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September 22, 2015

September 22, 2015, 8:53 am
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Lawsuits Pile Up Nationwide In Case Of Genetically Modified Corn
From the Springfield State Journal-Register
A legal fight over genetically modified corn that already has generated lawsuits in more than 20 states came to central Illinois on Monday.
A Washington, D.C., law firm invited area farmers at "town hall" meetings in Sherman and Chatham to join a lawsuit against global chemical company Syngenta over corn harvested in 2013 and 2014 that was later rejected by China. Chinese rejection of the U.S. corn caused the price to plummet, according to the lawsuit, costing farmers billions in lost income.
Thousands of farmers have joined dozens of lawsuits nationwide.
"The corn got mingled with regular corn," explained Mount Sterling attorney Edward Tucker, who is working with the Washington, D.C., firm of Mauro, Archer & Associates.
"The Chinese destroyed some of it, and sold some of it to Third World countries, and the price of corn dropped," Tucker said during a meeting with a handful of farmers in Sherman.
Meetings also were scheduled for Tuesday in Ashland and the Cass County community of Virginia. Tucker said his firm alone has signed up farmers representing more than 133,000 acres of corn.
Multiple lawsuits claim Syngenta marketed Agrisure Viptera and Agrisure Duracade genetically modified corn seed to U.S. farmers knowing the corn would be rejected by China. The genetically modified seeds are resistant to a variety of pests that damage corn. But the lawsuits claim U.S. corn dropped from $7.60 per bushel to as low as $3.30 per bushel as a result of the Chinese decision.
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September 23, 2015

September 23, 2015, 8:56 am
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Plaintiff, Defense Attorneys And Judge Stobbs Discuss Navigating Madison County Asbestos Docket
From the Madison County Record
Madison County Associate Judge Stephen Stobbs was joined by attorneys from both side of the fence to shed light on how to navigate a case in the nation’s busiest asbestos docket.
Plaintiff attorney Allyson Romani of Shrader & Associates in Glen Carbon and defense attorney Gary Pinter of Heyl Royster Voelker & Allen, along with Stobbs, talked about the process of filing suit and going to trial in Madison County at the HarrisMartin Midwest Asbestos Conference, held Sept. 18 in St. Louis.
Even though Madison County is where most new asbestos cases get filed each year, not many cases go to trial. In fact, roughly one case per year has gone to trial in the past decade.
“I think that’s a testament to how well the docket works,” Romani said of the low trial rate.
Since 2005, there have been nine asbestos trials, eight of which were defense verdicts. The one plaintiff verdict was for $500,000 and was later reduced to almost nothing due to the plaintiff's prior settlements.
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September 24, 2015

September 24, 2015, 8:58 am
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Waiting In Wings For The Supreme Court: Cases To Watch
From Law.com
Significant challenges that involve abortion, solitary confinement, insider trading and other contentious questions await the justices’ decisions on whether to add them to the new term of the U.S. Supreme Court.
A year ago, conventional wisdom seemed to indicate that the justices would grant review at least to one of seven petitions on same-sex marriage pending on that year’s so-called long conference on the summer influx of cases. But the high court denied review in all seven shortly after the conference.
The denials, however, only meant that those cases were not the right cases at the right time. Nearly four months after the conference, the justices, in the wake of a circuit split, agreed to review same-sex marriage cases from four states.
Conventional wisdom this fall holds that the justices will add an abortion-clinic case to their decision docket and once again take up controversy surrounding the federal Affordable Care Act—this time religious nonprofits’ objections to contraceptive health coverage. The only question is when, court watchers and others said.
“This is a court that doesn’t shy away from tackling big stuff,” said constitutional law scholar Michael Gerhardt of the University of North Carolina School of Law. “Anything that seems to be controversial these days, the court seems ready to take, as long as the plaintiff has standing.”
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September 25, 2015

