The U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform ranked Connecticut in the middle of the pack nationally for the impact its legal climate has on corporations doing business in the state.
Through Harris Interactive, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce affiliate surveyed more than 1,100 general counsels and senior corporate attorneys, with 70 percent saying a state”™s lawsuit environment is likely to impact important business decisions at their company, including where to locate or expand their businesses. The figure was up 13 percent from five years before on the eve of the recession.
Connecticut ranked 25th on the biennial study, down one rung from 2010. In 2006, it ranked sixth nationally on the survey. The state has a docket for complex litigation that handles tricky business cases, but does not assign judges to the docket on a permanent basis as is the case in some other states with similar business litigation sessions.
As might be expected, Delaware remains the state with the best legal climate for businesses, according to the survey, while court systems in California and Illinois are among those that companies dread the most. Maine led the Northeast, ranked 12th, while New York ranked 18th on this year”™s survey and New Jersey brought up the rear in 32nd.
“As our economic recovery has stalled, a growing percentage of business leaders have identified a state”™s lawsuit climate as a significant factor in determining their growth and expansion plans, and the jobs that come along with them,” Lisa Rickard, president of the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform, said in a prepared statement. “That makes the consequences of this survey even more significant to the economic growth of individual states.”
Survey respondents were asked to rank states for their overall treatment of tort, contract and class action litigation, as well as several other factors such as the competence and impartiality of judges.
Connecticut won its best marks on those latter points, while faring the worst on its system of “discovery” fact-finding as attorneys prepare cases; and also faring relatively poorly on the timeliness of the judicial process.
The survey did not address enforcement of states”™ laws and regulations by agencies and prosecutors, with Gov. Dannel P. Malloy having made cutting business red tape a stated priority of his administration, while praising the increased enforcement efforts of some state agencies such as the Department of Labor.
“I am not an agency expert, but from the outside looking in, much of it has to do with leadership at the top encouraging the civil service people who have been in place for a long period of time to make the effort to understand the views of ”¦ business,” Oz Griebel, CEO of the MetroHartford Alliance and former gubernatorial candidate, said in a blog published by the Connecticut Bar Association. “There needs to be a real effort by the regulating bodies to understand what the entity, business, or sector is like, what its goals are and how it makes money; not only where there is the potential for abuses, but where there are positive opportunities.
“I think, conversely, that we in the private sector need to understand the role of the regulator and to respect that whether we like it or not, over a period of time, legislators at both the state and federal levels have delegated much to agencies. In most cases, this is with good intention and probably, in most cases, with the right outcome.”
