Illinois Civil Justice League

From the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin

A last-minute attempt to cut the number of jurors from 12 to six in civil trials in the state’s circuit courts is one step closer to becoming law.

An initiative of the plaintiff-friendly Illinois Trial Lawyers Association that’s opposed by a prominent defense bar group, Senate Bill 3075 passed the House on Tuesday and today cleared the Senate Executive Committee.

It would halve the size of all civil juries while hiking juror pay to $25 for the first day of service and $50 a day thereafter.

Thursday is the scheduled end of the veto session — the last chance for legislative action this year. Next month, a new governor and lawmakers will be sworn in.

The measure will head to the full Senate chamber despite concerns about jury diversity and some forceful objections from Republicans who argued it wasn’t vetted and amounts to a “parting gift” for the influential trial lawyers group from outgoing Democratic Gov. Patrick J. Quinn, who lost last month’s election to Bruce Rauner.

Illinois currently utilizes 12-member juries in most civil cases. It uses six-person panels only when the claim for damages is $50,000 or less, unless one of the parties requests a 12-person jury.

State law also currently sets a pay scale for jurors based on county populations, with the smallest counties required to pay jurors at least $4 a day and the largest mandated to spend at least $10.

County boards can set higher rates. Cook County currently pays jurors $17.20 per day.

But that’s not nearly enough, said Joseph A. Power Jr. of Power, Rogers & Smith P.C., who testified for the trial lawyers group in favor of the bill.

“I just think it’s a terrible thing that we’re still paying $17.20,” he told the Senate Executive Committee today. “It’s a fairness issue.”

Read the entire story at the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin.

Bill That Gives Claimants More Time To File Asbestos Litigation Passes
From the Madison County Record
The so-called “veto session surprise” may soon be a reality.
Legislation spearheaded by the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association that lifts a 10-year statute of limitations on filing asbestos suits in Illinois has passed in the General Assembly.
Described by one opponent as a “last-minute and desperate attempt” to change rules before Republican Gov.-elect Bruce Rauner is sworn-in, Senate Bill 2221 will move to the desk of outgoing Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn’s for signature.
The measure passed quickly and along party lines during the legislature’s six-day fall veto session that ends Dec. 4.
On Nov. 25, amendments were tacked on to an unrelated bill which passed the Senate April 2013 and was kept alive in the House Rules Committee since May 2013.
Ed Murnane, president of the Illinois Civil Justice League, criticized the rush to pass the controversial measure.
“If their new bill has merit, let the General Assembly and the new Governor consider it next year,” Murnane stated early on Tuesday before the bill had gone to a full House vote.
The bill passed the House on Tuesday afternoon 70-43-2. The Senate concurred late in the day Wednesday.
Another critic, Travis Akin, executive director of Illinois Lawsuit Abuse Watch, said the bill will “open up a whole new way for personal injury lawyers to file asbestos lawsuits in Madison County.”
“Madison County already attracts about one quarter of the nation’s asbestos lawsuits. This will only attract more out-of-state lawsuits and make Illinois even more of magnet for out-of-state lawyers looking to hit the lawsuit lottery in Illinois,” he said. “This legislation will only lead to more lawsuits and what Illinois needs is jobs – not more ways to sue.”
Read more in our daily News Update...