September 25, 2015, 9:00 am
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Tribune Sues Emanuel Over Use Of Private Email
From the Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune filed a lawsuit Thursday alleging that Mayor Rahm Emanuel violated state open records laws by refusing to release communications about city business conducted through private emails and text messages.
The lawsuit, filed in Cook County Circuit Court, asks a judge to order the mayor to comply with a state Freedom of Information Act request from the Tribune and produce the documents. The lawsuit also seeks to have Emanuel declared in violation of the Illinois Local Records Act for failing to preserve emails and texts he sent or received while doing city business.
The lawsuit claims that, in recent years, Freedom of Information Act requests from the Tribune to the mayor's office "have been met with a pattern of non-compliance, partial compliance, delay and obfuscation." Emanuel's use of private phones and personal email, the lawsuit alleges, allows the mayor to do the public's business without scrutiny and contributes to a "lack of transparency."
The lawsuit is the second the news organization has filed against the Emanuel administration in recent months. In June, the Tribune sued the mayor's office over its refusal to produce some email chains related to a multimillion-dollar no-bid Chicago Public Schools contract now at the center of a federal criminal investigation.
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September 28, 2015

September 28, 2015, 9:01 am
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Lights Out At Capitol? Impasse Starts To Sting
From the Bloomington Pantagraph
With Illinois poised to enter its fourth month without a budget, the drum beat of a more pervasive government shutdown is getting louder.
Gov. Bruce Rauner's administration warned last week that vendors are starting to balk at delivering food to state-run nursing homes for veterans.
And, Secretary of State Jesse White says he's worried the lights might be turned out in the Capitol and other state offices if he can't convince utility companies to hold on much longer without being paid.
"We are concerned the local utility companies will discontinue providing electricity, gas and coal," White said in a letter to the Republican governor. "In addition, the entity that performs daily garbage pickup and removal has threatened to discontinue this service."
The prospect of mounds of garbage surrounding one of the state's most historic buildings comes as much of state government continues to operate via court orders and agreements between Rauner and the Democrats who control the Legislature.
Schools have been promised state funding this year and a judge has ordered that state workers and some welfare-related services be paid, creating the facade that even one of the most dysfunctional state governments in the nation can continue to operate without an official spending blueprint.
The lack of a budget, however, means the entities that keep the wheels of government rolling are not being paid.
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September 29, 2015

September 29, 2015, 9:08 am
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Lawyers For Dennis Hastert In Plea Negotiations With Prosecutors
From the Chicago Tribune
Former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert is negotiating a possible guilty plea to charges he agreed to make $3.5 million in hush-money payments to cover up wrongdoing from decades ago.
The plea negotiations, revealed Monday during a hearing in federal court, are the first indication that the bombshell charges brought against the Republican powerhouse might never be fully aired at trial.
Legal experts who spoke to the Tribune said it wouldn't be surprising if Hastert chose to avoid a trial that almost certainly would include testimony from Individual A, the mysterious figure who prosecutors say took cash from Hastert to keep quiet about a dark history with him.
"Mr. Hastert allegedly spent millions to try to keep something secret, so a public trial certainly can't be high on his list," said Jeffrey Cramer, a former federal prosecutor who heads the Kroll security company in Chicago.
The indictment unsealed in late May alleges that Hastert agreed to make $3.5 million in hush-money payments to Individual A to cover up wrongdoing from Hastert's time as a high school teacher and wrestling coach in Yorkville. According to the charges, Hastert lied about the reasons he withdrew $952,000 in cash over the previous 2 1/2 years when the FBI questioned him in December.
Though the indictment hints only at the alleged wrongdoing, federal law enforcement sources have told the Tribune that Hastert was paying to cover up sexual abuse of a Yorkville High School student years ago. The FBI also interviewed a second person who raised similar allegations against Hastert, sources said.
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September 30, 2015

