Courting Bias?

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Hollywood produces a lot of courtroom dramas showing evil corporations and suffering plaintiffs. Does that mean judges and juries in Los Angeles are biased against businesses?

That’s the case, according to a study that ranks the city as one of the worst in the country when it comes to the fairness of corporate litigation.

Since 2002, the Institute for Legal Reform, which is a U.S. Chamber of Commerce affiliate that strives to improve the legal climate for businesses, has conducted an annual survey. It asks more than 1,000 senior litigators, in-house general counsels and corporate executives for their views of the country’s tort liability system.

In the latest report, 12 percent of respondents ranked the city of Los Angeles as the least fair and reasonable litigation environment in the country. The city came in second to Chicago, which was deemed the worst by 14 percent of respondents.

In particular, judges in Los Angeles were singled out for their propensity to certify class actions that would not be allowed in many other places, while L.A. juries were seen as some of the most biased.

“Los Angeles is the movie capital of the world, and the silver screen is the perfect place to tell these true stories of businesses that have been victimized by a dysfunctional legal system,” said Lisa Rickard, president of the institute, taking a dig at Hollywood’s role in producing courtroom dramas in a statement.

Additionally, California ranked among the worst states in the nation in a variety of categories, including damages, treatment of class-action suits and timeliness of judges’ decisions.

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