Studies: Cook County No. 6 ‘judicial hellhole,’ lawsuit abuse costs each Illinois family $4,281
Jackpot justice in Illinois recently drew the ire of two national groups. Cook County was labeled a leading “judicial hellhole.” Lawsuit abuse imposes a $4,281 cost on each Illinois household. State lawmakers, trial lawyers and plaintiff-friendly courts are to blame.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a judicial watchdog group in new reports have both slammed Illinois trial lawyers and the laws and courts that enable them.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform found Illinois tort costs come in at $4,281 per household. Tort payouts in Illinois totaled over $21 billion in 2022, equal to 2.1% of Illinois’ gross domestic product.
Costs rose by an average of 7.4% per year since 2016. The report noted the U.S. tort system racked up $529 billion in costs in 2022, with growth in tort costs since 2016 outpacing inflation at a rate of 7.1%.
Cook County ranked No. 6 in the U.S. on the list of judicial hellholes compiled by the American Tort Reform Foundation. In 2022, over 50,000 civil cases seeking over $50,000 were filed in Cook County Circuit Court. That was 91% of the big civil cases filed statewide that year – one case for every 94 residents compared to Illinois’ No. 2 county, DuPage, where there was one civil case per 15,608 residents.
Among the most notorious sources of recent tort litigation is Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act. Under this law, an employer was held liable for collecting biometric identification from an employee, such as a fingerprint scan used to access a computer or clock in. As originally written, the law allowed damages for each instance without proving harm and threatened to bankrupt the White Castle fast food chain.
State lawmakers this year changed the law to allow for just one violation per individual. That significantly curtailed the damages that could be sought.
The group noted trial lawyers have been busy buying state lawmakers to keep the lawsuits flowing. The Illinois Trial Lawyers Association PAC put over $616,000 into state lawmakers’ campaigns during the 12 months ending in September, part of $11.8 million invested since 1994.
It’s not just state courts handing out big awards. Since 2022, the foundation noted 13 verdicts of over $10 million have been awarded by the federal court in the Northern District of Illinois. Even cases settled out of court can cost millions: 7-Eleven recently settled for $91 million with an individual injured when a car crashed through one of its storefronts.
Class-action tort cases often yield hefty paydays for the lawyers despite delivering negligible payouts to their catch-all client list. These kinds of cases drain the resources of their targets but do little to make the “victims” whole while enriching the trial lawyers.
“The U.S. tort system is in desperate need of strategic reforms that promote economic growth and lower costs for American households,” said U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform President Stephen Waguespack. “Plaintiffs’ lawyers and litigation funders are getting bigger paydays at the expense of consumers and businesses. The higher the price tag, the more consumers pay for products and services, and businesses see an increase in their liability burden.”