September 30, 2015, 8:04 am
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No Divisions In Latest Illinois Supreme Court Rulings
From the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin
From high school bleachers to the Brookfield Zoo, from driver’s licenses to juvenile court jurisdiction, the latest decisions from the state’s top court covered a diverse range of topics.
But the Illinois Supreme Court opinions issued last week had at least one thing in common: None of the justices disagreed with them.
Out of the 12 decisions released Thursday, none of them contained dissenting or additional concurring opinions and none of the justices abstained from voting.
In civil cases at least, the latest batch of rulings pushed the high court’s rate of unanimous decisions this year to about 86 percent, according to Kirk C. Jenkins, a partner at Sedgwick LLP and longtime high court watcher.
If that rate stays constant the rest of the year, it would be the highest rate of unanimity in his data set, a compilation dating back to 2000. The rate of unanimous decisions that year was the lowest in that time frame, at 57.9 percent. The highest rate he’s observed happened twice, in 2007 and 2009, when 80.5 percent of the court’s decisions were unanimous.
But Jenkins, who writes about his findings on his blog, Illinois Supreme Court Review, doesn’t expect the unanimity rate to remain that high.
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Editorial: Legal Reform Requires Careful Negotiations

September 30, 2015, 9:17 am
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From the Bloomington Pantagraph and Decatur Herald & Review

The state of Illinois either has one of the nation’s worst judicial climates, or is a state where the ordinary plaintiff has a fair chance to win against corporate giants.

It just depends on who you ask. More importantly, it depends on where the money is located.

That’s the result of the news last week that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce was proclaiming the Illinois lawsuit climate was one of the worst in the nation.

According to a survey conducted for the Chamber’s Institute for Legal Reform by Harris Poll, the chamber said only Louisiana and West Virginia have worse lawsuit climates.

The results are based on questionnaires asked of senior company attorneys about how a state’s lawsuit environment is likely to affect important business decisions. So, at best, the results of the survey were pretty predictable.

However, Gov. Bruce Rauner lent his support to the issue, saying the lawsuit environment in the state is hampering economic growth.

“You come here, you open yourself up to attack and excessive judgment against your company,” the governor said.

Rauner has proposed legislation that he says will put the system more into balance. Those reforms include medical awards based on charges rather than actual payments, changing overly inclusive liability standards and limiting venue shopping by plaintiffs.

The Illinois Trial Lawyers Trial Association disagrees with the survey and with Rauner. Perry J. Browder, president the association said in a written statement that the Institute for Legal Reform is a “a front group for the nation’s wealthiest special interests.”

“The only lawsuit crisis in Illinois is the one conjured up by the imaginations of phony front groups funded by big businesses trying to saddle the state’s taxpayers with the costs of caring for those who are injured or the survivors of those killed due to corporate negligence or malfeasance,” Browder wrote.

Browder also didn’t put much stock in the survey either, calling it “math washing — using numbers to give the veneer of science and precision to a biased study that found just what it wanted to find.”

Of course, if you limit the outcomes of lawsuits, you limit the income of trial lawyers.

Balancing the rights of plaintiffs and defendants is a tricky business. And, as a nation, we head to court way too often.

Illinois does need some sort of legal reform since it appears to be out of sync with the rest of the nation and surrounding states.

But that process will require careful negotiations among all sides. It won’t be accomplished with questionable “studies’’ and two sides trading the same arguments that have been around for decades.

View the editorial at the Bloomington Pantagraph.

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The Trial Lawyer Underground: Covertly Lobbying the Executive Branch

September 30, 2015, 9:22 am
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From the US Chamber Institute for Legal Reform

As opportunities for advancing their liability-expanding agenda in Congress have dimmed, plaintiffs’-lawyer lobbyists have focused their influence on the Executive Branch, starting with the current Administration. Very quietly, but rather successfully, the lawsuit industry has pursued its policy goals through federal agencies while attracting very little attention. We call this effort the Trial Lawyer Underground. The purpose of this report is to shine a public light on a hidden practice that affects all Americans.

“The plaintiffs’ lawyers have become very adept at making end runs around Congress to the back rooms of federal agencies, where the rules are written and where there is little media scrutiny,” said ILR President Lisa A. Rickard.

The lobbying efforts of the American Association for Justice (AAJ), the organization that protects and works to grow the profits of plaintiffs’ lawyers, have paid dividends. An early victory for the trial bar was keeping any substantive medical liability reform out of the comprehensive healthcare bill. Another early reward for the trial bar was an Executive Memorandum issued from the President to agency heads warning them to avoid new regulations that could preempt lawsuits by establishing definitive federal standards for health and safety. It also required agencies to consider reversing rules that had such an effect. As a result of the memo, several agencies altered regulations, encouraging lawsuits even when product manufacturers have done exactly what the federal government has told them to do.

