A new report says North Carolina is a "sucker" because its legal climate is ripe for greedy lawyers seeking a payday.

The report released Tuesday by the Pacific Research Institute in San Francisco ranked each state's tort-system using three measures, reports Titan Barksdale.

Researchers at the institute say that although North Carolina doesn't have a lot of litigation compared to other states, it is lax on rules to control tort actions. So the report characterized North Carolina as a sucker.

But Thomas B. Metzloff, a civil-law professor at Duke University, warned that the report has a pro-business leaning.

"These [measures] are loaded with an anti-citizen and anti-plaintiff spin," Metzloff said. "If you get a group of lawyers, judges and law professors in a room, they would have field day criticizing these variables."

The study ranked North Carolina third in one measure because of low damage awards, and low litigation risks in the state. Alaska and North Dakota are ranked ahead of North Carolina. North Carolina, however, ranked 25th in another measure that looked at tort reform.

"I think this is an absurd way to rank this," Metzloff said. "Medical malpractice controls were big in the report, and I think the state has done a good job at improving how medical malpractice cases are settled. It has avoided some of the Draconian measures that could hurt the interest of injured patients."