May, 2006

The President’s Thoughts

“Twelve jurors cared. Twelve jurors, acting for the 12 million people of Illinois. Twelve jurors devoted to the notion . . . that citizens are entitled to the honest services of the public officials they elect to office. Twelve conscientious jurors weighed the evidence and declared Ryan a criminal.” (Chicago Tribune editorial, April 18, 2006). The Tribune failed to mention that a trial lawyer, Joe Power, was instrumental in discovering and exposing the license for bribes scandal leading to Ryan’s conviction. The Tribune trusts juries to send politicians to jail but does not trust them to decide what a negligent doctor or hospital’s insurance company owes in cases of medical malpractice. And the Chamber of Commerce, oil, drug, and insurance companies don’t trust juries to decide what they owe when they harm one of those same 12 million Illinois citizens.

Only weeks after the Ryan verdict, Donald Udstuen, former ISMIE executive, who secretly recorded former Governor Ryan for investigators and testified against him at his federal corruption trial was sentenced to eight months in prison and eight months of house arrest on a tax fraud conviction. “It wasn’t a hard decision to plead guilty because I was guilty,” Udstuen told the court. Udstuen apologized for having let down the people he worked with at Metra, whose board he served and to whom he made restitution. He also apologized to the Illinois State Medical Society, one of his former employers but did not make restitution to the Medical Society or ISMIE, which gave him a $4.9 million golden parachute just before his indictment.

PA 94-677 was supposed to be the “silver bullet” for improving access to healthcare by keeping doctors in Illinois by lowering their malpractice premiums. In 2005, ISMIE’s claims paid in Illinois fell 5.3%, after they had dropped in 2004. Since 2003, annual claims payments have dropped 14.3%. The average amount ISMIE paid on a claim in 2005 was 20% less than it was in 2003. The 2005 and 2004 averages were less than the 2002 average. In 2005, ISMIE’s net income more than doubled, and its net paid losses fell by 22.3%. Despite all this, ISMIE just raised corporate rates 25%, is raising rates for seven specialists between 5 and 22% and is raising rates by 13% in Winnebago County (only 50 cases filed there in 2005) and by 20% in Grundy County (only 4 cases filed there in 2005). ISMIE estimated paying out $230 million for claims on its 2005 policies but took in over $400 million in premiums that year. The previous few years show a similar discrepancy. This chart appears on page 5. I recently appeared at a symposium on the aftermath of 94-677 along with former ITLA President, Pat Salvi, and Frank Perrecone and Ken Chessick. My keynote address was run on the Illinois Channel throughout the state and can be found at http://www.illinoischannel.org/archivedProgramming.htm. The Powerpoint presentation I used during that address, based on ISMIE’s filings, can be found on the ITLA website.

Recently, there was a push to pass a medical malpractice bill in Washington with a lower cap, again with the story that it will deliver the silver bullet for the entire country. Not even a majority of Senators voted for it. This push in Washington amounted to yet another confession that PA 94-677 won’t deliver what its cheerleaders promised.

Q. Is it your position that caps [on damages] will reduce the cost of malpractice insurance?
A. The answer is no. We have never made the claim that a cap is going to lower insurance rates.
(Ed Murnane, President of the Illinois Civil Justice League, Law Bulletin Tort Reform Summit, May 17, 2005.)

It was recently reported that Medicare reimbursement to doctors could be cut almost 5% by the Bush administration. Yes, they certainly are out to help doctors . . . .
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg told a gathering of the American Bar Association that lawyers should stick up for judges when they are criticized. “My sense now is that the judiciary is under assault in a way that I haven’t seen before,’” she said.

In anticipation of the upcoming November election, my 2 cents is that in a not-so-perfect world, and as much as we abhor a few Democratic votes in favor of PA 94-677, we should do everything possible to prevent a repeat of the 1994 election, which produced legislation designed to completely dismantle the civil justice system after the Republican party controlled the General Assembly under the Edgar administration. Remember PA 89-7. I thank the entire ITLA staff (Jim, Linda, Paula, Angela, Kraig, Kim, Donna, and Audra) for their hard and dedicated work this past year, which often goes largely unseen or is taken for granted.

I thank the members of the Executive Committee, who tolerated the frequent conference calls and which worked very hard this past year.

I thank all of you for your input this past year. All of it was accepted in the spirit of members who care about doing what is best for ITLA and our clients. These are very stressful and troubled times, and there has been a wide range of views on how best to deal with our challenges. I share your frustrations about a public dialogue which , unlike the courtroom, has no predictable procedures, no rules of law and no consequences for lying . We have worked hard to develop and implement creative and realistic public relations strategies in a world in which it costs over $80,000 for a one-day full-page ad in the Tribune and over $25,000 in the Post-Dispatch. Although there was some noticeable improvement this past year in participation by ITLA members, there are still far too many who continue to “just let George do it.” Please become a “George.”

I thank my family - Jodi, Melanie, and Kenny - for their sacrifice in sharing me with ITLA for the past year. And I thank my mentor and partner, Bob Clifford, and everyone in Clifford Law Offices for everything they did to support me during this extremely busy year.

Please welcome Judy Cates, your next President, and show your full support for her over the next year.

Keith A. Hebeisen, President
Illinois Trial Lawyers Association