Los Angeles has claimed the top spot on the American Tort Reform Foundation’s (ATRF) annual list of “Judicial Hellholes.” The Report claims that “lawsuit abuse in Los Angeles . . . has propelled the jurisdiction to the very top of the list.” According to the ATRF, the plaintiffs’ bar resorts to various litigation tactics that drive Los Angeles’ notorious nuclear verdicts (i.e., those exceeding $10 million), including:

• “Anchoring tactics” by lawyers who plant extremely high amounts in jurors’ minds to set a base dollar amount for a pain and suffering award;

• Third-party litigation financing, which seeks to maximize profit and discourage reasonable settlement in pursuit of larger damage awards at trial; and

• Use of the so-called “reptile theory”—a tactic that manipulates jurors into deciding cases based on raw emotion and perceived threats rather than evidence presented at trial. For example, some courts routinely permit evidence of a company’s general policies, practices, or alleged lack of compliance with government regulations, even if only remotely related to the plaintiff’s case, in order to portray the business as a threat to public safety.

Other highlights include:

• Abusive ADA litigation in Los Angeles, which often targets small businesses that lack the resources to defend themselves and are more likely to settle;

• A flood of lawsuits under the recently “reformed” Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA), which has done little to help workers in cases in which the...

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