The Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, where a jury awarded an $8 billion verdict against Johnson & Johnson, took the No. 1 spot in the annual “Judicial Hellholes” report.
That Oct. 8 verdict, plus a flood of other mass torts, prompted the American Tort Reform Association (ATRA), which publishes the 2019-2020 Judicial Hellholes report, to replace California with Philadelphia’s court as the worst venue in which to get sued, said Sherman “Tiger” Joyce, ATRA’s president. He said the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas last topped the list nearly a decade ago due to some of the same concerns, including “flooding of class actions and a lot of major pharmaceutical and asbestos litigation.”