More recently, the trial bar has made progress with the Administration in reducing a considerable threat to the lawsuit industry: pre-dispute arbitration agreements. Naturally, the trial bar favors lengthy and expensive litigation over less formal and faster dispute resolution that works efficiently in the interests of both consumers and businesses. Last year, President Obama issued an Executive Order prohibiting federal contractors from using arbitration to resolve employment disputes. This year, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) chimed in, publishing a study that could lay the groundwork for the CFPB to restrict arbitration of disputes involving consumer financial contracts. Most recently, in July 2015, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) slipped an antiarbitration provision into a proposed overhaul of nursing home regulations.

As the Administration moves into its closing days, the trial bar is likely to shift its underground efforts into high gear.

This report is not comprehensive, but it highlights examples of the quiet and effective influence the plaintiffs’ bar exerts within the Executive Branch. It brings together information from publicly available, if not widely reported, sources, such as lobbying reports filed by AAJ staff and retained lobbyists, and failed AAJ-supported legislation that gave rise to its underground alternative.

View the full report at the US Chamber Institute for Legal Reform.

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October 1, 2015

October 1, 2015, 8:26 am
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Commentary: Why Illinois Should Be The First 2016 Primary State
From the Washington Post
On Monday, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus suggested that Iowa and New Hampshire's place at the front of the primary election line is by no means set in stone, and that, in the future, other states may very well be kicked ahead in line.
To which I say great, of course, given my established antipathy to two of the least-representative states in the nation playing such a critical role in weeding out presidential candidates. When I wrote about this in February, though, I set my sights on California, thinking that its diversity and size would make it a good first state.
But prompted by the New York Times' Nick Confessore and the Atlantic's David Graham, I was inspired to look at the demographic composition of the states as a guide to figuring out which actually matched the United States most closely.
Using a big index of census data, I compared each state's density of racial populations, education, housing status, age groups and a few other metrics and arrived at a simple answer to the question of where the first primary should be held.
The state that is most like the United States on the whole? Illinois — followed by Missouri, Michigan, North Carolina and Virginia. The least like the nation on the whole? Hawaii.
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October 2, 2015

October 2, 2015, 8:19 am
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Illinois Businesses Get Lucrative EDGE Tax Breaks, Fall Short Of Job Goals
From the Chicago Tribune
Illinois' flagship job program has awarded millions of dollars to companies that never hired an additional employee.
It's doled out millions more in tax breaks for corporations that eliminated jobs and became smaller.
And it's allowed companies to reap lucrative rewards and then relocate to other states without penalty or repayment.
Illinois cut these deals through a strategy dubbed EDGE — short for Economic Development for a Growing Economy — that was launched in 1999 by Gov. George Ryan as a way to create jobs and lure businesses from other states.
But what began as a modest number of tax breaks for a handful of companies has mushroomed into a billion-dollar giveaway rife with failure.
In the first comprehensive analysis of 783 EDGE agreements, the Chicago Tribune found that two of every three businesses that completed the incentive program failed to maintain the number of employees they agreed to retain or hire.
State officials can't say how many jobs have been created through the job program; nor can they say how many jobs EDGE companies have eliminated. The Tribune, however, found that 79 current or former EDGE recipients have reported eliminating 23,369 jobs through layoffs and closures since entering the program.
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October 5, 2015

