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Cook County checks in at No. 6 on list of worst U.S. 'Judicial Hellholes'

COOK COUNTY RECORD

Wednesday, December 11, 2024

Cook County checks in at No. 6 on list of worst U.S. 'Judicial Hellholes'

Reform
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Richard J. Daley Center, Chicago | Jonathan Bilyk

After Illinois state lawmakers took action to rein in some of the worst perceived lawsuit abuses under Illinois' controversial and stringent biometrics privacy law, Chicago's courts have eased back from the very top of the annual rankings of America's worst so-called "judicial hellholes."

But Cook County still falls high on a lawsuit reform group's list of the country's worst court systems, placing No. 6 in the U.S., according to the American Tort Reform Association's 2024-2025 "Judicial Hellholes" report.

ATRA compiles and publishes the list each year to draw attention to some of the country's courts that they believe are the most welcoming to lawsuits and most hostile to businesses and employers, when applying and interpreting the law and court rules.

As ever, the ATRA report asserts the alleged lawsuit abuse allowed in "judicial hellholes," like Cook County, produce significant real world costs for Americans.

The report cited research from The Perryman Group, estimating "lawsuit abuse and excessive tort costs" in Illinois cost the state economy more than $21.3 billion annually.

And much of that impact originates in Cook County, ATRA says. The "Hellholes" report cited Illinois court statistics showing that as recently as 2022, 54,544 lawsuits demanding more than $50,000 in damages were filed in Cook County Circuit Court. That accounted for 91% of all such lawsuits filed in all of Illinois' 102 counties, ATRA noted.

The report noted that Cook County accounts for 40% of the state's population.

"Based on these statistics, plaintiffs' lawyers filed one lawsuit seeking over $50,000 for every 94 Cook County residents in 2022," the authors of the report noted.

ATRA said that lawsuit activity has cost Cook County residents a so-called "tort tax" of $2,497 per person, while costing 195,924 jobs.

Cook County's courts came in behind five other court jurisdictions on the "Hellholes" list.

ATRA gave the top spot to the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

New York City came in at No. 2, followed by South Carolina's asbestos courts; the courts of the state of Georgia; and California's state court system.

Behind Cook County came the city courts of St. Louis at No. 7; the Michigan Supreme Court; King County, Washington, which includes the city of Seattle; and the state courts of Louisiana, rounding out the Top 10.

Elsewhere in Illinois, the courts of Madison and St. Clair counties earned "Dishonorable Mentions" on the list, as they remain some of the top hotspots for asbestos lawsuits.

Reforms a 'good first step'

ATRA said Cook County continues to be a hotbed for lawsuit abuses of various kinds.

Most notably, the "Hellholes" report pointed to the continued onslaught of lawsuits brought under the state's biometrics privacy law, known as the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA.)

Enacted in 2008, the Illinois BIPA law was ostensibly designed to safeguard the so-called unique identifying biometric information of employees and customers, including their fingerprints, facial geometry and other unique physical characteristics. Lawmakers at the time said the measure was inspired by the collapse of the company known as Pay By Touch, which had been among those pioneering the ability of consumers to pay for goods and services using fingerprint scanners.

Since 2015, however, the BIPA law has been used by a growing cadre of trial lawyers to target businesses of all types and sizes with an onslaught of thousands of class action lawsuits filed in Cook County and other courts in Illinois, and even in other states.

Some of the lawsuits famously targeted tech giants, resulting in headline-grabbing settlements worth hundreds of millions of dollars. 

The overwhelming bulk of BIPA litigation, though, has landed on employers in Illinois, who have been routinely accused of wrongly scanning workers' fingerprints, faces, voices and other biometric characteristics, without first obtaining written consent or providing notices about how that information might be stored, used, shared and destroyed, among other technical provisions in the law.

The ATRA report noted those lawsuits were greatly encouraged in recent years by a spate of decisions from the Illinois Supreme Court, making it easier and more lucrative to sue for potentially massive payouts without having to prove anyone was actually harmed for the allegedly improper biometric scans.

ATRA particularly pointed to two recent state Supreme Court rulings, which combined to declare that plaintiffs could demand damages of $1,000-$5,000 per biometric scan - not per person - stretching back over a five year period. Thus, when multiplied across potentially hundreds or even thousands of potential class action plaintiffs, defendants targeted by BIPA lawsuits could face potentially "astronomical" payouts.

Business groups and reform advocates have for years noted that the biggest winners in such lawsuits are the plaintiffs' lawyers who file them, as they have reportedly claimed as much as 40% of all of the funds paid out through BIPA suits.

