AIA Writes On 'The Torts Of Madison County'
By Daniel Hays
NU Online News Service, Nov. 8, 3:20 p.m. EST?Iowa's Madison County gained novel and movie fame for its bridges, but in Illinois it is the class action lawsuits of Madison County, Ill. that are pulling them in, according to an insurer trade group.
Madison, Ill. is "the nation's worst example of [legal] venue shopping," said the American Insurance Association in announcing a friend-of-the-court brief it filed yesterday.
The papers were submitted to the Illinois Supreme Court in Springfield, in support of State Farm Insurance, which is the target for a class action in Madison brought by a plaintiff from Louisiana.
Lawyers bring cases to particular courts and jurisdictions "because they perceive that they will receive especially favorable treatment in the way the laws are administered in those courts and jurisdictions," AIA wrote in its brief. "This search for favorable treatment is fundamentally inconsistent with the American system of civil justice."
Madison County, Ill, with 258,941 people by the last census count, "is by far the nation's per capita leader in class action filings, with roughly 61 class actions filed per million people in 1999–eight times the national average," AIA said.
The county, according to the U.S. Census, has a population that is 90 percent white with a median income of $41,541.
According to the association, the county is on track this year to have more than 70 class action lawsuits.
It also noted that as of December 2001, 884 individual asbestos-related lawsuits–mostly by non-residents–had been filed in the county for the year, up from 411 in 2000.
The Gridley v. State Farm case at issue involves claims that the insurer sold vehicles with titles that did not disclose that the autos were salvaged after being listed as total insurance losses.
AIA argued that the Illinois court should reject jurisdiction over suits where an alternate venue exists to avoid a disproportionate burden on Madison.
Overcrowded dockets, AIA said, "mean that shortcuts result, there is lack of patience for discovery issues and other points of court procedure."
"It is inconceivable how the court system of Madison County, facing 70 new class action filings this year, and an ever-expanding asbestos docket, can withstand such an influx of cases without any justice detriment to the quality of its courts," the brief stated.
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