Smaller Juries On The Verge
From the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin
Richard H. Donohue can’t quite put his finger on it.
After the state legislature rapidly approved a cut to the number of jurors in state civil cases this week, the defense lawyer and founding partner at Donohue, Brown, Mathewson & Smyth LLC was still trying to pinpoint why the plaintiff bar pushed it so vigorously.
“I would love to know what the plaintiffs’ lawyers have up their sleeve on this,” Donohue said today, referring to the bill that surfaced the day before Thanksgiving and couples a reduction in civil jurors from 12 to six with a pay increase for their service.
The plan’s success in both the Illinois House and Senate means the bill will go to — and likely be signed into law by — outgoing Gov. Patrick J. Quinn.
The Illinois Trial Lawyers Association supported the move, it said, largely due to the pay increase for jurors that was long overdue.
The current rate is $17.20 per day in Cook County. That’s the highest in the state. Senate Bill 3075 increases the rate to $25 for the first day of service and $50 per day after.
And that increase was the primary reason cited for the decrease in civil jury sizes by Joseph A. Power Jr. of Power, Rogers & Smith P.C. during his testimony to a Senate panel Wednesday on ITLA’s behalf.
“I just think it’s a terrible thing that we’re still paying $17.20,” he told the Senate Executive Committee. “It’s a fairness issue.”
Donohue isn’t buying it.
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Why Illinois Pension Reform May Be Constitutional
From Crain's Chicago Business
Forecasting court rulings is risky—just ask those who predicted so confidently that the U.S. Supreme Court would overturn Obamacare.
A similar sense of doom surrounds the law that the Illinois General Assembly enacted last year to shore up state employee pension plans. The law is headed for review by the Illinois Supreme Court after a trial judge late last month ruled it unconstitutional.
It may be the most important decision the justices will face in their careers. A pension funding shortfall estimated at more than $100 billion has metastasized into a fiscal crisis for the state. The law in question attempts to reduce the gap in a variety of ways, including reducing cost-of-living increases for retirees and raising the age at which state workers can retire with full pensions.
Trouble is, those measures appear to violate an Illinois constitutional provision declaring state pensions a contract right that can't be “diminished or impaired.” That was enough for Illinois Circuit Court Judge John Belz to dispatch the statute, writing, “Any attempt to diminish or impair pension rights is unconstitutional.”
Belz's action, along with a Supreme Court ruling last summer on state retiree medical benefits, has many writing off the pension reforms. There's no question the clean, simple logic of Belz's ruling may appeal to the justices. Also, Arizona's Supreme Court followed essentially the same reasoning in striking down similar pension changes under a constitutional provision like Illinois'.
But neither ruling is binding on the Illinois Supreme Court. And its decision in the medical benefits case didn't address the central argument Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan is likely to advance in support of the law.
Read more in our daily News Update...

From the Madison County Record

While the trial lawyer lobby is likely cheering over passage of a bill that lifts a 10-year statute of repose for the filing of asbestos litigation, critics say the group wielded its influence to rush an unstudied bill through a lame duck session before a tort reform-minded governor takes office next month.

“Even if there is merit to it, it’s not something that is to be rammed down the taxpayers’ throats in the final weeks” of an administration, said Ed Murnane, president of the Illinois Civil Justice League.

Amendments to SB 2221 passed along party lines just one week after they were introduced during the legislature’s six-day fall veto session that ended on Thursday. It now heads to the desk of outgoing Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn for signature.

Jennifer Hammer, associate vice president and legal counsel of government affairs for the Illinois Chamber of Commerce, spoke out against the bill during a hearing before the Illinois Senate Executive Committee on Wednesday.

She discussed the consequences the bill could have on Madison County, the nation’s busiest asbestos court, but was met with negative reaction.

“Senator Don Harmon (committee chair) indicated to me that he didn’t want to hear my testimony on Illinois being a ‘Judicial Hellhole’,” she said.

She said his reaction came despite the fact that she never once mentioned “Hellhole” as she testified.

Madison County has in recent years been labeled as a “Hellhole” by the American Tort Reform Association (ATRA) because of the trial bar’s influence and high dollar settlements.

“The term definitely did not come out of my mouth,” she said.

Read the entire article at the Madison County Record.

From the US Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform

The U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform (ILR) today unveiled a campaign to raise awareness of systemic lawsuit abuse in one of the nation’s most notorious jurisdictions, Madison County, Ill. The effort focuses on out-of-state litigants that are flooding the county court’s asbestos docket.

