The survey of more than 1,400 senior corporate attorneys was also conducted with the help of Harris Interactive.

ILR officials said that while Mississippi ranked 50th in this year's study, 96 percent of respondents who were familiar with the state's comprehensive legal reform legislation enacted last year "expect a major or moderate improvement in the state's litigation environment."

ILR officials also said that Illinois, home of Madison County, which corporate attorneys view as one of the worst "jackpot jurisdictions" for trial lawyers in the country, "continued its steady decline," dropping two places in this year's study, to 46.

West Virginia once again ranked 49. Florida dropped four places in this year's survey to 42, falling nine places since 2002. Delaware was ranked as the most balanced legal system for the fourth consecutive year.

New Jersey was 30th in the rankings, and New York 27th. California, the nation's largest state, ranked 45^th, and Texas was 44th.

The American Insurance Association used the study to press the Florida Legislature, which began its current session Tuesday, to undertake substantive tort reform.
The study "underscores the urgent need for the Florida Legislature" to pass tort reform legislation," said Cecil Pearce, AIA vice president, Southeast region.

"The poll's results of corporate counsel should serve as a wake-up call to Florida legislators," Mr. Pearce said. "Florida's ranking has fallen eight spots in three years, a reflection of the business community's increasing frustration with the state's growing lawsuit lottery mentality. That's why tort reform, especially in the areas of asbestos liability and third-party bad faith, are among AIA's top priorities for the 2005 legislative session."

On the asbestos front, Florida is becoming a magnet state for asbestos claims of dubious validity, Mr. Pearce said, while "another liability issue reaching crisis proportions in Florida is the growing number and cost of third-party bad faith lawsuits due to a failure to reach settlement, which can result in judgments far in excess of insurance policy limits."

The Center for Justice & Democracy, a liberal consumer group, called the study "completely unwarranted, unfair and contrary to the opinion of business leaders in the states."

The Center said the study criticizes certain state business climates "based on nothing more than corporate lawyers' views of a state's legal system."

Joanne Doroshow, CJ&D Executive Director, said, "The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has no business going around the country attacking individual states' business climates at the same time these states are achieving great success attracting businesses

She added, "The U.S. Chamber should be promoting businesses in these states, not hurting them."

Ms. Doroshow said that, "to the extent that readers could decipher the details of this ?survey,' it seems clearly designed to test responses to a set of arguments reflecting the Chamber's political agenda to limit lawsuits and the liability of corporate wrongdoers."