April 24, 2008 - Study Ranks Legal Climate Among U.S. States

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April 23, 2008 - A recent study commissioned by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce names Delaware as the state with the best legal climate, while West Virginia was named the worst. The study asked 957 corporate attorneys to use 12 factors to  "grade" legal climates in five states that they were most familiar with.

The study,  "Lawsuit Climate 2008: Ranking the States," found that Delaware, Nebraska, Maine, Indiana, and Utah had the most favorable legal climates in terms of their tort liability systems.

For the highest-ranked states, lawyers cited the quality of judges, jurists' predictability, and low damage awards as reasons for their favorable ratings.

At the bottom were West Virginia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Illinois, according to the survey. The is the third year in a row that West Virginia ranked last in the study, which has been conducted annually by Harris Interactive for the past seven years.

Attorneys in the lowest-ranked states cited corruption, unfair judges, and high damage awards as reasons for their unfavorable ratings.

The American Association for Justice, a trial attorneys' group, challenged the study's findings. "The 'study' is based on a survey of corporate defense lawyers from multimillion-dollar corporations who are paid to avoid accountability for their misconduct and negligence," the group said.

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