Return Of The Rule Of Lawyers In Illinois?
May 7, 2009
Shortly after taking office from disgraced predecessor Rod Blagojevich, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn convened a Reform Commission and tasked it with developing a plan to clean up Illinois politics. Talk about clearing out the Augean Stables.
Now the commission is out with its recommendations, including one that will put the powerful Illinois trial bar back in control of the courts and restore the state’s notorious reputation as a dangerous place to do business. Some reform.
Illinois has long been a perennial bottom-dweller in any ranking of legal climates. Cook and Madison Counties continually pop up on the American Tort Reform Association’s Judicial Hellhole list, and it’s not hard to see why. For years, Illinois trial lawyers stacked the court with lawsuit-friendly judges, funneling campaign cash to candidates of their liking. The problem got so bad that 90 percent of campaign cash in Madison County was coming from lawyers, 75 percent from personal injury lawyers, according to a 2002 study, “Justice for Sale,” by the Illinois Civil Justice League. It was a nice insider game: trial lawyer elects judge; rakes in huge contingency fee arguing before that judge; ships more $$ to the next campaign.
Recently, doctors, medical providers, corporations and other victims of the Illinois litigation lottery began fighting back. They even succeeded in replacing some of the worst judges with fair and impartial jurists committed to following the rule of law, not the rule of lawyers.
That progress could easily be reversed if the Reform Commission’s plan to have taxpayers finance judicial campaigns and severely limit outside contributions becomes law. The end result will be to make it easier for judges backed by trial lawyers to reach the bench. As the Illinois Civil Justice League pointed out in a May 7 commentary, wealthy trial lawyers would still be able to band together to give upwards of $2 million to tort-friendly judges, or even use their personal fortunes to buy a seat on the court themselves. “Meanwhile job-producing businesses, healthcare providers, and other employers will be severely restricted in the ways they can contribute.”
Fixing the culture of corruption that plagues Illinois’ politics is a tall order, and I sympathize with the commissioners’ plight. But blaming the problem on “the system” – rather than corrupt individuals like Rod Blagojevich and trial lawyers who turn the legal system into their personal ATM machines – misses the point. The real answer to improving Illinois’ courts is to revise the venue rules so trial lawyers can’t shop around for easy jurisdictions or reform contingency fees so greedy personal injury lawyers have less incentive to file frivolous, job-killing lawsuits.