Cook County One of Nation’s Worst “Judicial Hellholes”
Published on December 15, 2009 in: Lead StoryMadison County Remains on National “Watch List”
Cook County is one of the country’s worst “Judicial Hellholes,” according to Judicial Hellholes report released by the American Tort Reform Association. Madison County, IL is also on the national “watch list.”
“While the lawsuit industry booms, Illinois’ unemployment rises and the rest of our economy suffers. We’re driving people and businesses away,” said Edward Murnane, president, Illinois Civil Justice League. “A state’s litigation climate is an important part of its overall business climate. Right now, both are suffering in Illinois, and in need of common sense reforms.”
The report cites Cook County as Illinois’ “center of litigation, hosting 65 percent of the state’s lawsuits while serving as home to just 41 percent of its population,” a disparity that has “widened over the past 15 fifteen years.”
Cook County’s “reputation for hostility toward corporate defendants” remains intact, as do its “seemingly perpetual problems of forum shopping, excessive awards and suspect evidentiary rulings,” the report affirms. “Even in a down economy, Cook County’s litigation industry continues to boom.”
With the $69 million spent on lawsuit-related expenses in 2008, the report notes, “Cook County could have hired 1,540 new police offers, hired 945 nurses for Cook County hospitals, purchased 3,286 new full-sized police cruisers, or resurfaced 200 miles of country roads.”
Though it remains on ATRA’s “Watch List,” Madison County is no longer considered a judicial hellhole and is credited for making “great strides in restoring fairness and predictability to what was once a magnet for class actions, asbestos litigation, and other big-ticket lawsuits from around the country.” Murnane said Madison County must not allow itself to slip back or it could easily rejoin the hellholes list.
The report defines judicial hellholes as “places where judges systematically apply laws and court procedures in an inequitable manner, generally against defendants in civil lawsuits,” and notes that “the local or state economies in many of these hellhole jurisdictions have suffered more than most during the latest recession.”
“This report should embarrass everyone associated with the Cook County court system,” says Murnane, “and every citizen of Cook County, too. What’s going on here is disgraceful and needs to stop.”
As a citizen of Illinois I am requesting that the State legiislature and the Governor enact a meaningful liability tort reform to ease the burden on business, doctors, and costs on citizens. Please, it is time for immediate action.
IL needs to follow the lead of TX, whose 2003 Proposition 12 paved the way for damage caps via a state constitutional amendment. Since then, suits dropped by half, thousands of new physicians moved to TX (including many from IL), 16 new insurance companies began competing with low rates, & billions were pumped into the TX economy. IL could stave off ATLA’s inevitable constitutional challenges via a state constitutional amendment, impose rational caps on noneconomic damages (pain, suffering) while requiring juror unanimity for punitives, thereby dissuading frivolous litigants. We need to educate the public & point out that noneconomics don’t include bills, lost income, or future earnings, and don’t preclude structured judgments into the future which take lost future income into account. President Obama must have known he erred when he told the AMA noneconomic damage caps deprive plaintiffs of a remedy, and must have known that, in so doing, he betrayed the influence of ATLA. When upwards of 40% of IL counties lack obstetrical services, & downstate head injuries must be transferred to MO bec. of the lack of neurosurgeons, we need to act now.