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January 5, 2015

January 5, 2015, 6:56 am
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Lake County Program Helps Navigate Courthouse
From the Associated Press
Navigating judicial red tape is no easy task.
Knowing what forms to file, where to file them, and who to ask for general information can be perplexing for many people wading through the legal system.
Judges aren't able to help with legal advice, lawyers are expensive, and missing one simple form or step can sometimes lead to major problems.
That intimidation and confusion is what led Lake County judicial leaders to implement the Illinois JusticeCorps program at the Waukegan courthouse.
Anna Aguilar, the full-time "fellow" for JusticeCorps, said the role of the program is to help people understand legal and procedural issues and navigate the miles of red tape.
"Most of the questions we receive are from people looking for their courtroom or trying to understand how to fill out and file forms," Aguilar said. "I think it's going really well. People seem very thankful that we are here."
Dressed in blue shirts bearing the JusticeCorps logo, the group's one full-time employee and four part-time student volunteers can be found at various times at one of the two main entrances, or in the William D. Block Memorial Law Library answering questions.
They are available to escort people to courtrooms and other court-related facilities, but also assist people who represent themselves in court to gain access to legal information and complete basic court forms.
"A courthouse is an intimidating place," Lake County Chief Judge John Phillips said. "Our hope is that these volunteers with their blue shirts and friendly faces help our citizens feel more comfortable moving around the court complex and better able to present their matters to the judge."
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January 6, 2015

January 6, 2015, 6:59 am
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How To Stop A Class-Action Scam
From the Wall Street Journal
If you own any stock, you know the frustration of getting a notice announcing settlement of a lawsuit, commenced by a lawyer on behalf of a class composed of all shareholders—you included. The notice informs you that, under this settlement, you get nothing. What that really means is you get zilch but you must pay a pro rata share of your corporation’s legal expenses and of the legal fees for the lawyer who commenced the lawsuit—often millions of dollars. I recently experienced this frustration firsthand, but as I’ll explain the outcome was surprisingly gratifying.
The game works like this. Certain lawyers have an inventory of shareholders, owning very small amounts of shares in corporations, who are on call to act as plaintiff in a lawsuit. As soon as a corporation announces an asset acquisition or sale, the lawyer finds one of his ready-plaintiffs and files a class action to stop the transaction. Such behavior is ubiquitous. As an analysis of merger litigation in the February 2014 Texas Law Review showed, the likelihood of a shareholder suit exceeds 90%.
The defendant corporation, seeking to close the transaction and avoid costly litigation, accepts a quick settlement. Both sides agree to wallpaper the settlement with meaningless “supplemental disclosures,” supposedly to demonstrate that the plaintiff lawyer contributed something of value, and thereby justify his claim to millions in legal fees. Also, the corporation is forced to agree not to oppose the fee application.
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January 7, 2015

January 7, 2015, 7:05 am
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Cold Truth: It's Not Winter That's Driving People Out Of Illinois
From the Chicago Tribune
Leave. Just leave. Join the Illinois exodus. No one cares that you're freezing and miserable. Shut up and shiver. If you can't stand the cold, get out of the arctic air mass.
You need to buy some mittens and mukluks, or you need to pack up and go. Either way, no one wants to hear about it.
Winters, we'll tolerate here. Whiners, we won't.
Truth is, we're sweating bigger problems in this state.
What's cooled the affection of the people and businesses here and elsewhere toward this area is the glacial speed with which leaders in Springfield and Chicago have moved to address financial problems and other urgent matters dragging everyone down.
Trying to turn up the heat on these people has been like trying to light a match on a windy day.
Not one but two national moving companies recently reported ushering enough households out of this state last year to make Illinois seem a draining bathtub.
Allied Van Lines said it moved more households out of Illinois last year than from any other state, followed by Pennsylvania, New York and Michigan. Illinois was No. 3 for United Van Lines, trailing New York and New Jersey.
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January 8, 2015

January 8, 2015, 7:09 am
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First Madison County Jury Verdict Of 2015 Results In Defense Win
From the Madison County Record
The first jury verdict of 2015 was returned on Tuesday in favor of defendant Lueders Ross Agency in Madison County Circuit Judge William Mudge’s courtroom.
The two day trial began on Monday and reached verdict by 10:35 the next morning.
The plaintiffs, Eureka Hampton and Rufis Jefferson, filed their two-count complaint in February 2012, alleging they purchased insurance coverage from Lueders but were denied their claim after an October 2009 fire destroyed their home and personal contents at 2416 Adams St. in Granite City.
The plaintiffs alleged that when they initially applied for the insurance policy, they answered several questions over the phone in order to secure a policy through Allied, the insurer represented by the agency.
However, the insurer denied their claim when Hampton and Jefferson applied for aid following the fire, saying they had not truthfully responded to all of the questions on their policy application, the complaint alleged.
The plaintiffs argued that Lueders failed to ask them all of the necessary questions to complete the application, specifically whether they had filed for bankruptcy or been convicted of any felony.
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January 9, 2015