The ATRA report noted that after the most recent BIPA ruling from the state Supreme Court, BIPA lawsuit filings surged by 65%.

Months later, Democrats in Springfield this year at last moved to enact some BIPA reforms. Under the new version of the law, BIPA plaintiffs can only demand damages on a per person basis, not per biometric scan, potentially drastically reducing the risk faced by businesses targeted by such lawsuits.

ATRA said the reform measure "marks a good first step towards addressing the series of abuses occurring under BIPA."

But, citing an an analysis from attorney Matt Provance of the law firm of Mayer Brown, ATRA noted: "... Concerns remain as 'even at one statutory recovery per plaintiff, the liability implications for the statute are huge and outsized to any actual harm or injury in almost all conceivable situations."

Lawsuits, beyond BIPA

And ATRA said some plaintiffs' lawyers have already pivoted from BIPA to "the next wave of class action abuse" under a different state law, known as the Genetic Information Privacy Act (GIPA.) 

Like BIPA, GIPA offers a "broad definition of 'genetic information' and the availability of substantial statutory damages," worth up to $15,000 per violation. The report notes the law firm of Seyfarth Shaw reported more than 60 GIPA lawsuit were filed in Illinois in 2023, compared to just two such cases in the preceding 25 years combined.  

To date, the bulk of the GIPA lawsuits have sought paydays from employers who asked job applicants for personal and family medical history as part of the onboarding process. The lawsuits asserted such screenings and questions amount to improper demands for genetic information.

Aside from class actions under BIPA and GIPA, the "Hellholes" report again called out Cook County and Illinois courts for being among the top destinations for most food and beverage class action filings. 

Overall, Illinois ranked fourth nationally for such litigation activity, trailing only courts in California, New York and Missouri.

"Illinois is a magnet for these types of lawsuits because it has one of the 'broadest, most flexible' consumer protection laws which makes it ripe for abuse," the report authors wrote.

At the same time, ATRA said asbestos lawsuit activity picked up in Cook County once again in recent months. From Aug. 1, 2023, to July 31, 2024, 95 lawsuits were filed by litigants seeking to force businesses to pay up for allegedly causing lung cancer by exposing them or family members to asbestos, either on the job or through the use of baby powder, which contained talc.

 That was up 33.8% compared to the prior 12-month period, even as asbestos lawsuits only increased 8%, the report said.

The report noted a Cook County jury awarded a $45 million verdict against Johnson & Johnson, over claims their baby powder contained asbestos. And in July, a Cook County jury awarded $24 million to the family of a janitor who contracted mesothelioma, which he blamed on exposure to alleged asbestos-containing talc at Avon's facility in Chicago's suburbs, despite evidence showing Avon had begun working to eliminate talc at the facility at least a decade before the janitor began working there.

Much more to come?

However, even as "abusive" lawsuit activity continues to climb in Cook County's courts, the report said such activity could only increase faster in coming years, if trial lawyers again have their way before the Illinois Supreme Court.

Currently, the Illinois Supreme Court is considering petitions from both the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association and their political ally, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, to abolish the legal doctrine known as intrastate forum non conveniens in the state.

Under this doctrine, courts are asked to ensure that lawsuits are filed in courts in counties in which an injury or incident may have occurred, or to which the parties are most closely connected.

Courts are then empowered to transfer lawsuits to other counties if defendants, particularly, can establish the suit was wrongly filed in a particular county.

The report notes "this most often occurs when plaintiffs' lawyers file lawsuits in Cook County but their client lives, and the accident or injury occurred, elsewhere."

ATRA said the doctrine serves an important role, preventing trial lawyers from engaging in "blatant forum shopping," as they seek particular courts or judges known to be more friendly to plaintiffs.

ATRA said the doctrine also spreads the workload throughout the state, putting cases in the proper communities and before the proper juries.

Raoul and the ITLA have argued the doctrine is outdated and unnecessary, given the benefits of modern technology, which can allow for more remote proceedings.

But ATRA said the trial lawyers' real motivation for seeking the change arises from a desire to plow more lawsuits into Cook County's already heavily burdened courts, where they hope to continue to reap massive jury verdicts - or use the threat of such destructive trials to extract lucrative settlements.

"Should the Court accept the plaintiffs' bar's invitation to abolish the doctrine, plaintiffs' lawyers can be expected to file many more cases in Cook County and other plaintiff-friendly Illinois counties," ATRA warned. 

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