A 2006 Louisiana law allows conventional tort litigation by landlords who leased to oil companies to supplant state regulatory efforts at remediation and cleanup. Oil companies express concern that they're now drawn into expensive litigation that delays the cleanup process for several years, but one suspects that they're even more concerned that entrepreneurial trial lawyers have figured out that impoverished remote-county juries and judges plus deep-pocketed defendants presents desirable rent-seeking. One verdict awarded $54 million for environmental damage to a piece of land that was never worth more than $108,000. Business is asking the legislature for relief, and there has since been a feeding frenzy of suits over decades-old leases; meanwhile, Louisiana's attempt to sue itself into prosperity has hurt job growth. [Times-Picayune; Landry (Louisiana Lawsuit Abuse Watch) @ Houma Daily Comet]