October 5, 2015, 8:33 am
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Supreme Court Plaintiffs Play
From the Wall Street Journal
Plaintiffs lawyers are always on the prowl for new ways to disrupt or ban arbitration agreements, which interfere with their class-action windfalls. On Tuesday the fight is headed to the Supreme Court, where the Justices will decide whether trial lawyers can use a California law to end run federal law.
In 2008 Amy Imburgia charged in a class-action lawsuit that DirecTV violated California law when it didn’t disclose cancellation fees it assessed if customers terminated before the agreed-upon term of the contract. Under an agreement she had with the company, all disputes were to be handled through arbitration instead of litigation.
That seems straightforward, but in 2014 a California Appeals Court said DirecTV customers weren’t bound by the arbitration agreement. The court said the class could proceed because the contract included a provision that said the parties agreed to arbitrate unless the agreement would be “unenforceable” under state law. Under a California precedent, state courts are barred from enforcing agreements where consumers give up the right to bring class actions or class action-like claims.
Paging the plaintiffs bar. Across the country, agreements like the one in the DirecTV contract are covered by the 1925 Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), which says parties that have arbitration agreements must arbitrate their disputes instead of going to court. Under the U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause, when federal law is clear and doesn’t trample on the constitutional rights of the states, federal law prevails.
The FAA is one of the oldest pre-emption statutes, and its existence trumps the California law under Supreme Court precedents. In AT&T v. Concepcion in 2011, the Justices ruled that the FAA pre-empts state laws and court rules that prevent contracts that include class-action waivers.
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October 6, 2015

October 6, 2015, 7:06 am
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Illinois Supreme Court Agrees To Hear Appeal Over Milk Marketing Dispute
From the Chicago Sun-Times
The Illinois Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal of Prairie Farms Dairy (PFD), locked in a long-term dispute with a Highland couple over a milk marketing agreement.
Michael and Denise Richter originally sued PFD in Madison County in 2006, claiming they were wrongfully terminated from an agricultural cooperative in October 2005 because they had temporarily ceased milk production. The Richters claim they had invested substantial capitol and labor and planned to resume production within a year, pursuant to the agreement, but that PFD terminated them anyway and returned just $15 to redeem their common stock.
The Richters seek a judgment of more than $200,000 and an order to purchase their common stock for its fair value, which they claim exceeds $50,000.
After litigating the case for six years, the Richters moved to dismiss without prejudice, which Circuit Judge Dave Hylla granted in September 2012. The case was refiled a year later with Prairie Farms board of directors and Edward Mullins added as defendants, however they were never served, according to the record. The new complaint contained four counts: shareholder remedies, misrepresentation, common-law fraud and breach of fiduciary duty.
After the new case was filed, Prairie Farms Dairy argued for transfer to Macoupin County, which Circuit Judge Andreas Matoesian granted in December 2013.
In June 2014, Macoupin County Judge Patrick J. Londrigan granted PFD's motion to dismiss the refiled action on grounds it was barred by the doctrine of res judicata - when a final judgment has been made in a case and it is no longer subject to appeal - and the statute of limitations.
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October 7, 2015

October 7, 2015, 7:47 pm
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I-LAW Criticizes Judiciary During 'Lawsuit Abuse Awareness' Rallies
From the Madison County Record
Illinois Lawsuit Abuse Watch Executive Director Travis Akin leveled a stinging rebuke of the courts in St. Clair and Madison counties today over recent moves made by judges.
Akin called the decisions of Twentieth Circuit judges John Baricevic, Robert Haida and Robert LeChien to run for election rather than retention "gaming the system."
Running for retention requires a higher level of voter approval at a minimum of 60 percent, versus a simple majority when running for election.
Baricevic, who serves as chief judge of the circuit, has said the decision to vacate their seats is not only legitimate, but furthermore subjects them to greater scrutiny than running for retention. He explained that the three, who will run on the Democratic ticket, would have to face potential competition in a primary race in March as well as in the general election in November.
In a press release and a traveling billboard, Akin used a football metaphor to make his point.
"These judges want to change the rules mid-game for their own personal benefit," he stated. "Taking a page from a football referee’s rule book, it’s time to blow the whistle on these types of shenanigans and throw the penalty flag on unsportsmanlike judicial conduct.”
Akin said he doesn't deny that the strategy being used by the judges is "technically legal."
"It just doesn't pass the smell test," he said. "They are gaming the system for their own advantage.
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October 8, 2015