January 9, 2015, 6:43 am
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New Laws Affecting Civil Justice System Prompt Reaction
From the Madison County Record
Two new laws enacted by lame duck Governor Pat Quinn have some legal observers concerned about their consequences.
Just before Christmas, Quinn signed into law a bill that eliminates the statute of repose for asbestos cases and one that shrinks civil juries from 12 to six jurors.
Not only do opponents object to the substance of the measures, but also the“11th hour” method in which they were rushed through the state legislature.
“Something of this magnitude should not be rushed through,” said Travis Akin, executive director of the Illinois Lawsuit Abuse Watch. “It needs to be debated and given its deserved weight.”
He added that the bills were introduced just before Thanksgiving and signed into law just before Christmas.
“That’s what you do when you have bad ideas that you can’t defend in the light of day,” Akin said.
The so-called “veto session surprise” was spearheaded by the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association and lifts a 10-year statute of repose on filing asbestos suits in Illinois.
Patrick Haines of the Napoli Bern Ripka Shkolnik law firm said the new asbestos-related law brings about necessary changes.
“I think the entire concept of a statute of repose as applied to a latent disease like mesothelioma is inherently unfair,” Haines said. “How is it just that a person can have the deadline to file their cause of action expire before they can even know they are sick and injured? Yet that’s exactly what the repose statute in Illinois does. So I applaud the legislature for fixing that injustice.”
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Is Today Beginning Of New ‘Tort Reform’ Movement In Illinois?

January 12, 2015, 8:32 am
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By Ed Murnane, Illinois Civil Justice League

For the first time since the days of Governor Jim Edgar, later today,

Illinois will have a chief executive who believes the state needs to reform laws dealing with civil litigation.

Bruce Rauner talked about the need for tort reform in Illinois numerous times during his campaign and he repeated that call during his Election Night speech and definition of his goals, and also as he announced the members of his transition team shortly after his election.

ICJL’s incoming president, John Pastuovic, has served on the Rauner Transition Team.

The Rauner Transition Team’s report to the Governor-elect, released last week, included several references to the need for tort reform, including one which includes, in the description of “immediate actions:”

• Publicize the importance of tort reform and the effect of the legal system on the job market

The report also points out that “tort reform in Illinois could improve the legal environment, saving businesses $2.4 billion and creating up to 147,000 new jobs.”

The Illinois Civil Justice League has a menu of more than a dozen civil justice reforms which  would be beneficial to Illinois, but we have focused on two which we think would have the greatest impact. The incoming Rauner Administration is embracing them.

First is a law establishing “venue” requirements.  It should require that lawsuits must be litigated within the county of the plaintiff, or the county of the defendant, or the county in which the alleged wrong-doing took place.

Illinois should not allow counties such as Madison and St. Clair become “judicial hellholes” because they invite litigation from throughout the nation, at the local or state taxpayers’ expense.

Second, and there are mixed opinions on the legality of this, is that a cap (or a limit)  be established on “non-economic damages,” also known as “pain and suffering.”  Tort reformers in Illinois — and elsewhere — agree that an injured plaintiff should be entitled to all financial benefits necessary to make the plaintiff “whole.”  That includes lost wages, medical expenses, therapy or retraining or other costs that are the result of the wrong-doing.

Non-economic damages, or “pain and suffering,” should be limited to a fixed dollar amount.  Many states have such a limit and Illinois could enact an adjustable limit to allow Illinois to remain as one of the most generous judicial systems in the country.

The Illinois Civil Justice League welcomes our new Governor and we are enthused by his incoming administration’s understanding and willingness to deal with challenging civil justice and judicial issues.

Bruce Rauner understands what needs to be done.  That’s good for Illinois.

