Firm News

In November we were sad to say goodbye to Kathy Blair, who has been a Legal Assistant with our practice for many years and a very important addition to our staff. Kathy has made a decision to retire so that she can visit family on both coasts. We wish her all the luck and happiness in her retirement. With Kathy’s retirement we were proud to bring onboard Karin Jenkin as our newest Legal Assistant. Karin comes to us with a BS degree in Paralegal Studies from Kaplan University. She will be joining Diane Lundbeck and Chloe Brady on our staff of Legal Assistants. We welcome Karin to our staff.

Rick was named as Chair of the Illinois State Bar Association Civil Practice and Procedure Section Council in June of 2007, and will serve until June of 2008. As Chair this year, it is his responsibility to host the Allerton Conference at Starved Rock Lodge on the Illinois River. The Civil Practice and Procedure Section Council is the largest Section in the Illinois State Bar Association. Rick continues to serve as an Assembly Representative for the 16th Judicial Circuit in the Illinois State Bar Association, representing members of the Bar from DeKalb, Kane and Kendall counties.

The Leading Lawyer’s Network of Illinois named Rick as a Leading Lawyer again for the third year in a row in the areas of personal injury and workers’ compensation law. Only those lawyers who are most often recommended by their peers, in a statewide survey, are eligible for membership in the Leading Lawyer’s Network.

We were pleased to resolve several cases on behalf of clients in workers’ compensation, wrongful death and personal injury claims in the past year, some successfully and some not so successfully. We will continue to strive to represent out clients to the best of our ability in jury trials in the courts of the State and before the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission. The insurance industry and other corporate interests continue to skew the public debate with respect to the importance of the right to jury trial and the importance of the right for injured persons and injured workers, as well as the families of individuals whose death has been caused by
negligence, to pursue their right to remedies in the tribunals that are available to them. We will continue to do everything we can to fight those special interests and to fight the propaganda that, unfortunately, pollutes the jury system.

Legal News of General Interest

Myth Buster-Facts about Civil Litigation in Illinois and the United States Contrary to popular myth propagated by insurance companies and manufacturing associations, among others, very few people injured in America file lawsuits. Only 10% of injured Americans ever file a claim for compensation. Only 2% actually file lawsuits. Academics who have studied this issue generally agree that there is no evidence indicating that “frivolous lawsuits” are a
problem. The Rand Institute for Civil Justice, a nationally recognized independent think tank, as well as several academic studies have confirmed these facts. From 1995 through 2004, the total number of “tort” lawsuits for fifteen states reported showing a downward trend. (A “tort” claim is a claim for a personal injury arising out of alleged negligence or intentional harm). Tort filings in thirty states reported in a separate study declined 9% from 1992 to 2001.

However, people continue to be injured as a result of negligence count particularly in the area of medical malpractice. Between 44,000 and 98,000 Americans die each year as a result of medical
errors in hospitals alone. Yet eight times as many patients are injured as ever file a claim according to a study by the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine and a Harvard
Medical Practice study. A recent Harvard School of Public Health study found that when closely-examined, 1,452 closed claims concluded that “portraits of a malpractice system that is stricken with frivolous litigation are overblown”. The study found that most injuries resulting in claims were caused by medical error, and that those that were not were, nevertheless, not“frivolous”.

Studies confirm that civil trials as a result of negligence arising out of claims for injury or death are not clogging the courts. The vast majority of tort cases are resolved by neither juries nor judges. In studies of state courts, in 2004, of nine states reporting, the median percentage of civil cases disposed of by trial was one-half of one percent. No state reported a jury trial rate of over 4%. The number of tort trials decided by a jury declined 23% from 1992 to 2001, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics of the U.S. Department of Justice in a study released in November of 2004. The number of tort trials concluded in U.S. District Courts declined by 80% from 1985 through 2003, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics of the U.S. Department of Justice.

It is readily apparent to anyone who studies this matter with an independent, unbiased view, that the claims by the President of the United States and others who are seeking to restrict the rights
of members of the public to access to the courts that there are “frivolous lawsuits” clogging the courts is completely false and misleading and not based on any substantive evidence.
For more information on this topic please visit The Center for Justice and Democracy at their website at www.centerjd.org.

The Legal Climate in Illinois is not Adverse to Business

Despite what big business is advertising on the radio and in billboard and print media, the Illinois economy is strong and growing. Site Selection Magazine ranks Illinois 13th among the fifty states in its list of top business climates in the nation in its November 2005 issue. Site Selection Magazine also named Chicago/Cook County as Corporate America’s Top Metropolitan Area for securing the most new and expanded corporate facility projects in the country in 2005. The U.S. Small Business Administrations 2006 Small Business Profile of Illinois shows a 7% increase in new Illinois businesses in 2005, which is 2.5% higher than the national average.

So why does big business want to change the civil justice system in Illinois? The fact is that they do not want our courts to hold them accountable when they engage in business practices that hurt or kill people – even when they dump poisonous chemicals into our water supply, hide the deadly side affects of prescription drugs they manufacture or keep dangerous products on the market. When they stonewall on legitimate claims of citizens in this state who have been injured and seek just compensation, they blame “the system” when, in effect, it is their own greed for profits that is the motivating factor.

Insurers are doing very well in Illinois. Over the last three years, the state’s largest medical malpractice insurance carrier, I.S.M.I.E. Mutual Insurance Company, has reported profits of 11.7 million dollars, 23.5 million dollars and 50.2 million dollars, in their annual statements for 2004, 2005, and 2006. State Farm Insurance, the nation’s largest insurance company, reported profits of 5.3 billion dollars in 2006.

It is extremely important that citizens in the State of Illinois not allow big business or the insurance companies to pull the wool over their eyes. The court system in Illinois serves a very important function, and independent juries are the most important protection that we have, other than the ballot box, to prevent abuse and to foster fairness. For more please visit the website at www.ProtectOurCourts.org.