October 8, 2015, 7:48 pm
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New Chicago FBI Chief: City 'Target Rich' For Corruption Probes
From the Chicago Tribune
Michael J. Anderson was staking out the front entrance of a Washington-area Ritz-Carlton in 2005 when he saw something stunning even for a veteran FBI agent accustomed to brazen public corruption schemes.
With an undercover video camera rolling, U.S. Rep. William Jefferson got out of a car near the hotel's front entrance, popped the trunk and retrieved a leather briefcase stuffed with $100,000 that the popular Louisiana congressman thought was bribe money. The cash, which was later found wrapped in tin foil and hidden amid frozen pie crusts in Jefferson's freezer, was actually part of an elaborate FBI sting.
As Anderson watched the exchange from a car across the street, he turned to his rookie partner to make sure he appreciated the moment.
"I said, 'Perry, you'll probably never see this again in your FBI career,' " Anderson recalled with a laugh in an interview this week with the Tribune.
A decade after leading the wide-ranging investigation that netted Jefferson 13 years in federal prison, Anderson is set to take over Oct. 19 as special agent in charge of the FBI field office in Chicago, a city that Anderson described as "target rich" when it comes to public corruption cases.
"Chicago has always been in the forefront, unfortunately," Anderson said in his first comments since his promotion was announced in September. "The corruption in Chicago is very diverse. Federal, state, municipal and law enforcement, you name it."
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October 9, 2015

October 9, 2015, 8:37 am
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Democrats Say Rauner 'Needs To Get Serious' On Budget
From the Associated Press
Illinois will run out of money to operate in a matter of months if lawmakers can't agree on a state budget, top Democrats warned Thursday, but they reiterated that they won't bow to Gov. Bruce Rauner's demands to weaken public worker unions for a deal.
House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie and state Sen. Kwame Raoul said the Republican governor should drop his push to let local governments opt out of collective bargaining, a move they say would lead to lower wages and a less qualified workforce.
Currie said Rauner should instead be worrying about the state money "going out the door at a very fast clip." Both parties estimate that Illinois is on track to spend about $5 billion more than it's taking in because of court orders and state law requiring some payments.
"He needs to get serious about adopting a budget that doesn't mean the state goes totally broke come February or March," the Chicago Democrat said following a stop in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood, where Rauner also spoke Thursday at an unrelated event.
Rauner has been stepping up his anti-union push this week, arguing that Democrats have repeatedly taken votes against collective bargaining and issuing a news release that listed specific bills and Democratic lawmakers who supported them.
He called their firm stance against doing so now "political manipulation" because Democrats don't want to anger labor unions — some of their biggest backers — heading into the 2016 elections.
Rauner also argues that giving governments a choice of whether to bargain over wages, benefits and other issues will ultimately help the middle class by lowering taxes and sparking a healthier economy.
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October 13, 2015

October 13, 2015, 6:35 am
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Public Health Bracing For More Cuts Without A State Budget
From the Bloomington Pantagraph
Public health administrators are worried that the ongoing absence of a state budget will diminish health departments' abilities to respond to infectious disease outbreaks, inspect restaurants and regulate private sewage systems and drinking water.
"Local health departments exist to limit the spread of infectious disease," such as mumps, said Walt Howe, McLean County Health Department director. "When the state fails to pass a budget, the residents eventually will pay the price."
MaLinda Hillman, administrator of the Livingston County Health Department, said, "This (state budget impasse) is out of our control but we are expected to continue to provide services."
Without a state budget, health departments have received no state money since July 1.
Public health administrators are pushing for passage of Senate Bill 2178, which would provide $17.1 million to help fund core public health programs until a state budget is passed.
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October 14, 2015

October 14, 2015, 6:36 am
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Union Talks Complicate Steelmaker Decisions
From the Alton Telegraph
The union representing 2,000 workers at the U.S. Steel’s Granite City Works is in contentious negotiations with Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel, complicating the future of the Madison County subsidiary.
Workers in Granite City last week were given written notices that U.S. Steel may be consolidating functions with its other operations in Indiana, Pennsylvania and Michigan. All local workers could lose jobs. These steps were taken under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Act (WARN).
This all is taking place as the United Steelworkers Union continues difficult talks with the company in Pittsburgh. The union has been without a new contract since Sept. 1, 2014, with 30,000 workers operating day-to-day under the old, expired contract.
Granite City Works is a leading supplier of high-quality hot- rolled, cold-rolled and coated-sheet steel products to customers in the construction, container, piping and tubing, service center, and automotive industries.
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October 15, 2015

