Illinois Injury Lawyer Blog

Illinois Trial Lawyers Association (“ITLA”) President Todd A. Smith recently wrote a poignant letter to the editor that appeared in The (Springfield) State-Journal Register earlier this week. In the letter, Mr. Smith faced the facts that Illinois has serious issues as we are in the midst of a state budget crisis. Mr. Smith stated that the nation’s economy has been in the grips of one of history’s worst recessions. However, a spokesperson for an anti-consumer group, blames citizens exercising their right to seek justice.

Mr. Smith stated that anti-consumer groups rely on false claims, distorted facts, and worthless surveys. For example, they cite a recent “report” done by the Pacific Research Institute, which is released every other year and has been discredited as entirely bogus and having no methodology or academic basis for its results. The personal injury attorneys at Levin & Perconti agree that these reports are simply schemes by powerful corporations to escape culpability in the courtroom. You see, the Pacific Research Institute is funded by big business, tobacco, big oil, insurance and pharmaceutical companies. These corporate special interests are upset that they do not dominate the Illinois justice system, so they seek to take away your rights by trying to evade accountability in the Illinois civil courts. Mr. Smith implores you not to be fooled by these anti-consumer groups: there is no correlation between Illinois’s economy and the civil justice system.

The Chicago injury lawyers at Levin & Perconti applaud Todd Smith for addressing this pressing issue about corporate influence on the civil justice system. Further information about anti-consumer groups’ attempts at evading accountability in Illinois civil courts is available on the ITLA website.

Illinois Trial Lawyers Association President Peter J. Flowers recently authored an editorial that appeared in the Madison County Record and The Southern Illinoisan in response to an editorial by Travis Akins. Akins’ article claimed to have found the real root of Illinois’ economic problems – he pinpointed the blame precisely on consumer driven lawsuits. Akins attempted to argue that the State of Illinois’ 13% unemployment is so high because businesses avoid Illinois because of “jackpot justice.” According to Akins, the Illinois personal injury court system is so unruly that no new business wants to open up shop here. Of course, Akins has a ready audience in those special interest groups who wish to shut the courthouse doors to the average citizen.

Mr. Flowers first addressed the article by stating that using the term "jackpot justice" to describe awards given to victims of Illinois medical malpractice or corporate negligence shows these special interest groups’ contempt for the pain and suffering those victims endured. As the Chicago injury attorneys at Levin & Perconti are too familiar with, most parents of a child permanently disabled by someone’s negligent behavior may hardly feel like they have won anything at all after a successful verdict.

Mr. Flowers pointed out that the most common and largest flow in Akins and his supporters’ logic is how they blatantly ignore how the court system works. Trial lawyers like those at Levin & Perconti are only one element – courts also include a judge, a jury, and opposing counsel. No Illinois personal injury or Illinois medical malpractice award is given to any victim until all of the facts have been argued and a judge and jury weigh in. As Mr. Flowers summed up quite nicely, this is precisely the system our Framers envisioned, and the words of that vision are carved above the entrance to the U.S. Supreme Court show that: "Equal justice under the law."

The Chicago injury attorneys recently blogged about the disgraceful and self-serving study produced by the Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for Legal Reform. Last week, president of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association characterized the Chamber’s report as a shallow attempt to weaken the civil justice system to help its Wall Street and big business financers. This week, leaders of more of Illinois’ legal groups are criticizing a different Chamber study - the Chamber’s annual study on legal fairness. Illinois attorneys are calling it inaccurate, unfair, and stating that it should be looked at more like a public relations campaign than an actual reliable report.

President of the Illinois State Bar Association, John G. O’Brien, suggested that one has to consider the source, which is a cynical, money-driven organization that has no interest in the legal system. Mr. O’Brien added that he found the Chamber’s characterization of Illinois “insulting.” The recently released 2010 State Liability Systems Ranking Study is based on phone and online interviews conducted between October 2009 and January 2010. The study asks corporate lawyers and executives at companies that make at least $100 million each year – obviously they selected a very choice group to question! And their survey ranked Illinois 45th out of 50 states for “legal fairness.” Additionally, Cook County, where our attorneys frequently practice, was named the most unfair court jurisdiction in the nation.