Due to Madison County’s loose standards for accepting non-residents’ cases, the county has become a national hotbed for asbestos litigation, reaching a record high of 1,660 filings in 2013. Only 20 of those filings—or about one percent of the total—were by plaintiffs who live in the county.

“While Madison County’s ‘field of dreams’ asbestos courthouse might seem positive to plaintiffs’ lawyers, it’s a nightmare for the county’s taxpayers and America’s businesses,” said Lisa A. Rickard, president of ILR. “Madison County courts should be used for Madison County residents, not to enrich out-of-state plaintiffs’ lawyers.”

Out-of-state participants in Madison County asbestos lawsuits are not limited to the plaintiffs, but include their lawyers as well. According to court records, the law firm with the most cases before the asbestos court was the New York-based law firm of Napoli, Bern, Ripka, Shkolnik, LLP with 546, more than one-third of the 2013 asbestos docket.

While Madison County has curbed some abusive practices, such as ending the pre-assignment of asbestos trials to plaintiffs’ law firms, out-of-state cases proliferate. In 2013, Madison County courts heard more asbestos lawsuits brought from Texas than from the entire state of Illinois, illustrating how plaintiffs’ lawyers continue to abuse the county’s lack of venue rule enforcement.

ILR’s public awareness campaign includes a television ad, billboards, direct mail, and online ads that will begin this week.

In December 2013, ILR released a pair of reports spotlighting how abusive litigation in Cook and Madison counties is hurting Illinois’ lawsuit climate. Litigating in the Field of Dreams examined Madison County’s continuing deterioration as a hotbed for asbestos lawsuits, and A Docket on the Brink detailed how Cook County is following a similar path.

In ILR’s most recent Harris survey of state lawsuit climates, Illinois ranked among the worst in the country at 46. The survey respondents named Madison County as the sixth most unfair county nationwide.

For more information on the campaign, and to view the television ad, visit http://www.cleanupmadcocourts.org.

ILR seeks to promote civil justice reform through legislative, political, judicial, and educational activities at the national, state, and local levels.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the world’s largest business federation representing the interests of more than 3 million businesses of all sizes, sectors, and regions, as well as state and local chambers and industry associations.

ICJL Applauds ILR For Madison County Asbestos Campaign
From the Illinois Civil Justice League
The Illinois Civil Justice League has applauded the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform in their effort to raise awareness about the costs of lawsuit abuse in Madison County.
ILR’s new public awareness campaign called “Clean Up Madison County Courts” focuses on out-of-state litigants who are flooding the county court’s asbestos docket.
“It is a fact that 99 percent of asbestos cases filed in Madison County were filed by plaintiffs who don’t even live there,” according to Ed Murnane, President of the Illinois Civil Justice League.
“Equally disturbing, last year 25 percent of all asbestos cases nationwide were filed in Madison County. That’s a record-breaking total of 1,678 new filings,” he said.
To further illustrate the point, records show that in 2013, Madison County courts heard more asbestos lawsuits brought from Texas than from the entire state of Illinois.
“While Madison County’s court system may be an open faucet flowing with cash for plaintiffs’’ lawyers, the county’s taxpayers and American businesses are drowning because of the runaway costs of this systematic lawsuit abuse,” Murnane added.
“We are hopeful that ILR’s campaign, which includes a television commercial, billboards, direct mail, and online advertisements, will bring a new awareness to the ongoing crisis in Madison County and be a positive step to reforming Madison County’s legal system,” he said.
"We appreciate the support and steadfast effort ILR has provided those of us in Illinois who are working to improve a court system that at times is very much out-of-balance," Murnane said.
Read more in our daily News Update...