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January 12, 2015

January 12, 2015, 8:40 am
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What Illinois Business Wants In Rauner's Inaugural Address
From Crain's Chicago Business
When Bruce Rauner gives his inaugural address on Jan. 12, business leaders across Illinois will be listening as closely as anybody.
Business has a lot invested in the governor-elect, a former private-equity executive who spent his entire career in corporate Chicago. His campaign drew widespread support from the business community, including some who lean left politically. Seeing him as one of their own, they expect he'll defend their interests. And they believe his business and financial skills are exactly what's needed to save Illinois from fiscal collapse.
Issues specific and general will be on their minds as he speaks. They're worried about state finances and ethics in government. They're also concerned about income tax rates, workers' compensation rules and a potential increase in the state minimum wage.
Sure, many would like Rauner to lighten the tax load and loosen nettlesome regulations that increase the cost of doing business in Illinois. But they're also concerned about such intangibles as the state's reputation and its future as an attractive place to invest.
So what do they want to hear in that address? The word that kept coming up in my conversations with business leaders is “confidence.”
“The most important thing is that he instills confidence in his leadership,” says Andrew McKenna, chairman of Oak Brook-based McDonald's.
Easier said than done. To win confidence, he'll have to pull off a balancing act of sorts. He needs to provide just enough specifics on his policy agenda to assure business leaders that he shares their priorities. And he needs to show the gumption to fight for his proposals. At the same time, he needs to acknowledge political realities in Springfield by signaling a willingness to work with those who have the power to block his agenda.
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January 13, 2015

January 13, 2015, 8:11 am
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Quinn Lays Political Traps For Rauner On Way Out The Door
From the Chicago Tribune
In an 11th-hour flurry Monday in Chicago, Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn signed a few final bills into law, appointed friends to ceremonial posts and laid a series of political traps for incoming Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner.
Quinn also maintained his pace of working through a large backlog of clemency petitions. But his swipes at Rauner with several executive orders on the rookie governor’s first day overshadowed the other actions — and showed just how sore Quinn remains from the bruising 2014 campaign.
Quinn, who waged a class warfare theme in his failed re-election bid, took direct aim at the refusal of the wealthy private equity executive to release his full set of income tax returns during their race. Quinn issued an executive order requiring governors to make available for public inspection individual income tax returns on or before May 1 each year.
He also issued an order to require state contractors pay at least $10 an hour — a nod to his failed quest to raise the statewide minimum wage.
As Rauner poured $27 million from his personal fortune into the bitter campaign, Quinn repeatedly pressed Rauner to let the public see everything he filed with the state and federal governments. Rauner’s answer throughout the campaign was that he provided more than is required by law, a true statement. But Rauner used that position to avoid what many top Illinois politicians have done by releasing their full tax returns for public scrutiny.
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January 14, 2015

January 14, 2015, 9:17 am
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Search Underway To Fill Cook County Associate Judge Openings
From the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin
The state courts’ administrative office has started accepting applications for associate judge vacancies for the Cook County Circuit Court.
The Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts issued the notice last week. Interested attorneys have until Feb. 4 to submit the application available at the Illinois Supreme Court’s website.
Unlike circuit judges who are elected by the voters, associate judges are voted to the bench by circuit judges within their respective judicial circuits.
Once the application deadline passes, the AOIC will provide a certified list of applicants to Chief Circuit Judge Timothy C. Evans.
Under Supreme Court Rule 39, a nominating committee comprising Evans and up to 10 of the court’s presiding judges will select twice as many names for a ballot as there are vacancies to be filled.
There are five current vacancies, and at least one more will arise in the coming weeks as Associate Judge Rosemary G. Higgins retires, Evans’ office said.
With its narrowed list of names, the AOIC will send secret ballots to the court’s circuit judges, who will then have two weeks to submit their votes to the AOIC.
In last year’s cycle, 277 applicants applied for 13 associate judge vacancies.
Circuit judges’ choices are not limited to the finalists’ names, however — circuit judges may also write in their own picks.
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January 15, 2015

January 15, 2015, 9:18 am
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U. S. Chamber Of Commerce Getting Down To Business For 2015
From the Legal Times
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is on a mission this year to change the Affordable Care Act, help companies share information about cyberthreats and fix problems it sees in the U.S. legal system, Chamber president Thomas Donohue said Wednesday.
Delivering his annual state of American business address at the group's Washington, D.C., headquarters, Donohue urged the Republican-controlled Congress and President Barack Obama to work together to "solve problems and get things done" for the business community.
The overall condition of American business is "improving," Donohue said. The federal government, however, can't sit on its laurels if it hopes to ensure economic growth beyond the near term, he said.
For the legal system, the Chamber will work to curb what it sees as the "excesses" of class action trial lawyers and enforcement officials, Donohue said. Government agencies are threatening companies with financial ruin and forcing them to pay large fines even if they may not have committed a crime, turning enforcement into a "shakedown," he noted.
While the courts pose problems for the business community, the Chamber also sees opportunities to use them to fight laws and regulations that hurt companies. Donohue said he expects his organization to have an "extremely busy" year in the courts.
"Legal action—to stop government abuse and defend the rights and freedoms of the business community—will be a critical tool in 2015," he said.
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January 16, 2015

