Winston-Salem Journal, June 21, 2006

North Carolina ranked 9th in the country for having the best legal system for handling injury cases of all kinds and that is good news for business in the state, a California group said in a recent report.

The Pacific Research Institute, which describes itself as a "free-market think tank," ranked the 50 states for their relative tort burdens and changes in tort laws. Tort is the French word for wrong and is defined as wrongful conduct by one individual that results in injury to another, the institute's report said.

"A state's legal system influences business decisions such as where to open a new store, or whether to hire more employees, introduce a new product, or build a new plant," the report said. "States that ranked worse in this study are less likely to benefit in these areas."

Hovannes Abramyan, a public policy fellow at the institute and co-author of the report, said this week that North Carolina needs to enact laws such as exemptions for fast-food companies on civil litigation for obesity for it to maintain its high ranking.

If the state does not make some changes, "North Carolina may fall in the rankings because of that," he said.

The institute used a host of criteria to come up with its rankings, including how much insurance companies have paid out for settlements and judgments in a state and the number of civil-case filings per 100,000 residents.

The Pacific Research report placed Texas at the top of the list.

"For the last ten years they've been pushing reforms heavily," Abramyan said.

Brian Louis is a writer for the Winston-Salem Journal.
© 2006 Winston-Salem Journal.