It’s hard to celebrate Missouri’s legal climate being 44th for businesses

The number 44 has been pretty good to Missouri.

Few people here will ever forget the 44-yard pass Patrick Mahomes threw to Tyreek Hill to start the Chiefs’ Super Bowl-winning comeback.

But there’s another 44 that’s hard to get excited about: our state’s lawsuit climate ranking.

Following a handful of reforms made in 2019, Missouri’s ranking in the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform’s 2019 Lawsuit Climate Survey climbed five places from 49 to 44. But that ranking illustrates that there is still much more work to do.

Last year, one of the most significant victories the General Assembly achieved was ending Missouri’s reputation as “the nation’s courtroom” by requiring lawsuits to be filed in cities or counties where plaintiffs either live or were injured. The law should reduce the number of out-of-state plaintiffs’ clogging Missouri courts.

Now, the Missouri Senate is considering a bill that would reform punitive damages, another practice that leads to business-crippling verdicts. A similar bill passed in the state House of Representatives last year, requiring plaintiffs to prove with clear and convincing evidence the defendant intentionally harmed them or acted with deliberate disregard for the safety of others.

Senate Bill 591 would ensure punitive damages serve as punishment for intentional wrongdoing only, not as a way for trial lawyers to get bigger paydays. A St. Louis jury demonstrated the need for reform when they awarded 22 women — many of them from out of state — more than $4 billion in punitive damages in a lawsuit brought by women who alleged baby powder caused their ovarian cancer. That 2018 verdict is on appeal. Yet it stands as a warning that doing business in Missouri can be ruinous to a company’s financial health.

The good news is the legislature has momentum on its side, as well as strong support from the business community and advocates for a fair legal climate.

The 2019 Lawsuit Climate Survey interviewed more than 1,300 corporate general counsels, senior attorneys and executives at major U.S. companies. It still ranks Missouri as having the nation’s seventh-worst litigation climate, reflecting a long history of providing plaintiffs’ lawyers with a friendly venue for dubious lawsuits. But with last year’s law curbing forum shopping now fully in effect, the momentum for change is growing.

This session, legislators should also consider reforms to the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act. Plaintiffs’ lawyers use the law to file consumer class action cases that have earned the ridicule of media elsewhere in the country, such as a 2017 lawsuit against the Hershey Company over the amount of air in candy boxes.

Even when judges dismiss these cases, companies often settle to avoid the cost of further litigation. Reforms such as limiting the types of lawsuits allowed under the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act and requiring plaintiffs to prove they relied on misinformation from a business before purchasing a product would help further clear Missouri’s clogged courts.

The legislature must overcome the influence of the trial bar and pass more reforms that improve the state’s legal climate. Improving that climate is worth pursuing so businesses can regain the confidence to invest and grow without fear of winding up on the wrong side of the next outrageous jackpot verdict.

Missouri is heading in the right direction. This is no time to let up on the pressure to bring balance and fairness back to its courts.

This story was originally published February 22, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "It’s hard to celebrate Missouri’s legal climate being 44th for businesses."