Jennifer Riley, executive director of Patients Come First Pennsylvania, said on April 13 that the state’s litigation environment is being strained by an influx of lawsuits, large jury awards, and the use of expert testimony that would face stricter scrutiny in federal courts.
The issue is significant for Pennsylvania’s healthcare system, as Riley said these legal trends threaten access to care and contribute to rising costs. She called for state courts to adopt tighter evidentiary standards similar to those used at the federal level.
“Pennsylvania has become flooded with excessive lawsuits that are pushing our healthcare system to a breaking point. As a result, medical malpractice and product liability cases are often filed there, and the court has been labeled a ‘judicial hellhole’ for its potential for high jury awards,” Riley said in an article.
“Plaintiff lawyers are flooding Philadelphia courts because they’ve found a loophole: a system that ignores the strict evidentiary standards used in federal courts. This allows them to push cases forward using shaky, flawed science that would be thrown out almost anywhere else. Pennsylvania courts should adopt the same stricter standards now used in federal courts to ensure expert testimony is carefully vetted before it reaches a jury,” she added.
Large jury awards, often referred to as “nuclear verdicts,” have increased nationwide. Marathon Strategies reports that, in 2024, 135 lawsuits against corporate defendants resulted in verdicts exceeding $10 million—a 52% increase from 2023—with total awards reaching $31.3 billion. Verdicts above $100 million also rose sharply during this period, reflecting escalating jury awards in the broader liability environment shaping state-level litigation debates.
Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court amended venue rules for medical professional liability cases in 2022, ending the prior county-of-treatment requirement and expanding where cases can be filed. The change has kept venue shopping at the center of debate by allowing plaintiffs more flexibility to file claims in jurisdictions considered more favorable—including major urban courts with a history of larger awards—according to information from pacourts.us.
Philadelphia remains closely watched for mass tort and product liability litigation. The American Tort Reform Foundation’s 2025–2026 report ranked the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas No. 5 on its Judicial Hellholes list due to ongoing concerns about litigation tourism, large verdicts and procedural rules attracting high-stakes civil cases.