October 15, 2015, 6:43 am
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Illinois Will Delay Pension Payment, Citing Cash Shortage
From Crain's Chicago Business
Illinois will delay payments to its pension fund as a prolonged budget impasse causes a cash shortage, Comptroller Leslie Geissler Munger said.
The spending standoff between Republican Governor Bruce Rauner and Democratic legislative leaders has extended into its fourth month with no signs of ending. Munger said her office will postpone a $560 million retirement-fund payment next month, and may make the December contribution late.
“This decision is choosing the least of a number of bad options,” Munger told reporters in Chicago on Wednesday. “For all intents and purposes, we are out of money now.”
Munger said the pension systems will be paid in full by the end of the fiscal year in June. The state still is making bond payments, and retirees are receiving checks, she said.
“We prioritize the bond payments above everything else,” Munger told reporters.
The pension payment delay was inevitable, said some who have been watching the budget gridlock.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” said Ralph Martire, executive director of the Chicago-based Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, which monitors Illinois finances.
“Every month they go without resolving the impasse on the budget means it’ll cost more to ultimately resolve it,” Martire said. “This is a natural, predictable consequence if you do something called math.”
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Latest ‘Judicial Hellholes’ Ranks Include Missouri & Madison County

December 17, 2015, 5:00 am
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From the American Tort Reform Association

The American Tort Reform Foundation issued its 2015-2016 Judicial Hellholes® report today, naming courts in California, New York City, Florida, Missouri, Illinois, Louisiana, Texas and Virginia among the nation’s “most unfair” in their handling of civil litigation.

“With both this annual report and a year-round website, our Judicial Hellholes program since 2002 has been documenting troubling developments in jurisdictions where civil court judges systematically apply laws and court procedures in an unfair and unbalanced manner, generally to the disadvantage of defendants,” began American Tort Reform Association president Tiger Joyce.

“Among others, this year’s report shines its harshest spotlight on increasingly plaintiff-friendly courts in the “Show Me Your Lawsuits State” of Missouri and America’s asbestos lawsuit capital, Madison County, Illinois,” Joyce continued.

“Missouri’s reputation for a judicial nominating process controlled by the plaintiffs’ bar, an outlier high court willing to strike down civil justice reforms, and a lax standard for admission of expert testimony continue to discourage private investment in the state’s economy and help earn a #4 Judicial Hellholes ranking,” explained Joyce. “Lawsuits in St. Louis are of particular concern, as plaintiffs’ lawyers enjoy excessive damage awards there and plenty of hospitable for those with asbestos lawsuits.

“Of course, no jurisdiction in the country is any more hospitable to asbestos plaintiffs than Madison County, the #5 Hellhole just across the river. Never mind that the overwhelming majority of asbestos cases there have no connection to the county or even the rest of the state, defendants’ motions to escape the plaintiff-favoring jurisdiction are continually denied and large numbers of trials may be scheduled for a single day, further eroding defendants’ rights to due process and ratcheting up pressure to settle claims out of court.”

#5 MADISON COUNTY, ILLINOIS. Asbestos litigation is an industry in Madison County, which handles about a third of all such lawsuits in the nation. Most of these cases have no connection to Illinois, much less Madison County. Hundreds of cases are set for trial in a single day, a tactic used to pressure defendants into settlements. Local plaintiffs’ law firms have significant sway with the county’s judiciary, getting their colleagues appointed to the bench. And the county’s past as a perennial Judicial Hellhole is the present and future as plaintiffs’ lawyers continue their attempt to resurrect a $10.1 billion judgment stemming from a class action against the tobacco industry that the state’s high court threw out a decade ago.

Visit the ATRA ‘Judicial Hellholes’ website.

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