Guest columnist Kathy C. Byrne: New lawsuit rules have leveled playing field for 'working Joes'
The June 7 guest column from Wade Keats ("The cost of doing business in Illinois has reached critical mass") makes much of the "stacked costs" of businesses. But stacking layers of misinformation to impugn laws intended to help protect citizens from corporate malfeasance does a great disservice to the public's understanding of these issues.
Mr. Keats complains about the state's recent adoption of prejudgment interest for personal injury cases. Rather than making us an outlier, this new law brings Illinois in line with the 46 other states which already have some form of prejudgment interest on the books.
The reason it was necessary to enact is that businesses and their insurers had adopted a practice of dragging out legal proceedings for years in even the most open-and-shut cases in which they were clearly at fault. Their reason for using delay tactics was to try and force they people they had harmed into accepting much smaller settlements than would have received after a trial. Companies have the financial means to play the long game and pay lawyers, but people who have medical bills, mortgages and other obligations to meet do not. The more time that passes the more desperate they will become and thus willing to take what they can get, even if far from just.
It was an uneven playing field badly tilted against the little guy. Prejudgment interest helps to somewhat balance that out by requiring companies to pay interest on the final judgment back to the day the lawsuit was filed. If the company prevails, of course, they owe nothing. However, if the injured person wins, they receive that interest.
The benefit is that it incentivizes companies to resolve cases as quickly as possible, thus reducing expenses for taxpayers and lessening the burden on our already overburdened court system.
Prejudgment interest speaks the only language deep-pocketed corporations, health care conglomerates and insurance companies (the same entities who fund the front group responsible for the inflammatory disinformation contained in the "Judicial Hellhole" report cited in the column) understand: money.
Illinois has allowed prejudgment interest in business v. business contract lawsuits for decades. Prejudgment interest has proven to be effective at encouraging swifter resolution in those cases. So, if it is good for the big business goose, why not the working Joe gander?
Additionally, Mr. Keats claims Illinois' interest rate of 6% is the "highest in the country." Not true. Multiple states, including neighboring Indiana, have higher rates than Illinois.
Illinois balances the economic interests of businesses with the need to hold accountable those that negligently or willfully cause injury or death. Complaints that plaintiffs' lawyers abuse the system by filing bogus cases couldn't be further from reality. The number of civil cases filed in Illinois has dropped 51% since 2010. In Cook County, home to Mr. Keats' own manufacturing business, the number of lawsuits has dropped a whopping 54% since 2010.
State law creates incentives for businesses to take safety seriously - and data show this approach has succeeded by reducing the incidence of worker injury. The rate of injury in Illinois (2.6 cases per 100 full time employees) is significantly lower than in Wisconsin (3.7), Iowa (3.4), Indiana (3.1) and Michigan (3.3). Fewer workers injured should be cause for celebration, not complaint.
Moreover, workers' comp costs to Illinois employers have dropped for over a decade as have the number of workers' compensation cases filed.
When a worker is hurt on the job, someone must pay for the cost of helping them to recover. Critics like Mr. Keats - who owns a successful manufacturing company that despite the alleged terrible business climate has managed to thrive in Illinois for 65 years - would rather the injured employee or taxpayers bear the brunt for uncompensated medical costs and financial support. That's a classic example of socializing losses and privatizing profits.
Illinois remains a strong state for business. Our GDP exceeded $1 trillion for the first time last year and Site Selection magazine reported that we were second in the nation for corporate projects, with Chicago its top metropolitan area for the 10th year in a row.
We should be proud and thankful to live here, instead of in a state that leaves injured people to fend for themselves and that embraces race-to-the-bottom policies that profit very few while leaving most worse off.
• Kathy C. Byrne is president of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association.