An American Tort Reform Foundation report has reaffirmed the Metro-East’s status as the “lawsuit abuse capital of the U.S.,” with nearby Madison County being named among the nation’s “worst judicial hellholes.”
In a press release, researchers defined a "judicial hellhole" as “a place where judges systematically apply laws and court procedures in an unfair and unbalanced manner.”
While noting that the Metro-East area has gained a reputation for being a hot spot for out-of-state personal injury lawyers and plaintiffs looking to score in the game of lawsuit lottery, Illinois Lawsuit Abuse Watch (I-Law) Executive Director Travis Akin said that particularly holds true for the Madison County and St. Clair County courthouses.
Travis Akin
“Christmas comes but once a year for most of us, but for the personal injury lawyers who have turned both the Madison and St. Clair County courthouses into their own personally profitable playground, it’s Christmas every day,” Akin said in the release. “For far too long, Madison and St. Clair counties have been magnets for personal injury lawyers and plaintiffs from all over the country who clog our courts with junk lawsuits that have nothing to do with the Metro-East (area), all in the hopes of striking it rich playing our region’s plaintiff-friendly lawsuit lottery. Greedy personal injury lawyers have turned the ‘Land of Lincoln’ into the ‘Land of Lawsuits,’ and that is hurting job creation efforts in the Metro-East and throughout Illinois.”
Akin said personal injury lawyers have become so adept at the game they now regularly target potential clients with costly TV ads and billboards aimed at encouraging them to pursue legal action in the form of “frivolous lawsuits that clog Metro-East courts and delay justice for people with legitimate claims.”
He added even when companies prevail after the junk lawsuits are filed, the cost of fighting all the frivolous litigation causes companies to raise prices, ending in a “lawsuit tax” that’s made it harder for all Metro-East residents to survive.
According to the foundation report, studies have found the so-called “lawsuit tax” costs every resident in the state an average of over $800 per year, or over $3,000 for a family of four.
The report added, given the sizeable contributions personal injury lawyers routinely make to the campaigns of Illinois judges, it’s not surprising that the Madison and St. Clair counties are so favorable to plaintiffs.
“Judges will soon start asking us for our votes, and we should ask them if they will take campaign money from personal injury lawyers or if they will stand up to them and impose sanctions on those who file job-killing frivolous lawsuits in their courts,” according to the release.
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