January 24, 2008

Letters to the Editor
Crain’s Business

To the Editor:

Cook County and its world-class city Chicago have a lot to be proud of: great art, a first-rate symphony, the Lyric Opera and Nobel laureates almost too numerous to count.  But Cook County recently received a dubious award that is an embarrassment to the entire state: Cook County was named the third-ranking Judicial Hellhole in the nation!

Each year the American Tort Reform Association releases its list of the nation’s most unfair jurisdictions in which to be sued – “places where judges systematically apply laws and court procedures in an inequitable manner, generally against defendants in civil lawsuits.”

In ATRA’s judgment, the blow that cast the county into judicial perdition was Cook County Circuit Court Judge Diane Larsen’s November 13th ruling striking down the state’s major medical malpractice reform law as unconstitutional.  This piece of legislation capped noneconomic damages at $500,000 against doctors and $1 million against hospitals.  It received the bipartisan support of the Illinois legislature two years ago and was signed into law by Gov. Rod Blagojevich. 

But now that bill has been cast into limbo.  The judge’s ruling means that without relief from an anticipated Illinois Supreme Court review, the state will return to pre-2005 conditions when med-mal insurance rates were soaring and doctors were fleeing the state.

Heaven help us if we return to those days, because the costs tracing to Cook County’s skyrocketing litigation environment are huge and touch every Illinois citizen.  Consider that from 2001 to 2006, while the national gross domestic product grew 15 percent, Illinois’ rose by only 9 percent, or nearly 40 percent slower than the rest of the nation. 

To make things worse, according to the ATRA report, during that same period, “the country added 4.3 million new jobs, but Illinois actually managed to lose more than 60,000 jobs … as companies large and small hesitate to locate or expand in high-litigation jurisdictions.”

Illinois needs tort reform legislation that can pass judicial muster, and with good fortune the Illinois Supreme Court may overrule Judge Larsen’s decision.  With affordable, high quality health care hanging in the balance, we can only hope that is the case.  In the meantime, Illinoisans who care about the quality of life in our state must let their legislators know that one way or another, they must find a solution.  The time has come for Cook County to crawl out of the Hellhole!

Sincerely,

Shastri Swaminathan, M.D.
President-Elect, Illinois State Medical Society

Twenty North Michigan Avenue, Suite 700 Chicago, Illinois 60602 Web site: www.isms.org
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