Further, Illinois ranked 43rd out of 50 on juries’ fairness. The Chicago personal injury attorneys at Levin & Perconti question how one can judge the fairness of a jury. Inherently, is not a jury of ones peers the fairest method of decision envisioned by the founders of our country?

President of the Chamber’s Institute for Legal Reform added that Illinois has rolled out an unwelcome mat to business and added that the state’s legal climate discourages economic growth. Illinois Trial Lawyers Association stated that the survey is bankrolled by companies like AIG, which gave nearly $25 million to the Chamber in the last decade to sit on its board. Of course, the Chicago product liability attorneys at Levin & Perconti question the fairness of such statements. The Institute for Legal Reform is bankrolled by companies who were bailed out by taxpayers, yet the Institute opposes taxpayer and citizens’ rights to seek justice in a civil setting.

Click here to read articles featured in the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, including the Illinois legal groups’ response to the study.

Progress was finally made last week when the historic health care bill was signed into law. During the arduous debates involving the health care law for nearly a year, the only points that opponents of health care reform would discuss were “tort reform” and “frivolous lawsuits.” Despite mountains of facts to the contrary, 40 million people uninsured, and skyrocketing health care costs, opponents to the health care bill and many Republican lawmakers argued that trial attorneys and plaintiff injury litigation were to blame for all of our nation’s health care system’s problems.

So, the entire argument of health care opponents was that too much medical malpractice lawsuits and personal injury lawsuits were the cause of our country’s broken health care system. And what has happened now that monumental health care legislation has been signed into law? The health care opponents hired lawyers and filed lawsuits of their own.

The Chicago injury attorneys at Levin & Perconti agree with the American Association for Justice and acknowledge that there is nothing inherently wrong with using the legal system to solve disputes when no other solution is available. In fact, the Chicago medical malpractice lawyers agree that the judicial system was created by the Founders for this very purpose! However, it is awfully hypocritical for lawmakers to push for “tort reform” and limit everyday American citizens’ access to civil justice while also using the court system to push their own self-serving agenda. It is shameful that such individuals are continuously trying to limit the type of justice that individuals harmed by negligent doctors or nursing home abuse can obtain through the justice system while using the court system for its own movement.

To read more about the tort reform hypocrites, click on the link to the article featured on Huffington Post.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which acts as a front group for corporations and advocated for policies that drove our country’s economy to collapse, is now calling for more of the same policies. The Chamber of Commerce released its annual lawsuit climate rankings today by its Institute for Legal Reform – calling for less oversight and less accountability for the Wall Street, drug, and insurance companies that fund the corporate front group. The survey screams unreliability as it relies on the opinions of corporate defense attorneys that profit when their companies are shielded after hurting American consumers. The Chamber is financed by companies like AIG, which gave nearly $25 million to the Chamber in the last decade to sit on its board. The same AIG that the U.S. government bailed out with taxpayer dollars after the insurance group failed to set aside reserves for large financial risks that it took in selling derivative contracts. The Chamber has also been very vocal in pursuing so-called "tort reform," an attempt to limit the rights of those personally injured by negligence.

Peter J. Flowers, president of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, replied that the Chamber’s report “is just another shallow attempt to weaken the civil justice system to help its Wall Street and Big business financers its Wall Street and Big business financers.” Hopefully, the American people remember what they have seen what happens when the Chamber’s largest clients – like AIG, insurance and drug companies – are not held accountable. Year after year, academics, consumer groups, and other experts have ridiculed the Chamber’s report for its errors and lack of methodology. The report has been called inaccurate, unfair, and bad for business.

Click here to read a detailed analysis of the annual rankings.

Last week, the Chicago Tribune published a letter to the editor written by Peter Flowers, President of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association (ITLA). ITLA is a statewide organization whose members, including the Chicago injury attorneys at Levin & Perconti who represent injured workers and consumers. In his letter to the editor, Mr. Flowers addresses insurance reform following the Illinois Supreme Court’s recent ruling against arbitrary caps on victims’ compensation.

