States’ Lawsuit Climates Influence Expansion Decisions, Say Businesses

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An all-time high 85 percent of senior business executives at major U.S. companies say a state’s lawsuit environment is likely to impact decisions about where to locate or expand their business, according to the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform’s (ILR) new 2017 Lawsuit Climate Survey: Ranking the States.

For the first time in the survey’s 15-year history, the survey crowned a new top state, South Dakota, as having the best legal climate for business. Delaware, which had the best lawsuit climate in every previous survey, lost its top position.

The survey shows state lawsuit climates overall are improving, and the competition among states is tightening. The difference between states’ individual scores is the smallest it has ever been, meaning that states are competing harder than ever to improve their litigation environments.

“If this were a marathon, the pack of runners would be tightening, and running faster. States not keeping up on legal reform are being passed by,” said ILR President Lisa A. Rickard. But, she cautioned that overall improvement doesn’t mean states have achieved a healthy lawsuit climate. “There’s been progress, but let’s not kid ourselves — the ‘sue ’em’ culture in the U.S. is still the world’s worst.”

In another first for the survey, Louisiana ranked at the bottom nationally. Other perennial bottom-10 states include California (47th) and Illinois (48th).

For the third time since 2010, Chicago/Cook County, Illinois, is ranked as the worst local jurisdiction. 24 percent of those surveyed said it has the least fair courts in the country. Other jurisdictions singled out as among the worst include: Los Angeles, Calif.; Jefferson County, Texas; New Orleans/Orleans Parish, La.; and Detroit, Mich.

Harris Poll, a global polling firm, conducted the 2017 Lawsuit Climate Survey through more than 1,300 telephone and online interviews between March 31 and June 26, 2017. Participants were senior business lawyers and executives in companies with annual revenues of at least $100 million. The ranked the fairness of state lawsuit environments across 10 categories including their laws, courts, judges and juries.

Overall Rankings of State Liability Systems 2012 – 2017

State	2017 Rank	2015 Rank	2012 Rank
South Dakota	1	9	11
Vermont	2	2	16
Idaho	3	6	6
Minnesota	4	13	4
New Hampshire	5	5	21
Alaska	6	12	13
Nebraska	7	3	2
Wyoming	8	8	3
Maine	9	14	12
Virginia	10	11	7
Delaware	11	1	1
Utah	12	10	9
Iowa	13	4	10
Massachusetts	14	17	19
Indiana	15	18	14
Connecticut	16	22	25
North Dakota	17	15	8
Kansas	18	19	5
Maryland	19	28	33
Wisconsin	20	20	15
Oregon	21	32	28
Michigan	22	24	27
Hawaii	23	30	29
Rhode Island	24	26	31
Arizona	25	25	17
Ohio	26	27	30
Montana	27	34	45
Washington	28	29	22
New York	29	21	18
Tennessee	30	23	26
Oklahoma	31	33	42
New Mexico	32	45	44
North Carolina	33	7	20
South Carolina	34	36	39
Colorado	35	16	23
Arkansas	36	41	35
Nevada	37	35	37
Pennsylvania	38	37	40
Texas	39	40	36
Georgia	40	31	24
New Jersey	41	38	32
Kentucky	42	39	38
Alabama	43	46	43
Mississippi	44	43	48
West Virginia	45	50	50
Florida	46	44	41
California	47	47	47
Illinois	48	48	46
Missouri	49	42	34
Louisiana	50	49	49

Scores presented in this table have been rounded to one decimal place, but rankings are based on the unrounded number. Source: U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Institute for Legal Reform

Topics Lawsuits USA Illinois

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