From the Manhattan Institute’s Center for Legal Policy comes this alarming yet very interesting report on Louisiana’s justice system. Some of the characters who’ve done business there include the “King of Torts” Melvin Belli, “Alligator Mick” Michael St. Martin, and Russ Herman, who dominates the court system today and is known for his key role in the massive tobacco lawsuits.
The troubled state of Louisiana has lost 200,000 residents in the years since Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans. But the state had been having a hard time attracting workers and others, as well as holding on to those it had, even before the hurricane struck. While the national trend in population growth in the previous five years was 4.6 percent, Louisiana grew by only 0.6 percent in that period (see graph). Even so, one segment of the population—trial lawyers—is finding the state to be an excellent place to hang out and do business. Long a lawsuit-friendly jurisdiction, Louisiana has become a magnet for mass tort lawyers squeezed by comprehensive tort reform in neighboring states such as Texas and Mississippi.
