Trial consultant R. Robert Samples asks why some states and portions of states become notorious for their hostility to out-of-state business defendants; he's inclined to ascribe more importance to slants in the judiciary and political systems than to the demographics of local jury pools. He also cites as an important factor "absentee business ownership". That makes intuitive sense at some level, and yet does not fit all the instances: Los Angeles County, Calif. and Cook County, Ill. regularly make it onto hellhole lists even though both host many corporate headquarters as well as a large base of locally owned small businesses.