The road back into tort hell

From the Mobile Register:

The American Tort Reform Foundation's fourth annual "Judicial Hellholes" list was released last week, and the organization put eastern Alabama on its watch list, according to a news release from Alabama Voters Against Lawsuit Abuse.

"Isn't this a fine mess," said AVALA Director Lewis Fuller in the release. "This dubious distinction returns the national spotlight to our out-of-whack court system that is happy host to so much lawsuit abuse. Just when we start to make headway by our governor getting some automobile manufacturing here, we shoot ourselves in the head."

The nation's largest verdicts in 2003 and 2004 were awarded in Alabama, according to the release. In 2002, the state received a "dishonorable mention" from the foundation.

Cases cited in the report, available at http://www.atra.org/, were heard in Montgomery, Macon, Bullock and Calhoun counties.

The Birmingham News has more, and today, the Huntsville Times editorial board notes that "excessive jury awards are still a problem in Alabama's civil courts."