A Strong Legal System
Chicago Tribune, Voice of the People, 01/30/2010By Robert A. Clifford
This is in response to “Lawsuit reform” (Voice of the People, Jan. 20), by Edward Murnane, president of the Illinois Civil Justice League and chairman of the American Tort Reform Association.
Murnane cites “the abusive Illinois lawsuit climate as on of the major factors for our state’s flagging economy.”
Other independent studies actually contradict Murnane’s statements – the number of doctors in Illinois has steadily increased over the past decade. And a CNBC poll recently ranked Illinois 25th, an improved status over the previous year, in top states for businesses, not in the bottom five, as Murnane alleges.
To say that “employers are repelled by a state in which they are more likely to be targeted by frivolous and abusive lawsuits” ignores the practice and procedures that are in place in Illinois to assure that lawsuits have merit.
And just what is so awful or unfair about having accountability for wrongful actions? A strong legal system should be more attractive for businesses if they need to take action against other businesses that have wronged them.
If companies are choosing not to do business in this state, the self-serving bad-mouthing from people like Murnane might be having a lot to do with their decisions.
