American Tort Reform Association Issues "Judicial Hellhole" Report

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The American Tort Reform Association, a front group for big chemical, tobacco, insurance, pharmaceutical and other companies whose products or pollution have been known to make people sick or kill them, has released its ninth annual "judicial hellholes" report which attacks judges and juries who hold their members accountable in court. This year's top "hellhole" is Philadelphia, which won in part due to its Complex Litigation Center, which was created exclusively to handle complex, mass tort cases like those regarding asbestos, hormone replacement therapy, nursing home litigation and suits against drugs like Avandia, Paxil, Phen-Fen and Risperdal. The Center's most recent cases involve pharmaceutical defendants who are being sued over birth control pills in the Yaz/Yazmin/Ocella mass tort. Plaintiffs allege that the pills caused injuries like pulmonary embolism, blood clots in the legs, heart attacks, strokes, gall bladder and kidney disease.

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And yet, the corporate

And yet, the corporate special interests behind ATRA reserve the right to use the courts to cudgel those who get in their way.

For example, the Anheuser-Busch InBev brewery in Baldwinsville, NY just squeezed a $2.5 million property tax "rebate" from the Baldwinsville school district through threat of costly litigation.

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2010/12/lysander_baldwinsville_schools.html