The U.S. Chamber of Commerce says an arbitrator's order would allow lawsuit investors, including foreign interests, to use U.S. courts to further their strategic interests. Burford Capital says court fight is merely Sysco's attempt to avoid contractural obligations and deny Burford the chance to protect $140M investment
The U.S. Supreme Court says Southwest Airlines ramp workers are involved in interstate commerce, and should be given exemption under federal law from mandatory arbitration clauses in their employment contracts
SB1099, the so-called Consumer Legal Funding Act, would produce even more lawsuits, that take longer to settle, while allowing lawsuit investors to charge 18% interest rates, assessed every 6 months, to people borrowing money to fund lawsuits, business groups say
A trade association representing lawsuit lenders in Illinois says business groups' push for greater transparency and disclosure rules for lawsuit lending would unfairly harm plaintiffs
A judge has granted a temporary restraining order to business groups who accused the Pritzker administration of illegally enacting new workers' comp rules to leave employers to "pick up the tab" for COVID illness
Facebook wants the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a federal appellate court's ruling allowing a class action worth potentially billions of dollars to continue under an Illinois biometrics privacy law, as the company argues plaintiffs weren't harmed and the case would be too sprawling.
The pain from lawsuits in Illinois isn’t limited to the purses of the companies that get sued, but is spread to the pocketbooks of every state resident, a new report said, estimating the state’s high level of litigious activity costs the average Chicago area resident $811 each, every year.
A recent decision from a California federal appeals court has handed a big win to a group of plaintiffs seeking to use an Illinois privacy law to squeeze Facebook for potentially billions of dollars, and could forebode a date before the U.S. Supreme Court, should trial lawyers seek to use the decision to boost other attempts to sidestep the high court’s earlier attempt to limit their ability to bring large class actions over claims in which no one suffered any actual harm.
Facebook will need to face a class action under Illinois’ biometrics privacy law for its face-tagging technology, as a federal appeals court in California rejected both the social media giant’s attempt to argue the plaintiffs couldn’t prove they were actually harmed by the program, and Facebook’s contention a class action would dissolve into a pool of “mini-trials” over individual Illinois residents’ claims.
With one judge saying he found “troubling” the potential harm to patients from decreased incentives for drug makers to develop new breakthrough medications, a federal appellate panel in Chicago hashed out some of the legal questions surrounding the appeal of jury’s verdict ordering GlaxoSmithKline to pay $3 million to the widow of a Chicago lawyer who committed suicide, and whose family has accused the pharmaceutical company of failing to warn that a generic version of its drug Paxil could raise a patient’s risk of suicide.
A $250 million lawsuit now pending against Cook County over its use of transportation-related tax money could be just the beginning of lawsuits against governments throughout Illinois over transportation funds in coming months under the Illinois Safe Roads Amendment.
A recent survey by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform reveals South Dakota is ranked No. 1 among states for having business-friendly legal environment.
Cook County's increasingly bad reputation for attracting lawsuits from across the nation has contributed significantly to helping the state rank again among the worst legal climates in the nation in a recent national survey.
An expert on consumer financing law says a recent action filed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in Chicago federal court could have far-reaching effects on tribal lending, and more generally, restrict the availability of some forms of consumer credit.
At a meeting today of Chicago area business owners and leaders, U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue said the country needs to "restart the growth engine" with capital and other financial products and services that businesses and consumers need.
A Chicago-based firm which has grown in the past three years to become one of the leading sources of financing in the U.S. for plaintiffs lawyers seeking to bring a variety of lawsuits in civil courts across the country has merged with its rival investment house to create the largest third-party litigation financing company in the world.
CHICAGO – "Star Wars" creator and digital effects technology pioneer George Lucas recently announced the group led by him and his wife, financial executive and Chicago native Mellody Hobson, was abandoning efforts to build a futuristic museum showcasing his art collection on Chicago's lakefront.
The courts of Cook and Madison counties, as well as the state of Illinois, have again ranked very poorly in the eyes of business leaders, a survey says, hampering the state’s economic growth, reducing the state’s tax haul, and making it more difficult to pay Illinois’ bills and provide needed public services, according to Ill. Gov. Bruce Rauner and representatives of the nation's largest business association.
Recent headlines depict just a few examples of American citizens unknowingly put in harm’s way, seriously injured or killed due to defective products and unsafe food: “Death toll from GM ignition switches rises to 42,” “Takata airbag victims looked like they had been shot or stabbed,” and “Packaged caramel apples linked to five deaths, CDC says.”
QuinnLabeling him “America’s worst governor,” the Wall Street Journal notes in a Dec. 22 editorial that Pat Quinn in his final days as chief executive enacted two laws that are “stocking stuffers” for the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association.Quinn on Friday signed into law legislation, Senate Bill 3075, that will reduce the number of jurors hearing civil cases from 12 to six and increase juror pay to
