Editor’s Note: Illinois counties listed as ‘Judicial Hellholes’ – deja vu

Just last year at this same time the 2005 ranking of the worst court systems in the country was released by the American Tort Reform Foundation. Illinois had three of the six listed then and unfortunately, we have the same percentage for 2006. It seemed like a deja vu moment to me. Cook, Madison and St. Clair counties again are ranked as three of the court jurisdictions with the worst records in the country in the new 2006 list. It is little solace that Illinois’ counties are the bottom three in the listing. The rankings are: West Virginia, South Florida, Rio Grande Valley and Gulf Coast of Texas, Cook County, Ill., Madison County, Ill., and St. Clair County, Ill.

These jurisdictions all have the same criteria in common — that is — that they are venues or “Judicial Hellholes” where judges systematically apply laws and court procedures in an unfair and unbalanced manner, generally against defendants, in civil lawsuits.

For example, Cook County is known for its general hostility toward corporate defendants. It hosts a disproportionate share of the state’s lawsuits, has experienced a surge in asbestos claims, and is popular for class actions. Evidently that scenario has changed very little since 2005.

In addition, despite the public airing on all of this, old habits are hard to change.

“What many will find interesting about this year’s report is that the top six Hellholes are in states that recently enacted significant tort reforms, yet a handful of judges are either ignoring those reforms or otherwise abusing their discretion to distort cases in favor of plaintiffs,” said ATRF President Sherman Joyce.

Positive note

On a more positive note, the study did say that recent actions by some local judges and rulings by the Illinois Supreme Court this past year were encouraging signs of improvement in Madison County. In fact the Illinois Supreme Court is listed in the ATRF “Points of Light.” And, no other county in Illinois mae the “Watch list.”

The Judicial Hellhole report is listed as a Top Ten Story – 2006 (see pages 34 and 35) in this issue. You may want to take a look and also check out the other stories.

My hope is that next year there will be more improvement in the Illinois counties on the list; maybe one will be dropped from the list. If that happens there will be no “deja vu” for me next year and no Illinois listing in Judicial Hellholes to be included as a 2007 Top Ten story. And that would be a very good thing.

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Topics Illinois