Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, January 3, 1994 TAG: 9401030282
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: A-5 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Forbes reports in its Jan. 17 issue that the greatest concentration of litigiousness - lawsuits stemming from car accidents to medical malpractice - is in the Northeast, while the Midwest and Rocky Mountain states have lower levels.
Virginia placed 34th on the list.
According to the magazine's ranking of the 50 states and Washington, the nation's capital is far and away the worst place in terms of getting sued. Lawyers become involved in 61 percent of auto accidents in the capital; the average malpractice premium for an orthopedic surgeon is more than $25,000; and the city paid nearly $14 million to settle liability claims in the last fiscal year.
Other findings:
Detroit juries are six times more generous in their cash awards to plaintiffs who sue the city than juries in Phoenix, the median.
Nearly two-thirds of car accidents end up involving lawyers in Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and the District of Columbia.
Orthopedic surgeons on New York state's Long Island pay more than $117,000 per year in malpractice premiums, compared to $33,000 in rural upstate New York.
Forbes devised the ranking by averaging such factors as the percentage of automobile accidents in which lawyers get involved, the average cost for one year's malpractice insurance for an orthopedic surgeon and the number of members of a state's trial lawyers association per 100,000 population.
Forbes acknowledged that the ranking was unscientific, but said it was unprecedented because most states have no central database for the number of lawsuits.
\ WHO SUES?\ FORBES MAGAZINE'S TOP 10 LIST
1. Washington, D.C.
2. Rhode Island
3. Massachusetts
4. New Mexico
5. Nevada
6. Delaware
7. Florida
8. New York
9. New Hampshire
10. Washington
- Associated Press
Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.