Mississippi Tort Reform Faces "Judicial Nullification" Effort

By Alyson Bustamante Jones

Thanks to the leadership of Governor Haley Barbour and a legislature which has understood the corrosive effect unmeritorious vexatious litigation has on a state's judicial system and its ability to attract new business and grow the economy, Mississippi has transformed its civil justice system and its prior litigious image through targeted tort reforms. When posed with similar legislative reforms in other states, trial lawyers have engaged in a full frontal assault against these efforts at tort reform by attempting to nullify the laws under the state constitutions with mixed and more recently unsuccessful results. This "judicial nullification" effort has migrated to Mississippi, where plaintiffs' lawyers have taken aim at provision of the state's tort reform.

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