Michigan Again Makes 'Judicial Hellhole' List

(Source: MIRS.news, Published 12/15/2025) For the third year in a row, Michigan is once again ranked in the American Tort Reform Association's (ATRA) "Judicial Hellhole Report."

According to the ATRA's 2025-26 report, the Michigan Supreme Court has moved from No. 8 to the organization's "Watch List" because "it has yet to issue several high-profile, long awaited decisions."

"Affordability doesn't stop at the checkout counter – day-to-day costs are shaped by our courts and our litigation climate every single day," said Zach Rudat, director of the Michigan Alliance for Legal Reform. "When courts abandon common-sense legal standards, the result is higher costs for everything – from healthcare to housing. Now is the time for proactive, balanced legislative solutions in Lansing."

Chief Justice Megan Cavanagh declined to comment on the report.

According to the report, the ATRA says it will "closely monitor" the Court to determine whether the court will work to rein in lawsuit abuse or will continue "an activist path that expands liability and disregards longstanding, commonsense precedent."

Specifically, the report cites the Supreme Court's decisions broadening employer exposure to retaliatory discharge claims, citing the July opinion in Janetsky v. County of Saginaw and Rayford v. American House Roseville.

In Janetsky, the court held that the county is an "employer" under the state's Whistleblower Protection Act, allowing a former assistant prosecutor's lawsuit alleging wrongful termination to continue and in Rayford the court held that employment agreements that limit the time employees have to sue their employer must be examined for reasonableness.

Justice Brian Zahra's dissent in Janetsky warned that the majority had loosened the standard, and in his dissent in Rayford, Zahra called the majority's reasoning "overreaching activism."

The ATRA also took issue with the Supreme Court's "willingness to discard longstanding precedent" as it relates to premise liability.

The court has not, however, issued opinions in the cases the ATRA cites, Molitoris v. Saint Mary Magdalen Catholic Church and Radke v. Swenson, both of which were heard in October.

The Michigan Alliance for Legal Reform says these cases and decisions have and could expand liability, weaken longstanding legal standards and drive up costs across the economy – costs that ultimately land on families, employers and consumers.

Michigan's legal climate is already costly on multiple fronts, costing the average Michigan family over $3,000 annually in a trickle-down tort tax and costing our state nearly 100,000 job opportunities every single year, according to the Alliance.