Illinois ranks high for creating lawsuits, not jobs

This holiday season, Illinois is shrouded in a cloud of uncertainty. The State of Illinois still does not have a budget and our state’s economy seems to be stuck in neutral.

A recent report ranking Illinois the third worst state in the country for legal fairness paints another grim picture of Illinois. The 2015 Lawsuit Climate Survey, conducted by Harris Poll, ranks Illinois near the bottom of the nation in terms of its lawsuit environment – 48th worst of the 50 states.

These important but depressing rankings come from a new national study that confirms Illinois’ status as a lawsuit haven, which is keeping away employers and damaging job growth here. The 2015 Lawsuit Climate Survey, conducted by Harris Poll, ranks Illinois near the bottom of the nation in terms of its lawsuit environment – 48th worst of the 50 states.

Illinois’ lawsuit climate ranked beneath every state in the region, cementing Illinois’ status as the “Lawsuit Abuse Capital of the Midwest.” Further, the survey finds that two of the five worst local jurisdictions in the nation for lawsuit fairness are in Illinois – Cook and Madison Counties.

The survey results came from interviews of more than 1,200 corporate lawyers and senior executives at companies with more than $100 million in revenue. In other words, the survey is a glimpse inside the minds of the leaders who make crucial business decisions for successful companies — decisions like where to move or expand their operations.

Over 75 percent of the business leaders surveyed by Harris Poll for this report say lawsuit climate is a “significant factor” in determining where to expand and grow. The reality is companies look to move to states where the legal climate is fair, which is why Illinois’ status as the third-worst state in the country for legal fairness is making it extremely difficult to attract new employers.

Even worse, Illinois is actually losing jobs, as companies have moved across our borders to states like Wisconsin that have recently passed common sense lawsuit reforms to make it less likely that businesses there will be frivolously sued.

Fortunately, Governor Bruce Rauner has proposed a package of common sense lawsuit reforms as a key part of his “Turnaround Agenda” that will reduce the abuse of Illinois courts by aggressive personal injury lawyers, take the lawsuit target off the backs of small businesses and in turn help create jobs in Illinois.

Specifically, Governor Rauner has proposed lawsuit reform legislation that includes a proposal that will stop personal injury lawyers from all over the country who travel to Illinois and clog our courts with junk lawsuits that have nothing to do with Illinois, all in the hopes of striking it rich playing our state’s plaintiff-friendly lawsuit lottery. This practice, often called “venue shopping,” is all too common in Illinois – the Harris Poll report ranked Illinois the worst state in the country for venue abuse and court shopping.

We need to create jobs in Illinois, not more lawsuits, which is why Governor Rauner should be applauded for taking the lead to weed out junk lawsuits here and restore fairness to our courts. Governor Rauner’s reasonable, common sense lawsuit reforms will create jobs and unclog our courts, which will speed the legal process for those with legitimate claims.

Illinoisans should contact their legislators and ask them if they will stand with the personal injury lawyers, who are the only ones who profit from this unfair system, or the small businesses and individual citizens who are far too frequently targets of unfair frivolous lawsuits and are made to pay for personal injury lawyer greed.

The time for lawsuit reform is now.

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Illinois Lawsuit Abuse Watch (I-LAW) is a grassroots watchdog group of concerned citizens, community leaders and small business people dedicated to educating the public about the widespread costs of lawsuit abuse. I-LAW has more than 20,000 supporters throughout Illinois. Anyone interested in becoming a supporter of I-LAW or learning more about stopping lawsuit abuse in Illinois can visit www.ILLawsuitAbuseWatch.org.