January 16, 2015, 12:25 pm
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Quinn’s Last-minute Clemency Decisions Draw More Critics
From the Associated Press
Pat Quinn’s clemency decisions in his final moments as Illinois governor are drawing more criticism, with a prosecutor saying it was “mind-numbing” for Quinn to cut in half the prison term of a woman who killed her husband by dousing him with gasoline and setting him ablaze as he slept.
Tom Gibbons, the top prosecutor in southwestern Illinois’ Madison County, said Wednesday that Quinn’s decision to reduce Tammy Englerth’s 40-year sentence came without notice to or consultation with his office or the family of Christopher Englerth, who died in 2005 after the fire in the couple’s Highland duplex.
That complaint was echoed earlier this week by Gibbons’ Cook County counterpart after Quinn commuted the sentences of two inmates serving decades-long prison terms for separate Chicago-area killings and a man who wounded several Chicago police officers during a shoot-out.
Quinn offered no explanation Monday of why he made 42-year-old Tammy Englerth, who pleaded guilty to first-degree murder as part of a plea deal, eligible for parole in 2025 rather than in 2045.
An April clemency petition on Englerth’s behalf by Chicago attorney Rachel White-Domain insisted Christopher Englerth for years had “abused her in every way imaginable,” that she “lived in constant terror” and killed her husband to protect her three children. Christopher Englerth died in a hospital six days after being set on fire.
White-Domain, of the Illinois Clemency Project for Battered Women, described Tammy Englerth as intensely remorseful, a model prisoner and someone undeserving of “effectively a life sentence,” given that Englerth would have been 71 at her time of original release should Quinn not intervene.
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January 19, 2015

January 19, 2015, 6:46 am
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Supreme Court To Review Bans On Solicitations In Judge Races
From the New York Times
Almost five years to the day after the Citizens United decision reshaped American politics, the Supreme Court on Tuesday will turn its attention to judicial elections.
Such contests already sometimes resemble regular political campaigns, awash in money and negative advertising. And judges already routinely hear cases involving lawyers and litigants who have contributed to their campaigns.
But 30 of the 39 states with judicial elections have tried to draw the line by forbidding judicial candidates to personally ask for money, saying that such solicitations threaten the integrity of the judiciary and public confidence in the judicial system.
Tuesday’s case is a First Amendment challenge to the solicitation bans, which have been struck down by four federal appeals courts. But most of the American legal establishment supports them. The American Bar Association and a group representing the chief justices of every state have filed briefs urging the Supreme Court to uphold the bans.
Opinions seem more divided among incumbent judges on lower courts and candidates seeking to challenge them. They say direct requests are more efficient than ones made through campaign committees and are no more apt to lead to corruption.
Marcus Carey, who twice lost judicial elections in Kentucky, said there was no point to requiring that contribution requests be made through intermediaries.
“You create this farce,” he said. “I have to tell them who to call.”
At the same time, he said, everything else about judicial elections resembles an ordinary political campaign.
“There are fund-raising events,” said Mr. Carey, who successfully challenged Kentucky’s ban. “There are cocktail parties. There are shrimp and grits. And the candidate is there. It’s a game.”
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January 20, 2015

January 20, 2015, 6:48 am
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Government Health Care Website Quietly Sharing Personal Data
From the Chicago Tribune
The government's health insurance website is quietly sending consumers' personal data to private companies that specialize in advertising and analyzing Internet data for performance and marketing, The Associated Press has learned.
The scope of what is disclosed or how it might be used was not immediately clear, but it can include age, income, ZIP code, whether a person smokes, and if a person is pregnant. It can include a computer's Internet address, which can identify a person's name or address when combined with other information collected by sophisticated online marketing or advertising firms.
The Obama administration says HealthCare.gov's connections to data firms were intended to help improve the consumer experience. Officials said outside firms are barred from using the data to further their own business interests.
There is no evidence that personal information has been misused. But connections to dozens of third-party tech firms were documented by technology experts who analyzed HealthCare.gov and then confirmed by AP. A handful of the companies were also collecting highly specific information. That combination is raising concerns.
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January 21, 2015

