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Gov. J.B. Pritzker recently signed into law an amendment to the
Wrongful Death Act that allows civil litigants to receive
punitive damages. The legislation was uniformly opposed by
business and trade groups, including the Illinois Retail
Merchants Association and the Illinois Chamber of Commerce.
“Lawmakers should not upend decades of legal precedent in order
to tilt the playing field even more in favor of wealthy trial
attorneys. This will further solidify Illinois’ reputation as a
poor place to do business and make job creators take a second
look at expanding or investing in Illinois,” the group said in a
statement.
Attorney Patrick Salvi testified in support of the legislation
and said the bill was being mislabeled.
“The manufacturers' association sent out an email that said this
is jackpot justice. None of my clients who lost family members
think they won the jackpot,” Salvi said.
Punitive damages are recoverable in wrongful death claims on
cases filed on or after Aug. 11, 2023, and punitive damages may
be sought on cases existing on the effective date.
State Rep. Dan Ugaste, R-Geneva, said without a monetary cap,
some companies may go under due to a large jury award.
“The plaintiff has to be considered, absolutely, but there's a
company there and maybe there are some bad actors within that
company, but there’s probably a whole lot of employees relying
on that company to feed their families and everything else that
may be adversely impacted by this as well,” Ugaste said.
Many states that do allow for punitive damages also limit both
punitive and non-economic damages in some way, which Illinois
does not. Iowa recently capped pain and suffering damages
resulting from truck crashes.
An analysis by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal
Reform found that Illinois is ranked sixth in the nation for
massive jury awards, which are classified as being $10 million
or more.
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