole” location?

BOTTOM LINE: Your entire organization needs to on alert for these locales.? Failure to do can come right off your…Bottom Line.