A different way of looking at something
Thursday, Apr 7, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller
* From the Madison County Record…
As part of his Turnaround Agenda, Rauner has proposed venue reform that would put an end to a practice employed by attorneys who file suit in perceived “friendly” courts on behalf of clients with injuries that have no connection to the jurisdiction. […]
John Pastuovic, president of the Illinois Civil Justice League (ICJL), pointed to a study conducted by the ICJL that shows how significantly Madison County is targeted with personal injury claims.
Its report, titled “Litigation Imbalance III,” shows lawsuit filings in Madison County average 8.255 per thousand persons, which is double the rate of Cook County; triple the rate of St. Clair County; and six and a half times the rate of the other 99 counties in Illinois combined.
The reason for Madison County’s high per capita lawsuit filings is due to the court’s asbestos docket - the busiest asbestos court in the country. Madison County handles more than one-third of all asbestos-related cases filed in the entire United States each year, and last year, less than one half of 1 percent of the asbestos lawsuits in Madison County were filed on behalf of Madison County residents.
* From the aforementioned study…
At 1,678 filed asbestos cases in 2013, Madison County likely handles one-third to one-half of all asbestos-related cases filed in the United States each year, and 168 times more per capita than Cook County. There is great secrecy surrounding the wealth exchanging hands through this docket, but with an estimated outcome of $2 million per case, the Madison County asbestos “rocket docket” could be worth more than $1.74 billion annually – larger than the GDP of Belize – and could produce nearly $600 million annually in contingency fees for plaintiffs’ attorneys.
Madison hosts what is basically a unified national docket, overseen by judges who are experienced at dealing with these sorts of asbestos poisoning cases. Presumably, since it’s a national docket with a tiny number of local cases, most of those filings aren’t even against Illinois businesses. In other words, the targeted businesses are mainly located in other states.
So, while there are genuine concerns that the Madison system gives us a bad reputation among the national business community, its actual impact on Illinois would be somewhat difficult to quantify.
* On the other hand, pumping $600 million worth of local plaintiffs’ attorney fees (with that money overwhelmingly coming from outside the region), plus the salaries of defense lawyers and their staffs and office rents, various court fees and other ancillary things like hotels, restaurants, etc. (for out of state lawyers and/or their expert witnesses) into the area’s economy every year can most certainly be quantified. And that’s a very big number, campers. I was stunned when I saw that report. It’s likely one of the Metro East’s largest economic engines, if not the largest.
That’s probably not something to be proud of, and I even feel a little uneasy about mentioning this, but it’s most definitely something to ponder when talking about yanking the rug out from under the system.
- Honeybear - Thursday, Apr 7, 16 @ 1:41 pm:
You bet your sweet bippy it is. The majority of downtown buildings are law firms. When I go to my youngest daughters track meets there are always a lot of suited dads (attorney types) there.
- Pawn - Thursday, Apr 7, 16 @ 1:48 pm:
there is something to be said for expertise and efficiency, to be sure. That’s not the only factor to consider, but one of them.
- Huh? - Thursday, Apr 7, 16 @ 1:48 pm:
Why shouldn’t a case be filed in a friendly jurisdiction? If you know or can guess an outcome ahead of time, isn’t it in your best interest to a particular court?
- Huh? - Thursday, Apr 7, 16 @ 1:49 pm:
To file the case in a particular court.
Must finish thoughts and proof read before hitting send.
- South of Sherman - Thursday, Apr 7, 16 @ 1:54 pm:
Can anyone document that the outcomes in Madison County are unjust? That people are getting judgments to which they are not entitled? Because without that, who cares what venue the case is heard in?
This smacks of nothing more than an effort to stop injured people from being adequately compensated.
- JackD - Thursday, Apr 7, 16 @ 1:58 pm:
It’s very similar in effect to Federal multi district litigation in which similar claims from various districts in the country are consolidated in one district which develops an expertise in handling them.
- Elo Kiddies - Thursday, Apr 7, 16 @ 1:59 pm:
So calling Madison County a “hell hole” and then saying Illinois’ tort laws hurt state businesses is really a bait-and-switch? I’m shocked that ICJL would distort things to that extent.
- The anti-trib - Thursday, Apr 7, 16 @ 2:00 pm:
If this gets changed these cases will just move to another county in another state that will reap the benefits. At some point it will all end anyway as Asbestos hasn’t been used in new manufacturing in decades.
- Twirling Towards Freedom - Thursday, Apr 7, 16 @ 2:02 pm:
The County also makes a lot of money off of interest on the bonds the defendants file.