January 21, 2015, 6:50 am
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Illinois' Budget Deficit Twice As Bad As You Think
From Crain's Chicago Business
Illinois' fiscal woes are significantly deeper and more serious than generally realized, with the state facing a $9 billion operating deficit in the fiscal year that begins July 1.
That's the horrific bottom line of a report released late Monday by researchers at the University of Illinois Institute of Government and Public Affairs, a study that may raise the eyebrows even of Gov. Bruce Rauner, who has been warning of huge financial problems ahead.
The conclusion: The actual deficit is about twice what is commonly reported, with the hole in the current fiscal 2015 budget not $2 billion to $3 billion but $6 billion, and rising to a projected $9 billion in fiscal 2016 and hitting $14 billion by fiscal 2026, assuming no changes in law or spending practices.
The report says the fiscal hole is so big that even fully reversing the income tax cut that took effect Jan. 1 would close "only about half" the gap projected for the next several years. Starting this year, the individual income tax rate went from 5 percent to 3.75 percent, and the corporate levy from 9.5 percent to 7.75 percent.
The hole is so big that even growing the state's economy an extra 0.5 percent a year for a decade would have "only a modest" impact, the report warns. And, significantly, so large that trying to eliminate the shortfall by cuts alone would result in a 20 percent reduction in spending on public education, Medicaid, public safety and more.
"Years of pay-later budgeting has resulted in a massive imbalance between sustainable revenue and spending," said Richard Dye, co-director of the institute's Fiscal Future Project, which produced the report. "Like a person in deep credit-card debt, the state has been spending more than it can afford, and is covering the gap by issuing IOUs."
Top Springfield players are not yet commenting on the report, which is gently titled "Apocalypse Now." But I expect an awful lot of chatter now that it's been formally issued.
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January 22, 2015

January 22, 2015, 5:57 am
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Supreme Court Session Disrupted By 'Citizens United' Protest
From the National Law Journal
Protesters disrupted Wednesday morning's U.S. Supreme Court session, rising one after another to shout criticism of the court's Citizens United campaign finance decision on the occasion of its fifth anniversary.
"I rise on behalf of democracy," one demonstrator shouted. "Money is not speech," said another.
Soon after the event, the group 99Rise took credit, urging its followers online to "stand with the Supreme Court 7." Last February Kai Newkirk, a leader of 99Rise, which opposes the domination of big money in politics, was arrested for a similar outburst. He was cited under a federal law that prohibits "harangues" inside the court building.
99Rise claims its members are currently in police custody following Wednesday's episode.
A Supreme Court spokeswoman said Wednesday afternoon that eight individuals were involved in the incident and were removed from the court. Seven people were charged under 40 U.S.C. 6134, which bars making "a harangue or oration" in the court building.
The seven arrestees, along with one other person, were also charged with conspiracy-related offenses under D.C. law. They were taken to the Capitol Police for processing and then transported to Metropolitan Police Department headquarters.
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January 23, 2015

January 23, 2015, 5:58 am
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Justice Department Explores Taking Action On Violent Illinois Youth Centers
From the Chicago Tribune
Illinois' troubled residential treatment centers for children and teens are drawing the attention of federal authorities after the Tribune documented hundreds of rape and assault allegations and found that state officials kept sending juvenile wards to the most violent facilities.
The Justice Department is exploring whether to intervene in Illinois to ensure the safety of youths at the centers and to improve services for disadvantaged children with mental health problems, according to three people familiar with the matter who described the ongoing discussions on condition that they not be identified.
In a separate action, Illinois' Republican U.S. senator, Mark Kirk, is drafting a letter to the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services requesting an immediate investigation into facilities with numerous cases of physical and sexual assault among patients, his office said. With 1,500 investigators, lawyers and auditors, the inspector general digs out fraud in federal health care programs nationwide.
Kirk also will ask Medicaid officials to consider suspending unsafe and poorly run facilities from the federal health care program, according to his office.
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January 26, 2015

