Philly and the Pa. Supreme Court are top ‘judicial hellholes,’ a tort reform group says. Trial attorneys aren’t happy.

Philadelphia’s Common Pleas Court and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court are the nation’s top “judicial hellholes” for defendants in civil suits, according to a report by the American Tort Reform Foundation.

The group, tied to an association that advocates for reform of civil litigation and represents business interests, has been ranking courts since 2002, and for years Philadelphia has been called out.

The report defines a “judicial hellhole” as having an “unfair and unbalanced manner” that disadvantages defendants. In other words, the report says, these courts are “the worst of the worst.”

In the most recent report, published Tuesday, the Philadelphia court and the state’s highest court shared first place. The report pointed to the proliferation of “nuclear verdicts” that surpass $10 million and “problematic” state Supreme Court decisions on medical malpractice and product liability.

Specifically, the report noted a change that went into effect last year allowing patients to file medical malpractice cases in any jurisdiction in which the medical provider conducts business, not just where their care took place.

The report points to large verdicts from recent years: a $2.2 billion verdict against Monsanto in a Roundup weedkiller case from January, a nearly $1 billion verdict against car manufacturer Mitsubishi in October 2023, and a $725.5 million verdict against Exxon in May.

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

Some trial lawyers weren’t happy with the honorific.

Thomas Kline, a Kline & Specter attorney who litigated the Roundup case, called the report “a tired drumbeat” and its title an “ad hominem attack.”

The large verdicts singled out by the association were handed by jurors in Philadelphia, Kline said, and all verdicts undergo the scrutiny of judges in the appeal process.

The $2.2 billion Roundup verdict, for example, was later reduced to to $400 million by a judge. And plaintiff’s don’t always win. Monsanto won three of seven trials in Philadelphia.

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And last week, a Philadelphia judge ordered a new trial in a medical malpractice case that had resulted in a $45 million verdict against Temple University Hospital, saying that the jury’s decision did “not make logical or legal sense” and that the award of future economic damages was “exorbitant.”

Philadelphia has ranked among the top six hellholes since the 2017 report. This year, courts in New York City, South Carolina, Georgia, and California rounded out the top five.

“Whenever there is a result holding accountable a corporate wrongdoer, that jurisdiction becomes a hellhole,” Kline said.

The report highlights a growing problem for the city, said Curt Schroder, executive director of the Pennsylvania Coalition for Civil Justice Reform, which advocates for tort reform.

“Whether you call it a judicial hellhole or a plaintiff attorney’s paradise, Pennsylvania’s legal climate, it needs a reset,” Schroder said in a statement.

More than 171,000 jobs are lost due to excessive litigation each year, the report said. Citing that data, the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry called for reform to prevent what it called “lawsuit abuse.”

“Without these reforms, Pennsylvania will remain at a significant competitive disadvantage for attracting employers,” Luke Bernstein, the chamber’s president and CEO, said in a statement.

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John Hare, an attorney with Marshall Dennehey who was involved in the Mitsubishi case, said Pennsylvania state law can make it harder for defendants in product liability cases.

But the eye-popping verdicts of recent years are also part of a national post-pandemic trend, Hare said, with the American public seemingly becoming more anti-corporate.

Plus, Hare said, Philadelphia has trial lawyers who know how to garner sympathy for their clients.

“And not only garner sympathy to the clients, but generate anger at the defendants,” he said. “And that is a verdict multiplier.”

The number of medical malpractice filings in Philadelphia this year is on pace to increase by nearly 50% compared with a three-year pre-pandemic average. Filings in the Philadelphia suburbs have declined sharply.

Lawyers say they file in Philadelphia because the court system is efficient and predictable.

Lisa Rau, who was a civil judge in Philadelphia until she retired five years ago, studied the efficiency of Common Pleas Court for her 2019 master’s thesis in judicial studies in the University of Nevada.

In 1995, Philadelphia ranked as the second-worst among large city courts for the length of time it took a case to conclude. By 2004, the National Center for State Courts applauded Philadelphia as “arguably the best-managed large urban civil trial court operation in the nation,” Rau’s thesis said.

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“Part of the criticism in calling it a judicial hellhole comes from the fact that the court won’t delay things forever,” the retired judge said.

And in an efficient court that handles a high volume, large verdict are bound to happen, according to Rau.

Rhonda H. Wilson, a solo personal-injury practitioner, took offense at the report’s description of Philadelphia and its efficient case-management system as “the worst of the worst.”

“I think Philadelphia is the best of the best,” she said.