St. Louis earned national attention for all the wrong reasons, ranked No. 6 in the American Tort Reform Foundation’s Judicial Hellholes® 2025–2026 report released today.
St. Louis courts saw a new surge of lawsuits under the ADA this year filed by out-of-town trial lawyers and allowed agenda-driven, junk science as evidence in other cases.
“St. Louis courts warmly embrace forum shopping plaintiffs’ attorneys who know the city’s plaintiff-friendly, Judicial Hellhole® reputation could be a winning bet to secure a high-dollar, nuclear verdict®,” said Tiger Joyce, president of the American Tort Reform Association.
ATRF notes that the city also hosts a disproportionate share of the nation’s asbestos litigation, all making St. Louis’s reputation for lawsuit abuse even worse.
A recent study found that St. Louis families pay more than $6,600 every year in a hidden “tort tax” due to excessive tort costs — a 12% year-over-year increase. That’s $1,653 per person. Statewide, each Missouri resident pays $1,216 per year in that same “tort tax” while lawsuit abuse contributes to more than 65,000 jobs lost each year in the state.
Mounting “Nuclear Verdicts®” Shock the System
Legal advocates report that the city’s reputation for runaway jury awards shows no sign of slowing. In March, a St. Louis court refused to overturn a $462 million verdict against Wabash Trucking Company, despite evidence withheld from the jury, including plaintiffs’ seatbelt use and intoxication levels. ATRF says the company later settled the case rather than risk an uncertain appeal and says these extreme awards are often fueled by “anchoring” tactics that inflate jury expectations.
Junk Science and ADA Abuse Flood the Docket
Judges in St. Louis continue to face scrutiny for permitting questionable scientific studies as evidence. St. Louis has been home to tens of thousands of lawsuits related to Roundup weedkiller that rely on junk science evidence. The lawsuits are based on a single study that contradicts findings from regulatory agencies worldwide and claims glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, is “probably carcinogenic to humans.” In February, a Missouri appellate court upheld a St. Louis jury’s $1.25 million verdict in a Roundup case that the U.S. Supreme Court is being asked to review.
Courts have also allowed junk science in lawsuits targeting manufacturers of specialized baby formula for premature infants. In one case, the plaintiffs’ attorney asked the jury to make the companies pay an astounding $6 billion, which the jury rejected, instead siding with the formula manufacturers. The judge in that case overturned the defense verdict in March and ordered a new trial.
“Overturning a jury verdict with which the judge disagreed was a disturbing overreach,” Joyce said. “The conduct at issue was properly handled at trial and had no bearing on the outcome of the case. Conversely, the evidence on which these baby formula lawsuits rely contradicts established medical science, and litigation threatens access to critical neonatal care products.”
Meanwhile, out-of-town attorneys flooded St. Louis courts with copycat ADA accessibility lawsuits this year. Missouri now ranks sixth in the nation for ADA lawsuits, and one serial plaintiff filed nearly 70 cases in 2025 alone.
“Many of these lawsuits target small businesses with technical nitpicks and the people filing them have little or no intention of ever patronizing the businesses they target,” said Brad Jones, Missouri state director for the National Federation of Independent Business. “Hardworking families in St. Louis and across Missouri are paying the price for a legal system that rewards exploitation over fairness.”
St. Louis is ranked No. 6 among eight Judicial Hellholes® named in the 2025-2026 report. Neighboring Illinois counties, Madison and St. Clair, are included with Cook County in Illinois as the No. 7 Judicial Hellhole. The full report and rankings are available at JudicialHellholes.org.
