I can recall reading awhile back that there was a particular county, I want to say it was in Kentucky, where lots of the huge settlements were rendered by local juries. In that county, the private citizen plaintiff prevailed in an inordinate percentage of the suits tried. As I recall the article, plaintiffs lawyers tried very hard to justify why their case could be tried in that county. Then they hired the local trial lawyers, who probably played golf with the judge every week, as "local counsel".

I could have the state wrong, but I'm pretty certain there is such a county somewhere in the southern U.S.