The Los Angeles Business Journal published an opinion-editorial from Southern California Regional Director Maryann Maloney today. In it, she notes that Los Angeles County once again earned the distinction as a "Judicial Hellhole" by the American Tort Reform Association.

"The report notes that Los Angeles County, once known lovingly by many plaintiffs’ lawyers as “the bank,” is suffering from a surge in “shakedown lawsuits” brought against small businesses under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Astonishingly excessive verdicts, which provide big paydays for personal injury lawyers, a troubling number of large asbestos awards and one recent string of lawsuits stemming from a practical joke at a Los Angeles firehouse were also cited as reasons the county qualifies as a judicial hellhole.

Orange County, like its neighbor to the north, also continues to suffer from a rash of disability-access lawsuits, is home to a first-of-its-kind lawsuit claiming that the popular wrinkle-reducing treatment Botox is unsafe, despite FDA approval 20 years ago and better than 15 million treatments worldwide, since then, for which reports of serious adverse effects have been very rare.

Lawsuit abuse continues to have a negative impact on economic conditions nationwide, and that’s certainly the case in California."