When last the Indiana Law Blog mentioned Madison County, Illinois, I believe it was in connection with the tobacco suits. An entry from 8/24/03, titled "Forum Shopping in Illinois," reported that the county is known as a "plaintiff's paradise."
This story from Friday, 4/16/04, from the Illinois Leader, titled "Former attorney general condemns Madison County's court system," begins:
MADISON COUNTY -- Former U.S. Attorney General Griffin Bell this week called for a U.S. Justice Department investigation of the Madison County, Ill., court system, which some court observers say may be the most out-of-control jurisdiction in the United States.According to the rpoert, Bell stated that "About 25 percent of all asbestos cases nationwide in which the plaintiff suffers from mesothelioma are filed in Madison County."The 86-year-old Bell, who served as Attorney General under President Jimmy Carter and also fifteen years as a federal judge, made his call during an appearance at the Washington University Law School in St. Louis, Mo., across the Mississippi River from Madison County. While Bell attacked Madison County's court system, plaintiff's attorney and former Madison County Judge Randall Bono shouted across the table at Bell.
Several panelists argued with Bell but none more heatedly than Bono. Bell criticized a mesothelioma case Bono handled for an Indiana man who last year won a $250 million judgment against U.S. Steel. * * * Bono responded by shouting at Bell: "You are a corporate advocate. I trust the American judicial system because I trust my fellow citizens to do the right thing."Last weekend the St. Louis Post Dispatch carried a story about doctors fleeing Illinois because of an "astounding rise in malpractice insurance rates." More:
The good news is that the Illinois legislature seems determined to do something about it this year, although no one is sure what. * * *Posted by Marcia Oddi at April 17, 2004 04:43 PMOn the table in Springfield are quite a few proposals. Senate minority leader Frank Watson, R-Greenville, has a bright idea: Multicounty malpractice courts. The idea is that judges specializing in malpractice would handle cases more efficiently, but that's not what makes this idea so appealing. The real genius of regional malpractice courts is that they would pull cases out of Madison and St. Clair counties. Especially in Madison County, a combination of aggressive lawyers and go-along judges have unfairly tilted the scales of justice against doctors and hospitals. Doctors in Madison County are sued at twice the rate of doctors elsewhere.
That's why a doctor's malpractice insurance rates can drop nearly 90 percent when he moves out of Madison County. And a lot of doctors are doing just that. In the past two years, 28 of the 220 physicians in northern Madison County have left, and only five have moved in, according to Ron McMullen, president of Alton Memorial Hospital.