- Commander Norton - Thursday, Apr 7, 16 @ 2:05 pm:
Also, there is something to be said for letting judges who are experienced in hearing a highly technical type of case (as asbestos suits certainly are) do so. Typically, the sorts of lawsuits that hinge on fine points of science, medicine and industrial processes heavily favor the corporate defendant, who can easly foot the bill for expert witnesses and already has significant in-house expertise on the subject matter of the suit. It doesn’t bother me if the existence of a docket experienced in trying such cases and a high concentration of similarly experienced plaintiffs’ attorneys tilt that balance a bit, actually giving injured people a fighting chance at recovering compensation.
- illini97 - Thursday, Apr 7, 16 @ 2:06 pm:
The court is in a county running a surplus while maintaining or lowering tax rates. Uneasy feelings or not, the asbestos docket is putting money into the Metro East.
- DuPage Saint - Thursday, Apr 7, 16 @ 2:14 pm:
Hey just charge a ten percent convenience fee to plaintiffs that are not state residents
- out of touch - Thursday, Apr 7, 16 @ 2:19 pm:
The Madison Record (owned by the Chamber) is as legit as the phony “newspapers” that Proft’s group is mailing to unwitting Illinoisans all over the state. Propaganda tools masquerading as news.
- Johnny Pyle Driver - Thursday, Apr 7, 16 @ 2:29 pm:
It was a very illuminating peek into the legal world when I worked as a paralegal for an asbestos defense firm for 4 years.
It’s like a factory. Plaintiffs file suits against a form list of Defendants. The Defendant lists seemed to be based on the Plaintiff’s occupation, loosely. They had one list for pipefitters. Another list for navy shipmen. Another list for roofers.
Certain Defendants would simply cut checks if the Plaintiff could prove he worked there. Others would drop off based on proof he DIDN’T work there. But they always started with teh long list.
Sometimes even life long smokers would get paid just because it was easier to cut a check than fight.
Then eventually the list of defendants would be whittled down to a short list of people who were either REALLY responsible or REALLY motivated to prove they were innocent. Few went to trial.
It shocked me how seemingly little was based on actual facts or justice, and how much was just business for the lawyers
- wordslinger - Thursday, Apr 7, 16 @ 2:34 pm:
How did Madison County develop this industry? Why them, and not some other jurisdiction in the country?
Does anyone know the history behind it? The google isn’t any help.
- Honeybear - Thursday, Apr 7, 16 @ 2:38 pm:
Word, we’re kind of a smarmy people. Asbestos lawsuits fit in our wheelhouse. Just sayin
- Outsider - Thursday, Apr 7, 16 @ 2:38 pm:
Reading the report suggests the authors have an ax to grind….I give the report little credibility.
- Name Withheld - Thursday, Apr 7, 16 @ 2:51 pm:
Johnny Pyle Driver - how much of what you describe could be attributable to simple cost-effectiveness. That’s the whole point of out-of-court settlements - to encourage parties to resolve the situation on their own and not involve the court’s time (and, presumably the time of all of the attorneys and experts, not to mention depositions and discovery and all those fun words).
Having lists seems efficient to me, but I can see how, in the wrong light, it could be construed as less than noble. And if the list of people is narrowed to people with real problems that need to be resolved - how is that not justice? You’ll have people who try to take advantage of things in any situation - that doesn’t mean the process is unnecessary.
That said - you were there, and I wasn’t - so your first-hand account would trump my third-hand opinion. But it seems like it’s too easy to get jaded about the process and ignore the fact that the system exists for a reason.
- Chicago Guy - Thursday, Apr 7, 16 @ 2:52 pm:
Wordslinger,
My understanding is that lawyers can hold trials in Madison County because it has the river, train lines, and highways. So for instance if you have a car/train accident in another part of the country, the fact that Madison County has train lines allow you to hold it there.
At a certain point Madison County obtained a reputation for very generous juries. As a result, savvy lawyers figured out they should move their trial there.
I can remember reading an article about the issue in the 1980s so the issue is long standing.
- wordslinger - Thursday, Apr 7, 16 @ 2:52 pm:
HB, I believe Madison County’s national reputation as a plaintiff’s paradise precedes asbestos cases. It seems to me that before those, it was railroad cases.
There must have been some concerted effort to get that reputation, I’ve just never heard who all was behind it.
- crazybleedingheart - Thursday, Apr 7, 16 @ 3:02 pm:
What service economy? Destroyin’ downstate industries, turnin’ around the state!
He’s lucky he’s not governor of Delaware or Texas. The pitchfork mob would already have burned the mansion for even suggesting something this dumb.
Once again, his personal issues get in the way of what’s good for the state.
Poor little Defendant Rauner. Just think how much he’d be worth if he hadn’t been sued.