Judy Baar Topinka Dies After Suffering Stroke
From the Associated Press
Illinois Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka died early Wednesday, less than 24 hours after having a stroke, according to her office. She was 70.
Spokesman Brad Hahn told The Associated Press that Topinka reported discomfort Tuesday morning and was admitted to a hospital in Berwyn. After undergoing tests she appeared to be doing well overnight before suddenly losing consciousness Wednesday morning, Hahn said. She was pronounced dead shortly after 2 a.m.
Topinka, a Republican, won a second term last month in a tough race with Democratic challenger Sheila Simon, the former lieutenant governor.
"This was not going to be an easy race, and that's the way it turned out," Topinka said after the election results came in. "We were watching right to the end. I'm just happy because I have four more years to get things done."
That would have been her fifth term in statewide office, including three terms as treasurer. And she was well-known for her 2006 unsuccessful bid for governor against the already embattled Democrat Rod Blagojevich.
Topinka had been called a somewhat reluctant candidate who made the bid if only to try to oust Blagojevich for the sake of the state.
"I feel it's being hurt and abused," she said. "If I don't stop it, I'd be complicit in watching it go down the tubes, and I don't want to do that. So I'm running."
Read more in our daily News Update...

Supreme Court Sets Briefing Schedule In Pension Case; Oral Argument In March
From the Cook County Record
The Illinois Supreme Court will hear arguments in March over the closely-watched challenge to the state’s pension reform law.
In an order issued Wednesday, the court granted the state’s request to fast-track the consolidated case over an objection from opponents of the 2013 law that aimed to fix the state’s pension problems, but was deemed unconstitutional by a judge last month.
The justices gave the plaintiffs – state retirees, labor unions and others – a Jan. 12 deadline to submit their brief and supporting record. The state defendants, represented by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office, have until Feb. 16 to turn in their brief with the plaintiffs’ reply brief due by Feb. 27.
Oral arguments will be scheduled for the court’s March 2015 term, according to the two-paragraph order.
The court’s accelerated briefing schedule comes less than a month after Sangamon County Circuit Judge John Belz struck down the pension reform legislation that was put on hold pending a court resolution.
In his six-page order handed down Nov. 21, Belz said the law “without question diminishes and impairs the benefits of membership in the state retirement systems” in violation of the Illinois Constitution.
Madigan’s office on Nov. 26 filed a direct appeal to the high court and on Dec. 4, asked the justices to expedite the matter in light of the May 2015 deadline to pass a state budget, saying the final ruling in this case will have a significant impact on Illinois’ financial condition.
The plaintiffs on Tuesday objected, asserting that the state rested “on a false sense of urgency” in seeking an accelerated docket and that bypassing the normal appeals process would impose an unfair briefing schedule on them.
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Asbestos Filings In Madison County Down From Last Year
From the Madison County Record
Madison County’s asbestos docket has long been known as a national court open to claimants from across the country.
In a review of year to date filings, the docket has taken on a slight international composition with claims from Australia, Nova Scotia and Puerto Rico.
As of Dec. 9, the number of new cases filed in 2014 stood at 1,183. If the pace of filings stays consistent through the rest of the year, the docket will see approximately 20 percent fewer cases than it did last year when a record-setting 1,678 cases were filed.
Last year’s growth was mainly explained by a large number of lung cancer cases brought by Napoli Bern Ripka and Shkolnik – a New York-based firm that opened an office in Glen Carbon in 2012.
While Napoli filed approximately 10 percent more cases than the Simmons firm of Alton in 2013, this year Simmons is clearly the leading asbestos filer in Madison County.
Read more in our daily News Update...

