Sometimes It’s Good to Lose

For the first time in six years, Illinois’ Madison County has not led the list of “judicial hellholes” put forth by the American Tort Reform Association (ATRA). (See page 6for full story.)

For Illinois, not making the list is good. The state has had more than one county listed for each year ATRA has produced its infamous list, and so even though it has one county still listed this year, progress has definitely been made.

Leading the hit parade for 2007 is South Florida, followed by Texas’ Rio Grande Valley and Gulf Coast, Illinois’ Cook County, including Chicago, West Virginia, and Nevada’s Clark County, which includes Las Vegas.

The judges in Madison County paid attention and the results are improvements that can be seen.

Madison County’s Chief Justice Ann Callis says she feels positive about the steps taken in an effort to reform the system. Callis and her colleagues have required mandatory mediation in medical malpractice cases and have sought to quash “forum or venue shopping” with a rule giving plaintiff’s attorneys just one change of judge per class action.

Numbers show improvement. Major civil cases — those seeking at least $50,000 — last year totaled 1,145 in Madison County, down from 1,297 in 2005, 1,439 in 2004 and 2,102 in 2003. Asbestos lawsuits dropped to 325 last year, nearly one-third of the 953 such cases in 2003. There were three class-action filings in 2006; just three years before that, there were 106.

All of these positive steps have made a real difference. One wonders if the judges in Chicago and Cook County have taken note and are taking steps to correct abuses in that system. Let’s hope so.

It would be nice to reach the goal of being totally dropped from list in 2008, because sometimes it’s good to lose.