Joyce and Pastuovic
The American Tort Reform Association (ATRA) and Illinois Civil Justice League (ICJL) are urging Governor J.B. Pritzker to veto House Bill 3360 which passed the Illinois State House at 3:08 a.m. Wednesday.
The bill co-sponsored by Rep. Jay Hoffman (D-Belleville) will increase the amount of interest personal injury plaintiffs can collect if successful in court by lengthening the accrual period to when the person or entity being sued is informed of injury, versus when a lawsuit is filed.
“We urge the governor to veto this rushed and misguided bill,” ATRA president Tiger Joyce stated in a release. “Given the state’s economic standing, we hope the governor will seek solutions to create a stronger economy – and not push the state deeper into disrepair,” he added.
Illinois lawmakers spent nearly all of 2020 at home, choosing to let Gov. J.B. Pritzker navigate the COVID-19 pandemic without their guidance and seeing only a handful of new laws take effect in 2021. But, the final days of their session saw a flurry of legislation along with some high-profile bills that stalled out.
The country is now
four costly COVID stimulus packages deep. By now there is ample evidence that “stimulus” money is fleeting and can only take us so far. What the country really needs from Congress are not repetitive shots in the arm, but substantive legislative reforms to help our economy re-open
and stay open. Unfortunately, this requires hard work by both Houses, at a time when it is far easier to just keep piling hundreds of billions of dollars onto the already unimaginably huge national debt.
To be sure, unemployed citizens and small business owners struggling because of government-mandated shutdowns deserve monetary relief, but direct payments are at best a stop gap measure. Also, such funding represents only a fraction of overall spending included in the most recent omnibus bill. This massive spending bill once again fails to include any reforms to address the myriad underlying conditions related to the pandemic most importantly, COVID-related liability reform.
Itâs that time of year when youâre thinking holidays and presents under the tree. But business is thinking the annual Judicial Hellholes report.
Judicial hellholes are the most unjust local courts and state civil justice systems in the country. American Tort Reform Foundation, a nonprofit founded in 1997, produces the report to educate the general public about how the American civil justice system operates, the role of tort law in the civil justice system, and the impact of tort law on the private, public and business sectors.
In 2020, the foundation ranks nine judicial hellholes, shining a light on lawsuit abuse and its effects. Louisiana made the report for the eighth consecutive year.
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Good Monday morning, Illinois. Democracy takes center stage today as members of the Electoral College make the decision final almost anyway.
TOP TALKER
The Illinois House Democratic Women’s Caucus is looking within its ranks to determine the next speaker of the House.