CHAMBER AT IT AGAIN

Those funsters at the United States Chamber of Commerce are at it again. The Chamber recently had their pollsters, Public Opinion Strategies[POS] release results from a "poll" POS conducted for the Chamber as part of its "legal reform" agenda. The poll results? Illinois citizens support restrictions on their rights to sue corporations engaged in misconduct. Yep, turns out that John Q. Citizen, of Anytown, Illinios feels he has far to many rights when it comes to suing corporations that do him wrong. The citizenry of Illinois, according to POS anyway, wants to restrict its ability to sue corporations. Sound fishy? Just a bit. First, the actual "questions" asked were not released by the pollsters. From what I read, that is pretty unusual. And perhaps indicative that he questions were not entirely fair.

Secondly, the poll results are at odds with legitimate data from recent studies. First, a study conducted by Site Selection Magazine ranked Ilinois as the third best business climate in the country in 2004. And a recent St. Louis Post Dispatch/KMOV poll in the St. Louis area found that a strong majority of those polled oppose the recent legislation signed by the Governor putting caps on pain and suffering awards in med mal cases.

The Chamber, over the last several years has become increasingly aligned with the Republican Party and the "tort reform" agenda, spending millions of dollars putting out an anti-lawyer message. I am a member of a local chamber, and attend legislative/legal committee meetings. At one meeting, in a discussion about caps, an insurance executive candidly admitted that the real reason behind caps legislation is underperforming insurance investments, as opposed to runaway verdicts. Unfortuntely for Joe Consumer, the Republican Party[and their Chamber of Commere mouthpiece]whupped the trial lawyers pretty good when it came to getting their message out. Having Bush standing in front of all those white-coated doctors down in Madison County was a stroke of genius. Us trial lawyers, the guys who are supposed to be so good at communicating, got beat at out own game.