Justice For All? Illinois' Poor, Disadvantaged Struggle To Find Legal Help
From the Southern Illinoisan
Michael A. Fiello manages a Carbondale legal aid office of eight attorneys, including him, for 23 Southern Illinois counties.
They handle about 1,600 cases a year on behalf of the poor – mostly for free – but do get help from other pro bono attorneys who work outside Fiello's not-for-profit Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance Foundation Inc.
Some outside attorneys do get compensated through a Foundation program, but at a reduced rate, and many others take on their own pro bono cases.
For most people, Foundation services are free, eligible if their household income is at or below 125 percent of federal poverty level guidelines, Fiello said. Cases are limited to specific types, dictated by federal funding, so cases such as personal injury lawsuits are not covered.
Custody, public benefits, bankruptcy, consumer and housing are some areas Foundation lawyers do handle.
Yet, even with those resources, many more people are not getting the help they need to address their grievances. Recent research on legal aid in Illinois shows fewer than 20 percent of those who need help are getting it because of inadequate funding and limited time, Fiello said. Many times his office has to say “no” to cases.
“It would be fair to say that even if you take into account all of those things, the demand far outstrips what we have to offer,” said Fiello, a 30-year Foundation veteran. “It’s not just Illinois. I think it would be fair to say that in every state and territory in the United States, legal services programs are stretched thin.”
However, when it comes to access to the court system for the poor, the disabled and other disadvantaged people, Illinois does not fare well compared to other states, according to a national ranking released this year.
The state placed 49th in the country in the Justice Index, compiled by the National Center for Access to Justice at the Cardozo Law School in New York City. Trailing the state were Kentucky then Oklahoma. Washington, D.C., received the top score while Connecticut placed second.
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From the Madison County Record

Recent developments in New York City’s asbestos docket have caused it to be declared the No. 1 Judicial Hellhole by a national legal reform group.

On Tuesday, the American Tort Reform Association (ATRA) released its annual report of the jurisdictions it feels apply laws in an unfair and unbalanced manner. In 2013, New York City placed third, but this year the New York City Asbestos Litigation (NYCAL) claimed the top spot.

Madison County ranked No. 5 on the list.

“No Judicial Hellholes report would be complete without the latest dispiriting news from rural Madison County, Illinois, still home to more asbestos litigation than any other jurisdiction in the country,” stated ATRA President Sherman “Tiger” Joyce.

“The overwhelming majority of asbestos claims filed there come from plaintiffs that have no connection to the county, much less the state of Illinois. And most new claims are speculative lung cancer claims.”

Read the entire report from the American Tort Reform Association.

From Lisa Rickard, President of the US Chamber Institute for Legal Reform
If awards were given to courts that made the biggest impact in mega litigation, Madison County would surely be in the hall of fame.
For more than a decade, the little county in the metro-east has been the nation’s home field for lawsuits. And though Madison County is a veteran of the litigation big leagues, it is showing no signs of slowing down. This despite attention that helped spawn a major federal law written in large measure to counter the county court’s questionable practices.
That is why on Tuesday, the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform launched a public awareness campaign to bring fresh attention to the continuing problems of Madison County lawsuits.
Madison County burst on the scene as a national class action venue around the turn of the century. From 1996 to 2003, its class action docket exploded 5,000 percent, according to analysis of court filings, fueled by cases with plaintiffs and defendants almost exclusively from outside its borders.
This happened because the county was stocked with plaintiffs’-lawyer-friendly judges who refused to dismiss cases as the law demands, despite no local connection by either party. Keeping out-of-state cases in the plaintiffs’ lawyer home field forced lots of big settlements. And big settlements attract more lawsuits.
In 2005, Congress passed and President George W. Bush signed the Class Action Fairness Act to stop plaintiffs’ lawyers from bringing out-of-state cases to lawsuit-friendly state courts — a practice known as venue shopping — by removing them to federal courts.
The law worked. Out-of-state class actions in Madison County and other plaintiffs’-lawyer-friendly jurisdictions plummeted, and for a time, there was hope that the courthouse in Edwardsville would become a fairer jurisdiction, reserved for its own citizens rather than people from Minnesota or Florida.
But it wasn’t to be. At the same time that the new federal law was removing misplaced, class actions in Madison County courts, asbestos case filings — which were also high but saw a brief decline in the mid-2000s — rose again precipitously. Madison County shifted from a class action mecca to an asbestos super docket, with the same old out-of-state cases tactic.
According to public case filings, in 2013, a record 1,660 asbestos cases were brought in Madison County. Only 20 of those involved people who actually live there. The other 99 percent were plaintiffs from places like Texas, California or just about anywhere other than Madison County.
Read the entire commentary.

