The 2008 Tort Liability Index: Where Does Your State Rank?

Yesterday the Pacific Research Institute released its annual Tort Liability Index, a ranking of states according to the relative friendliness or unfriendliness of their legal climates. There's a lot in this report but you can click here to see a map and find out where your state ranks, from North Dakota (#1) to Florida (#50) in terms of healthy legal climates. Looks like sunburn isn't the only thing to fear in Florida.

Remember that we spend a full 2% of our Gross Domestic Product on tort costs in this country. That's a big number. According to this list, it would be larger than Ireland's GDP in 2007.

Let's hope the PRI study begins to drive some much-needed legal reform efforts in some of the low-ranking states. Click here to access the full report.