The American Tort Reform Association (ATRA) recently released its annual report on “Judicial Hellholes.”  Typically, these are places where judges are known to systematically apply court procedures and laws inequitably- creating some of the most unfair and biased court in America.

Despite Louisiana’s growing litigation industry, we largely escaped criticism in this year’s report at www.judicialhellholes.org.  The one exception being St. Landry Parish, which ended up on ATRA’s “Watch List” due to an unprecedented $258 million judgment handed out earlier this year, in a case where no one was injured.

The bottom line is, we were lucky.  Considering the number of judicial scandals and outrageous lawsuits that have dominated Louisiana headlines in recent years, it could have been much worse.

We are not in judicial hell yet, but if we don’t start taking legal reform seriously, we could be headed there.

Melissa Landry is Executive Director of Louisiana Lawsuit Abuse Watch.