Justice for Sale: The Judges of Madison County

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Justice for Sale:

The Judges of Madison County

Introduction

In a September 2002 Illinois State Senate Judiciary Subcommittee Hearing in Edwardsville, IL, a Metro-East lawyer expounded a theory about why businesses might have the upper-hand in class action lawsuits.He stated: “ My Golden Rule is follow the money.If you follow the money, you'll learn that the people with the gold rule.”¹ While it’s an interesting theory about class action lawsuit litigation, a majority of class action lawsuits never reach trial in Madison County and are instead settled out of court before corporate attorneys ever get a chance to flex their muscle in front of a jury.

Therefore, in an ongoing effort to attempt to quantify and explain why the documented 3,800 percent increase in class action lawsuit filings is happening in one Illinois circuit court,² the Illinois Civil Justice League and Illinois Lawsuit Abuse Watch studied more than 1,450 contribution transactions in Supreme Court, Appellate and Circuit-level judicial races revolving around Madison County candidates over a 23-year period. More than 150 pages of contributions documents were pulled from files at the State Board of Elections in Springfield, IL, and more recent contributions were studied from their online database. The total donations analyzed in the study equaled $791,661.(The summary of races included in the study is available in the Appendix tables).

Contributions were grouped into categories and classified by contributor. Those contributors were then cross-referenced through online searches, phone book advertisements and entries, and compared to other contributions. Contributions listed from spouses, family members, and past associates of law partners and business owners were grouped together to analyze the real sources of campaign influence in Metro-East judicial elections. The analysis of the trends and movement of these contributions over two decades of elections is summarized below.

About the Sponsors

Illinois Civil Justice League
http://www.icjl.org/

The Illinois Civil Justice League is a coalition of Illinois citizens, small and large businesses, associations, professional societies, not-for-profit organizations and local governments that have joined together to work for fairness in the Illinois civil justice system. The League's agenda is limited to working for, and preservation of, a civil justice system that is fair to all Illinois citizens and interests.

The League believes a fair and impartial judiciary is essential to a fair civil justice system. Thus the ICJL and its members will closely monitor the performance of judges and will evaluate the qualifications and experience of candidates for the judiciary.

The League believes the three branches of Illinois government, Executive, Legislative and Judiciary, are separate, with clearly defined responsibilities. One of the responsibilities of the Legislative branch is the establishment of public policy, including laws dealing with tort liability and other aspects of the Code of Civil Procedure. It is not the function of the Judiciary to establish public policy.

It is important to maintain public awareness of the problems of lawsuit abuse and thus the League will continue to serve as a champion for a fair civil justice system in the news media, through public speeches, and in the halls of government as necessary.

Illinois Lawsuit Abuse Watch
http://www.i-law.org/

Illinois Lawsuit Abuse Watch (I-LAW) is a grassroots watchdog group of concerned citizens, community leaders, small business people and non-profit organizations dedicated to educating the public about the widespread costs of lawsuit abuse. As a consequence of rampant lawsuit abuse in the Metro-East, health care is threatened, jobs are lost and economic opportunity is under siege.

As a broad-based, non-partisan watchdog group, I-LAW’s mission is to educate and alert the public about the overall costs of lawsuit abuse to Illinois consumers, taxpayers and small businesses. I-LAW communicates to the public through a variety of grassroots activities, including public forums, research studies, letters to local newspapers, appearances on radio and television talk shows, educational mailings and by speaking to interested individuals and groups.

I-LAW’s goal is to bring balance, fairness, responsibility and restraint to our civil justice system.Reducing the number of frivolous lawsuits will allow those individuals with legitimate claims to receive fair treatment and timely access to the courts. I-LAW focuses on the adverse effects of abusive and frivolous lawsuits on all Illinoisans. By raising the profile of lawsuit abuse, we believe there will be change in public understanding, attitude and behavior. Clearly, the system is out of control and needs correction, and correction begins with education.