Mr. Flowers set the background by informing readers that this was the third time the issue of caps was before the court and the third time that the Illinois Supreme Court ruled in favor of the citizens’ right to seek just compensation. Following the decision, those who side with the insurance industry have had an unfavorable reaction to the Illinois Supreme Court ruling and in opposing its decision have spread fiction and chosen to ignore the facts of caps. Opposers state that the absence of caps caused an exodus of doctors from Illinois; however, the truth is that since 1963, the number of doctors in Illinois has increased.

Another piece of fiction that is often spread to readers statewide and physicians statewide is that insurance premiums for doctors rose because of the lack of caps on damages for medical mistakes. The truth is that the rise in insurance premiums has more to do with insurance company greed – the state’s largest medical malpractice insurer recorded profits of $124.2 million from 2006 through 2008. The little decrease that happened when the caps were in place occurred because of insurance reform and state mandates.

Most people often forget is that compensation for victims is not a “prize.” Illinois medical malpractice victims suffer from the medical mistakes for the rest of their lives; they deserve to seek justice. Mr. Flowers addresses that the solution to rising insurance premiums for physicians will happen by reforming the insurance industry. Reforms work and should be re-enacted so that doctors are not faced with unconscionable increases in their premiums while insurance companies make enormous profits. When insurance companies are held accountable, health care in Illinois will improve.

In a case that the attorneys at Levin & Perconti have been keeping an eye on, the Illinois Supreme Court recently struck down our state’s $500,000 cap on awards for pain and suffering in medical malpractice lawsuits against physicians. The Illinois Supreme Court found that the limits set by the Illinois legislature violated the Illinois state constitution’s separation of powers principle. The tort reform ruling involved a medical malpractice case filed on behalf of a child who suffered a birth injury.

Click here to read more about the Illinois Court’s awards cap ruling.

As 2010 approaches, the attorneys at Levin & Perconti wanted to take a moment and wish you and your families a Happy New Year! A recent article in the Huffington Post highlighted the top ten civil justice triumphs of the decade and we think it’s important to reflect on the progress that civil justice attorneys have made. From tort reform failures to product liability victims rights; from Wyeth v. Levine to referendum rejection of special interests; from blogs and books to studies – the past decade has sure been filled of rewards after much hard work in civil justice.

Continue reading "Top Ten Civil Justice Triumphs of the Decade" »

In a timely letter to the editor at the Chicago Sun Times, the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association President Peter J. Flowers responded to the unreliability and disconnect embraced by anti-consumer groups. Mr. Flowers responded to the December 4 piece by a “tort reform” supporter, Travis Akin, who used a slanted study to conclude that all injury lawsuits filed against Cook County are “frivolous.” The “tort reform” piece mislead readers by using the figure for all legal costs incurred by the county to lead readers to believe that was the amount paid by Cook County in injury lawsuit settlements.

Continue reading "Letter to the Editor: Standing up for rights is not frivolous" »

The Executive Director of the Center for Justice and Democracy has published an on-point editorial on “tort reform.” The article, entitled “Memo to Corporate America and Organized Medicine: No One Likes a Hypocrite,” highlighting the hypocrisy of so-called tort reform.

Continue reading "Editorial highlights hypocrisy of corporate America and organized medicine" »

The Huffington Post recently posted an article looking into the often secretive U.S. Chamber of Commerce and its “tort reform” branch, confusingly named as the Institute for Legal Reform. The Institute is attempting to limit citizen’s right to jury trials and right to justice.

To read more about the “tort reform.”

The American Association for Justice released a report on medical malpractice insurance. Despite record profits, insurers continue to charge large malpractice premiums. The cost of medical malpractice insurance is one of the reasons behind so-called “tort reform,” but there are obviously other motives. The high costs are going straight to the insurers profits.

To read more about the insurance hoax.

A recent Illinois editorial, written by Peter Flowers, president of Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, addresses the blame that is often placed on the Illinois court system. The editorial addresses that the attempts to ensure the consumer has rights is the essence of fairness, justice, and equity. The article address how the Illinois court system provides citizens of Illinois with a method of seeking redress from those who have caused them personal injuries.

To read the Illinois editorial.

