It's not an impartial source, but the U.S. Chamber of Commerce claims Florida's court system is one of the least friendly toward businesses.
A new survey of corporate attorneys and executives by the chamber's Institute for Legal Reform ranks Florida 42nd among the 50 states in legal fairness. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has been pushing for tort reform nationwide for several years.
The chamber asked the corporate officials to rate the states on 10 measures, including judges' competence, damage awards, treatment of class action suits and other factors. The states were given a grade from A to F on the 10 factors. Florida's courts fared particularly poorly on two survey elements: the amount of damages awarded to plaintiffs and the timeliness of summary judgments or dismissals.
On the damages issue, only 28 percent of respondents gave the state a rating of A or B, while 69 percent gave it a C, D or F. The results did not necessarily add up to 100 percent. Concerning the timeliness of summary judgments or dismissals, just 25 percent of respondents gave Florida courts an A or B, while 71 percent gave it a C through F.
Florida fared best on the topic of judges' impartiality. Fifty-one percent of respondents gave Florida an A or B on that measure.
Overall, the three friendliest states for business, in order, are Delaware, North Dakota and Nebraska. The three states with the least friendly court systems are West Virginia, Louisiana and Mississippi.
The chamber surveyed 1,482 corporate attorneys or executives from October through January. Only companies with revenues of at least $100 million a year were polled. The survey had a sampling error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.
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