Karmeier Calls Retention Challenge ‘Smear Campaign Of The Worst Sort’ In Presenting IJA Award To Wexstten
From the Madison County Record
In presenting an award to a recently-retired judge on Friday, Illinois Supreme Court Justice Lloyd Karmeier briefly talked about the “last minute ambush” on his November retention election.
Karmeier narrowly survived a $2 million campaign against his bid for a second term behind the high court bench that he said came from “a handful of lawyers from Chicago and from some other states who stood to profit financially by reshaping the makeup of the court.”
The challenge marked the second time in “three retention cycles members of our Supreme Court have faced well financed and well-orchestrated opposition to retention,” First District Appellate Court Justice and Illinois Judges Association President Michael B. Hyman said before introducing Karmeier.
The IJA hosted a luncheon Friday in Chicago that included a keynote speech from U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. The event, which fell during the IJA and Illinois State Bar Association’s midyear meeting, also included the presentation of IJA awards to retired judges James Wexstten and Sheila Murphy.
Talking about the challenge to his retention, Karmeier said “it was a smear campaign of the worst sort and a direct challenge to the integrity and independence of the courts. And it was something that Jim Wexstten simply could not abide.”
Despite coming from different political parties, Karmeier said Wexstten, a Democrat who retired from the downstate appellate court in January, “did not hesitate to speak out publicly against what was happening. While others fled for cover, Jim stood firm in the defense of truth.”
“It was truly heroic and it helped carry the day for me,” the recently-retained justice said, before presenting Wexstten with IJA’s “Distinguished Service Award.”
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Courtroom Cameras Headed For Biggest Statewide Test In DuPage
From the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin
After nearly three years set to pause, the Illinois Supreme Court has pressed play on Cook County’s request to allow cameras into criminal courtrooms.
Starting next month, courtrooms at the Leighton Criminal Building will allow media to record video and audio of felony cases.
Illinois Supreme Court Chief Justice Rita B. Garman and Cook County Circuit Chief Judge Timothy C. Evans announced approval of the pilot program in statements today.
Beginning Jan. 5, media representatives may request to record and photograph hearings and trials in felony courtrooms at 2600 S. California Ave. The first phase of the program will not include bond calls.
Cook County Circuit Court will be the 15th circuit in the state to receive the high court’s approval for extended media coverage. Launched during Justice Thomas L. Kilbride’s term as chief justice, pilots first began in downstate circuits in January 2012.
Cook County joins 40 other counties that permit camera access. Come January, more than 77 percent of the state’s population will live in a county where courtroom cameras are allowed.
Evans submitted an application to allow cameras in Cook County courtrooms in January 2012, but the high court opted to test the new media policies in smaller judicial circuits before allowing the pilot to begin in Cook County.
“The experience with media coverage in other judicial circuits has been overwhelmingly positive, and it is time to extend the pilot program to the most populous county in the state,” Garman said in a written statement.
In October, Evans supplemented the county’s application with a set of proposed local rules that built upon the statewide requirements.
Evans said the pilot program will allow the public to see its own court system “providing justice in action.”
“The public pays for this court — it is their court,” he said. “I think a lot of misunderstandings can be clarified with this kind of direct exposure.”
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How Bad Is Illegal And Legal Corruption In Illinois?
From Reboot Illinois
Corruption in Illinois has been well-documented for decades, perhaps more so in the media than any other state. But how exactly can something intangible like corruption be measured?
The majority of corruption cases in the U.S. originate within state and local government, but adequately measuring corruption is a tricky task, which is evident in a recent study conducted by the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University.
The most commonly used measure of state and local corruption derives from the U.S. Department of Justice’s “Report to Congress on the Activities and Operations of the Public Integrity Section.” However, the Center for Ethics notes the report’s data is flawed for numerous reasons, particularly because it only takes into account federal conviction rates and not corruption cases prosecuted at the state and local levels. Additionally, measuring corruption based on conviction rates leads to highly variable results for states with smaller populations.
Using an alternative approach, the Center for Ethics surveyed hundreds of journalists who cover state politics to create a perception-based index that measures two forms of corruption: illegal and legal:
As defined by the study’s authors:
Illegal corruption - private gains in the form of cash or gifts by a government official, in exchange for providing specific benefits to private individuals or groups.
Legal corruption - political gains in the form of campaign contributions or endorsements by a government official, in exchange for providing specific benefits to private individuals or groups, be it by explicit or implicit understanding (e.g., super PAC donations by unions, corporations and individuals).
Reporters in each state were asked how common illegal and legal corruption were in the executive, legislative and judicial branches of their respective governments in 2013.
Respondents from Illinois perceived illegal corruption to be moderately common in the executive branch, very common in the legislative branch and slightly common in the judicial branch.
As is the case for all 50 states, and agreed upon by both liberals and conservatives, legal corruption is perceived to be more common than illegal corruption among all three branches of government. In Illinois, legal corruption in the executive branch is seen as very common; extremely common within the legislative branch; and moderately common in the judicial branch.
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ER Malpractice Case Totals 3 Settlements, $10.9 Million
From the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin
A suburban hospital has agreed to a $7.5 million settlement with the family of a boy who at age 2 suffered permanent brain damage while awaiting treatment for bacterial meningitis.
The settlement brings the family’s total to $10.9 million following two earlier settlements with other defendants.
In December 2008, Wendy Warmowski called her 2-year-old son’s pediatrician, then took her son to the emergency room at Sherman Hospital in Elgin.
At the hospital, triage staff quickly noticed symptoms of meningitis, said Warmowski’s attorney, William A. Cirignani of Cirignani, Heller & Harman LLP.
“What they didn’t do is treat it,” Cirignani said.
He described the next few hours as a “cascade of errors” before doctors provided the boy with antibiotics to treat his condition.
In her complaint first filed in 2010, Warmowski alleged the ER nurse did not act quickly to get a doctor.
Cirignani said it was almost two hours before the doctor came to treat the boy, while two doctors in the ER at the time were seeing patients with lower acuity levels.
Read more in our daily News Update...

