|
Marathon Strategies found that juries in Illinois state and
federal courts issued multi-million dollar verdicts against
corporations that have totaled $3.3 billion since the Great
Recession of 2009.
Several factors are driving the awards up, including Illinois’
Biometric Information Privacy Act, said Marathon Strategies CEO
Phil Singer. Cook, Madison and St. Clair counties have become a
magnet for asbestos and “no-injury” lawsuits. Notably, October
2022 was the first time a biometrics privacy class action
lawsuit, Rogers v. BNSF Railway Co., went to trial in the state
for violating BIPA, resulting in a $228 million verdict to a
class of more than 45,000 truckers.
There is a growing call for Illinois lawmakers to make changes
to BIPA, after the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that each time
someone’s biometric data is collected constitutes a separate
violation of BIPA, prompting potentially large fines and civil
action. Two bills that would update BIPA remain stuck in the
committee.
Singer said local advertisements for legal services in Illinois
increased by 13% from 2017-2021, and the number of ads produced
increased by 28%.
“There is also a variety of trial tactics that have emerged
where plaintiffs’ lawyers will make arguments that are designed
to appeal to the emotional part of the brain in order to try to
get juries to be more open to larger and more punitive damages,”
Singer told The Center Square.
The analysis found that both federal and state courts in Chicago
drove a vast majority of the state’s "nuclear verdicts." This
includes 14 verdicts in the Cook County Circuit Court that
totaled more than $957 million and one case in U.S. District
Court for the Northern District that totaled a $734 million
verdict.
Cook County ranked fifth in the nation in the 2022-2023
"Judicial Hellholes" report ranking the worst judicial systems
in the country.
Nationwide, the median "nuclear verdict" against corporate
defendants jumped from $21.5 million in 2020 to $41 million in
2022, a 95% increase.
“This report is in no way shape or form taking sides between
plaintiff’s lawyers and defense attorneys,” said Singer. “We’re
just pointing out some of the trends in our research we think
have led to these large awards.”
Kevin Bessler reports on statewide issues in
Illinois for the Center Square. He has over 30 years of
experience in radio news reporting throughout the Midwest.
|
|
