Editorâs note: This story is part of an ongoing âLame Duck Look Backâ series in which Capitol News Illinois is following up on the major bills that passed both chambers of the General Assembly in the Jan. 8-13 lame duck session.
SPRINGFIELD â The Illinois General Assembly last week pushed through legislation to allow victims in all personal injury and wrongful death cases to collect interest on money they were awarded by a court starting from the moment the alleged injury or death took place.
House Bill 3360 is meant to deter companies or individuals who are sued from intentionally stalling or delaying cases that would be successful at trial, according to the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association â a major lobbying force behind the bill.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. â The Illinois General Assembly last week pushed through legislation to allow victims in all personal injury and wrongful death cases to collect interest on money they were awarded by a court starting from the moment the alleged injury or death took place.
House Bill 3360 is meant to deter companies or individuals who are sued from intentionally stalling or delaying cases that would be successful at trial, according to the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association â a major lobbying force behind the bill.
The bill sets prejudgment interest at 9%, the same rate used in Illinois for post judgment interest, which is collected in cases after the court issues a judgment award. The only prejudgment interest, under current Illinois law, is a 5% interest that applies to damages in specific cases that do not include personal injury or wrongful death cases.
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Illinois law has not previously recognized prejudgment interest in tort actions for personal injury or wrongful death. Instead, Illinois’ judgment interest statute only imposes post-judgment interest in tort actions at the rate of 9 percent per year from the date of the judgment’s entry through the date of the judgment’s satisfaction. See 735 ILCS 5/2-1303(a) (section 1303). This may change, however, following the General Assembly’s passage of House Bill 3360 on January 13, 2021, which amends section 1303 to impose prejudgment interest in tort actions.
House Bill 3360 states that prejudgment interest at the rate of 9 percent per year is to be imposed in all tort actions seeking recovery for personal injury or wrongful death. It states further that prejudgment interest begins to accrue “on the date the defendant has notice of the injury from the incident itself or a written notice”:
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