Unfair Labor Practice Finding In St. Clair County Results In $300,000 Settlement With Sheriff’s Deputies
From the Belleville News-Democrat
A state labor board’s finding that St. Clair County and the St. Clair County Sheriff’s Department had engaged in an unfair labor practice has led the county to set up a $300,000 settlement fund that will be paid out to the union that represents county sheriff’s road deputies.
The St. Clair County Board on Monday night is scheduled to vote on the creation of the settlement fund, as well as a new three-year labor contract with Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 148, which represents the road deputies. The contract is set to run from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2017.
The Illinois Labor Relations Board had determined in March 2011 that the county had engaged in an unfair labor practice after a complaint was filed by the union concerning the county’s establishment of a division to provide security at MetroLink light rail stations in Illinois without going through the bargaining process, according to the settlement agreement.
St. Clair County continues to dispute that it had engaged in an unfair labor practice. Nonetheless, the county has agreed to create the $300,000 settlement fund by invoicing the Bi-State Development Agency pursuant to the police services agreement between the county and Bi-State, which oversees bus and light rail service in both Missouri and Illinois.
Once the fund is created, the county must notify the union, which will provide instructions to the county as to how amounts from the settlement fund are to be distributed to individual bargaining unit members, according to the settlement agreement.
If the funds are not paid by March 15, then the union may reinstate compliance procedures under the union’s original charge with the labor relations board.
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The Quinn Stocking-Stuffers
From the Wall Street Journal
Illinois voters booted Governor Pat Quinn in November, but America’s worst Governor isn’t leaving without handing one more windfall to his pals in the plaintiffs bar. Last week he signed a pair of bills passed by the Democratic lame-duck legislature to end the statute of limitations on asbestos lawsuits and cut the number of jurors on civil cases in half.
Previous law required that suits be filed within 10 years of exposure to asbestos. The new law puts no limits on when suits can be filed and does so retroactively. Many asbestos lawsuit are filed against multiple defendants, so look for the hyena pack that is the asbestos bar to target new business targets.
The existing 10-year “statute of repose” hasn’t created a shortage of lawsuits. Madison County in the state is notorious for its jackpot verdicts in civil trials, making it a nationwide destination for civil cases. In 2013 the state saw 1,660 asbestos cases, about 25% of all new asbestos claims in the country.
According to the Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform, 99% of the cases currently filed in Madison County had plaintiffs from outside the county and 90% weren’t from Illinois. The vast majority settle, with lawyers getting contingency-fee payments, which means that asbestos suits are the closest thing to a guaranteed income in America’s private economy.
Mr. Quinn’s second parting gift reduced the number of jurors for civil trials to six from 12. The Governor at least has a sense of humor because he tried to justify the measure as a pay raise for jurors, who would get $25 for serving the first day and $50 each day after that. The real pay raise will go to the lawyers, who know that smaller juries tend to issue decisions more quickly and are less likely to deadlock.
The bills are payback to the trial lawyers who finance the state’s Democratic machine. In 2013 the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association PAC made some $422,000 in contributions, overwhelmingly to Democrats. Individual trial lawyers give far more through bundling multiple donations to candidates.
The biggest loser is the Illinois economy, which is already the poorest performing in the Great Lakes region. Making the state a trial-lawyer mecca is another reason—along with its high corporate tax rate and public-union dominance—to locate a business somewhere else. New Governor Bruce Rauner has the hardest political cleanup job in America, and maybe the world.
Read more in our daily News Update...

