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 Up three spots from last year’s rankings, Cook, Madison and St.
Clair counties have some of the most dysfunctional legal environments in America
and they play a central role in our state’s economic struggles and our
out-of-control cost of living. They are also catalysts in the mass exodus of
Illinois businesses and residents, which saw 40% more people leave the state
than move here in 2020.
The “hellhole” designation is due in large part to the fact that Illinois is one
of the friendliest jurisdictions for plaintiff’s attorneys in the nation, and
the stats back it up. Over the past five years, legal advertising has
skyrocketed 70% to well over $3 million annually, and Chicago alone had the
highest total in the country.
All these advertising dollars add up to money well spent for
the lawyers. Illinois lawmakers appear to spend more time tending to the needs
of trial attorneys than to those of their constituents or struggling business
owners. For example, Senate Bill 72, the Prejudgment Interest Act, puts
defendants on the hook for 6% interest on future damages the day a lawsuit is
filed, before they even have a chance to defend themselves in court.
As a result, many businesses are stuck between a bad choice and a worse choice:
pay a fortune to fight frivolous lawsuits in court with a chance you will lose
or pay a settlement to a legal troll in order to avoid legal fees, a possible
loss in court, and inflated interest penalties. And this is necessary even if
the lawsuit is meritless or the business is in the right. This is just the tip
of the iceberg.
Illinois’ courts may favor plaintiffs, but this doesn’t come without a steep
price. Attracting “excessive torts” to our courtrooms has resulted in almost
141,000 lost jobs, over $9.5 billion in lost wages, and over $27.5 billion in
lost economic output. As businesses are forced to keep more legal defense money
on the sidelines, pay more for insurance coverage, and take other precautions
against predatory litigation. Eventually, workforces must be slashed and prices
must be increased.
So, who really wins? Workers or their attorneys?
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Sadly, this all comes to a head in the form of a
“tort tax.” According to the American Tort Reform Foundation (ATRF),
lawsuit abuse costs each Illinois resident $1,049 annually. This is
simply untenable in a mismanaged state where the average family of
four owes more in unfunded pension liabilities ($76,000) than they
earn in household income ($63,585).
In the legal world, experts call trial attorneys’
search for the best courts for certain lawsuits “jurisdiction
shopping.” But in a country that prides itself on “equal justice
under the law” and “innocence until proven guilty,” why is shopping
even possible? The principals of justice should be the same across
the board, right?
Wrong. Unfortunately, it is “hellhole states” like
our own that have warped the civil justice system and created an
unfair playing field to be exploited by lawyers all over the
country. Our lawmakers have increasingly favored one side of the
coin at the expense of the other, and it hasn’t all been above
board, either (see former pro-trial bar Speaker of the House Michael
Madigan’s bribery scandal).
The country is still struggling through the COVID-19 pandemic, while
dealing with record inflation and a labor shortage, but Illinois is
getting hit harder than most. With increased costs, supply chain
bottlenecks, and shrinking workforces one would think lawmakers
might prioritize cutting burdensome, unnecessary costs on businesses
to help them survive.
Wrong again. Instead, lawmakers are doubling down on their supposed
“pro-worker” agenda by opening the floodgates for jurisdiction
shopping and meritless lawsuits. In the end, this only exacerbates
the job crisis as companies cannot afford to fight legal battles and
pay all their employees resulting in businesses fleeing from the
state and decreasing economic growth.
Thankfully, time hasn’t run out to right the ship. Lawmakers must
put special interests aside and meet this moment by prioritizing
reduced costs for businesses so we can bring workers back, lower
prices, and reignite our state’s economic engine. This must be a top
priority for our state lawmakers in 2022 if we want to get out of
our legal hellhole.
Zach Mottl is the 4th generation of his family to own and operate
Atlas Tool Works, Inc. in Lyons, Illinois.
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