January 26, 2015, 6:05 am
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Illinois Shoppers, Your Amazon Tax Holiday Is Over
From Crain's Chicago Business
Amazon.com will begin collecting state sales tax from Illinois shoppers starting Feb. 1, marking the end of a protracted battle that reached the Illinois Supreme Court.
Amazon and other e-commerce merchants are now required to collect and remit a 6.25 percent sales tax under a state "e-fairness" law that went into effect January 1. The law revises one that had been struck down by the state supreme court in 2013.
That original law had tried to subvert a decades-old federal ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that exempted many online transactions from state sales taxes. The nation's highest court decided in 1992 that a state can't collect sales tax from out-of-state e-tailers unless the seller maintains a physical presence in the state imposing the tax.
The original Illinois law went into effect in 2011, as the state sought to recoup the estimated $169 million it then lost in uncollected tax when Illinois consumers made online purchases.
That move prompted the departure of Illinois web marketers that channel orders to Amazon. Some moved to Indiana or Wisconsin, and others went out of business as e-retailers stopped doing business with them when the tax was enacted.
Courts struck down that 2011 ruling beginning in 2012.
But this May, the Illinois House sent a Senate-passed bill to then-Gov. Pat Quinn that would fix the overturned law.
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Rauner, Business Look For Workers’ Comp Changes

January 27, 2015, 6:10 am
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From the State Journal-Register

In a speech at the University of Chicago last week, Gov. Bruce Rauner provided what he said was a preview of his upcoming State of the State speech.

Rauner ticked off a list of issues the state must address, including runaway Medicaid costs, what he said are public employee salaries that are too high compared with the private sector, and workers’ compensation reform.

“This is about competitiveness,” Rauner said. “Workers’ compensation is a big issue, especially in manufacturing, construction, transportation. We are in the bottom 10 states. Why can’t we be at least average?”

A study issued last fall by the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services said Illinois ranked seventh in workers’ compensation premium costs. That’s despite a round of changes made in 2011 that the Illinois Department of Insurance said resulted in lower workers’ compensation premiums in the state.

“We don’t have to be the lowest,” Rauner said. “We don’t have to be the best on this issue, but we have to be competitive.”

However, the governor did not outline what he proposes to do to lower those costs.

Still, in a policy paper the Rauner campaign released last summer called the “Jobs and Growth Agenda,” Rauner laid out ideas he was were “common-sense reforms” that should be adopted “to reduce unnecessary cost pressures on job creators while at the same time preserving benefits for workers injured on the job.”

Among those ideas, Rauner said that employers should only be responsible for injuries that occur due to the worker’s employment, that they should not be responsible for injuries a worker suffers while commuting to a job, and that changes should be made to prevent an injured worker from “doctor shopping” to find a more sympathetic physician.

Read the entire article at the State Journal-Register.

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January 27, 2014

January 27, 2015, 6:12 am
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Juror Pay-increase Plan To Get New Look?
From the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin
Weeks after passing a measure to bump jurors’ pay, one lawmaker has introduced a bill to curtail that plan.
Last month, then-Gov. Patrick J. Quinn signed legislation decreasing the number of jurors in every civil trial from 12 to six and increasing their compensation to a minimum $25 on the first day of service and $50 every day thereafter.
The law is slated to take effect June 1.
But the sponsor of that bill has filed a new measure to instead let counties determine their own juror fees based on the previous law, which sets the daily minimum at $4, $5 or $10, depending on population.
Senate Bill 59, sponsored by Sen. John G. Mulroe, doesn’t include consideration for traveling expenses and, as current law does, places the funding burden on individual counties.
But Mulroe, a Chicago Democrat, said the bill is an early draft and he is open to suggestions on it — including asking litigants to pick up the cost of higher juror pay.
“I’m amenable to amending this at any stage before it gets out of the Senate, or when it’s in the House, just to have a more complete conversation about the issue,” he said.
Mulroe said he still wants counties to “do the right thing and find some way to treat our jurors better.”
“At the same time, I don’t want to have this undue burden placed on the county either, so I’m sort of in a little pickle here,” he said.
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January 28, 2014

January 28, 2015, 6:38 am
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Rauner Returns To Anti-union Rhetoric While Blasting State Business Climate
From the Chicago Tribune
Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner reintroduced his anti-union rhetoric Tuesday as he pointedly assigned blame for what he said was an unfriendly state business climate on an alliance among Democrats who get strong labor support in elections and reward workers with costly benefits.
Blasting government worker unions and their leadership was a staple of Rauner's primary campaign a year ago, but he largely put those comments on the back burner during the general election campaign last fall.
On Tuesday, the labor criticism resurfaced at a central Illinois community college in the backyard of a major Illinois labor leader and foreshadowed the grim analysis Rauner is expected to deliver in next week's State of the State address. Sparking union criticism, Rauner also reinforced his resolve to lower costs tied to workers' compensation, unemployment insurance and "lawsuit abuse" because it "frosts me" that businesses are fleeing to states with more competitive business climates.
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