From the Bloomington Pantagraph

Illinoisans will get more time to file lawsuits over asbestos-related ailments under a change in state law signed Friday by Gov. Pat Quinn.

The measure, approved by lawmakers during the fall veto session, removes a 10-year time limit for filing legal action related to the often fatal exposure to the cancer-causing substance.

Supporters said limiting the time to file was unfair to victims because diseases linked to asbestos like mesothelioma can sometimes take 20 years to develop.

“The deadly diseases caused by asbestos exposure know no statute of limitations, so it’s fitting that our law is finally catching up to medical realities,” said state Sen. Kwame Raoul, D-Chicago, the measure’s Senate sponsor. “We are giving sufferers and their families no more and no less than what they deserve: their day in court.”

Asbestos was used as a fireproofing material until the 1970s when it was linked to cancer.

Republicans who opposed the measure said the proposal could hurt economic growth if companies stay out of Illinois because of liability concerns.

Read the entire article at the Bloomington Pantagraph.

Six Jurors In The Box? ITLA-backed Bill Passes House; Juror Pay Also Hiked

December 4, 2014

December 5, 2014

December 8, 2014

‘Rammed Through’ Asbestos Bill Could Face Constitutional Challenge

ILR Launches Campaign To Shine Spotlight On Lawsuit Abuse In Madison County, IL

December 9, 2014

December 10, 2014

December 11, 2014

December 12, 2014

December 15, 2014

Madison County Named 5th Worst ‘Judicial Hellhole’ For 2014

Madison County: Still America’s Lawsuit Field Of Dreams

December 16, 2014

December 17, 2014

December 18, 2014

December 19, 2014

December 22, 2014

December 23, 2014

Quinn Signs Asbestos Lawsuit Changes Into Law