- Johnny Pyle Driver - Thursday, Apr 7, 16 @ 3:04 pm:
Name Withheld ~
I’m certainly far from an expert. I just summarized depositions and medical records for the big wigs. I’m certain it was done for efficiency, but I just question for whose benefit. I mean, you have two guys that got cancer. One of them worked in a coke plant in Southern Illinois. Another worked in a refinery in Ohio. They both sue the same 100 defendants in a court in Madison County. Is that for the benefit of the people with cancer or for the benefit of the people causing cancer. I honestly don’t know. I’m just saying it seems pretty sleazy. Especially when there are outfits that are somehow able to set up “trusts” that represent their only contribution to making people whole again. One company, for example, set up a trust to pay out claims for seemingly anybody that sued them and could show they worked there. That same company then sets itself up under a new name and can wash their hands of responsibility for anything outside of the trust.
- crazybleedingheart - Thursday, Apr 7, 16 @ 3:11 pm:
==That same company then sets itself up under a new name and can wash their hands of responsibility for anything outside of the trust.==
I notice ending this practice didn’t make it into the Turnaround Agenda.
- Demoralized - Thursday, Apr 7, 16 @ 3:23 pm:
We should be promoting this as legal (as in the profession) tourism
- Ghost - Thursday, Apr 7, 16 @ 3:31 pm:
Um you already cant keep a case in a county with no connections to the suit. Its called Venue and the Il Supreme Court in skelgas 163 Ill. 2d 323 made it pretty darn clear. This is like saying we need criminal law reform to make it illegal to murder peoplle…. we already have the laws in the books.
- DuPage Saint - Thursday, Apr 7, 16 @ 4:08 pm:
You can sue a corporation in any county it is doing business. Madison County was the eastern side of the first train bridge across the Mississippi therefor most large train companies had to pass thru Madison County and therefore could be sued there. Evidently at some point in time it got a reputation for large verdicts against railroads and the plaintiff bar took notice and it snowballed. I really don’t know about asbestos claims unless it was sold or had an end use in the county
- wordslinger - Thursday, Apr 7, 16 @ 4:18 pm:
– Madison County was the eastern side of the first train bridge across the Mississippi–
No, Government Bridge at Davenport/Rock Island, 1856.
Shipping interests, scared of losing business to the railroads, conspired to ram it with the steamer “Effie Alton,” then sued in federal court to have it dismantled as a threat to navigation.
Lincoln represented the railroads and won.
- Mama - Thursday, Apr 7, 16 @ 4:34 pm:
Do the Super Stars not do their homework before a press release?
- Buster - Thursday, Apr 7, 16 @ 5:38 pm:
Rich, you’re persisting in considering empirical evidence and all effects of an action, unintended as well as intended. Unfortunately Republicans don’t care much about these; they deal in right vs wrong. That’s why we’re going down in flames with the Turnaround agenda. Maybe a dose of champions of uncaring unreality like Trump, Cruz and Rauner will help bring them to their senses. And then again, probably no pain (when it’s someone else’s) is too much to bear when you’re marching in God’s Rightous Army, too busy to dirty your hands with trivialities like governing, public service, compromise and responsibility. (Cue the trumpets here.)
- Arthur Andersen - Thursday, Apr 7, 16 @ 5:58 pm:
word, you beat me to that one. Amazing that I can remember things like that from high school but can’t find my car keys half the time.
- Anonymous - Thursday, Apr 7, 16 @ 6:00 pm:
Don’t be silly, lawyers aren’t people. /s
- Liberty - Thursday, Apr 7, 16 @ 6:07 pm:
job creatin
- JackD - Friday, Apr 8, 16 @ 9:06 am:
Wordslinger; Madison County was established as a plaintiffs’ haven before the development of the asbestos practice. It was, as suggested earlier, built on railroad cases but many products liability cases as well. Generally, the judges were “plaintiff oriented” and the juries very generous. The conventional wisdom is that both factors grew out of anti-corporate attitudes due to poor treatment of workers and severe layoffs leading to high unemployment rates. Whatever the causes, verdicts tended to be high there and in St. Clair County.
- crazybleedingheart - Friday, Apr 8, 16 @ 12:13 pm:
== anti-corporate attitudes due to poor treatment of workers and severe layoffs leading to high unemployment rates ==
Yeah, first they were abused and mistreated by corporate overlords, then they managed to build up a viable economy anyway, and now they’re targeted for more abuse and mistreatment by the state corporate overlord in chief.
What a bunch of whiners down there in Southern Illinois. Punish them all. Close the courthouse and turn Madison Co into a duck hunting club. /s