The U.S. Chamber’s Institute for Legal Reform released its 2007 state-by-state ranking of state legal systems. The rankings were based on telephone interviews by Harris Interactive of in-house corporate counsel for companies with over $100 million in annual revenues. The survey was conducted in January and February of 2007 and gauged the corporate counsels’ views of the state’s legal system based on a number of factors. There were 77 attorneys interviewed from Maryland companies.

Maryland’s overall ranking in this year’s survey fell by 9 places – from 20 to 29. The drop was attributed to significant declines in its ranking on four key elements: handling of the discovery process, perception of the competence of judges and judges’ impartiality, and having and enforcing meaningful venue requirements.

• To view Maryland’s results click here.
• To view the full report click here.