Next month, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce will release four short clips to run before movies in Washington, D.C.-area movie houses. The movie clips will all tell a story of supposed “Lawsuit Abuse” – injury lawsuits which people were allegedly dragged into the legal system with frivolous lawsuit filings. In a tough economy, it is frustrating that the Chamber is wasting cash on PR stunts when injured victims face real challenges.

To read more about the “tort reform” videos.

An attorney for a lead-paint poisoning victim told a state court that the statutory cap on non-economic damages does not apply to products liability lawsuits brought under the Consumer Protection Act. The attorney is seeking reinstatement of a $2.3 million jury award that was slashed to $515,000 after the caps were applied to the products liability award.

In 2007, an Illinois state court judge ruled caps on damages from personal injury lawsuits unconstitutional.

To read more about the damages cap litigation.

The American Association for Justice was recently featured in a Wall Street Journal article stressing why it is important that American courts keep the “American rule” for personal injury lawsuits and medical malpractice lawsuits. The so-called tort reform advocates are pushing courts to adopt a system where losers of personal injury lawsuits pay for the court costs, unlike the current system where attorneys’ fees are collected on a contingency fee basis.

For the full article.

Contrary to what a lot of insurance companies and businesses would like you to believe, personal injury lawsuit filings are down over the last ten years. Based on a Judicial Council of California statistical report, motor vehicle lawsuits are way down. This begs the question of whether there are really less injuries or whether injured victims are not being properly compensated.

For the full article.

A former tort reform advocate recently discovered the degree of harm tort reform measures can cause on wronged patients. The advocate, a medical oncologist and an original force behind his state’s tort reform movement, admitted that tort reform has had the unintended consequence of juries denying admittedly wronged patients any recovery. He referred to a case where a pathologist misdiagnosed a woman leading to years of physical, mental, and economic harm to the patient. Following a jury trial, a verdict was returned for the woman, but the jury refused to grant her any damages. The jury’s decision was influenced by a misguided fear created by advocates of tort reform that the physician would leave the state before compensating the injured woman. This case illustrates how tort reform measures have resulted in many patients being forced to pay for physician negligence out of their own pockets, a result not even the most ardent advocates of tort reform would support.

For the full article, click here:

The Bowling Center Safety Act, an Illinois bill that would have insulated bowling alley owners and operators from liability, failed in committee. The bill provides that bowlers and spectators are deemed to have knowledge of the inherent risks at a bowling alley, and they therefore assume this risk, provided that the operator has not violated his duties under the Act.

The numerous deficiencies of this bill are illustrated by a Levin & Perconti case from 2006, involving a bowler who was injured at a bowling alley because the alley had dimmed its lights, reducing visibility. This was compounded by the design of the alley which had a one step difference between the floor level of the alley and the bowling level. Unfortunately, this step was not clearly marked, and because the lights in the alley were nearly off, the bowler lost his balance and struck his head on the seating area where bowlers sat. The injury resulted in severe spinal damage which ultimately led to the bowler’s death. Ultimately, Levin & Perconti was able to recover a nearly $500,000 settlement which was used by the bowler’s family to pay for many of his medical bills. Passage of the Bowling Center Safety Act would likely have insulated this bowling alley, denying the bowler’s family members the right to recover for injuries caused by the bowling alley’s negligence. This bill’s defeat is a victory for consumers and a blow to companies that fail to provide adequate safety and protection at their business.

Click here for complete bill status:

The FDA has proposed a rule in direct contradiction to a law passed by Congress that helps hold negligent drug companies accountable for injuries to consumers caused by prescription drugs. Congress passed the Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act (FDAAA) recently which holds drug companies responsible for promptly updating drug labels when they become aware of new safety information. The new rule being proposed by the FDA will relax labeling requirements so that drug companies can use it to claim immunity for failures to warn patients and consumers of drug hazards. This is a form of bureaucratic activism, where unelected agencies like the FDA ignore the will of Congress. If the drug companies are not held accountable for failure to warn, unnecessarily injured consumers will not be able to win compensation from them and the burden will be transmitted to taxpayers.

CONTACT YOUR CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVES TODAY and urge them to investigate the FDA's attempt to upsurp Congress's authority to protect the health, safety and wellbeing of their constituents.