MICHAEL B. HYMAN ARTICLE IN CRAIN'S

For those of you who haven't heard, the American Tort Reform Association[ATRA] recently announced that Cook County, Illinois[the county where Chicago is located] is a "judicial hellhole". Michael Hyman, a Chicago attorney, wrote a nice piece recently in Crain's Chicago Business, explaining why ATRA is all wet. First, in calendar year 2004, jury verdicts in Cook County were 51% for plaintiffs and 49% for defendants - hardly the breakdown you you expect in a "judicial hellhole". [Frankly those numbers suprised me - Cook County has always been regarded as a friendlier forum than some of the surrounding counties. But these numbers suggest, to me anyway, that even Cook County juries are getting more conservative]. The 2005 numbers are apparently also split down the middle.

Hyman also pointed out that in the ATRA article, the authors focused on four cases that Cook County judges kept in Cook, that in ATRA's opinion, should have been transferred to other counties. What ATRA failed to mention[shockingly] was that the cases were decided prior to 2003, when the Illinois Supreme Court enacted a major change in the relevant caselaw. Hyman closed his article by noting that ATRA is nothing more than a well-financed special interest group trying to manipulate the jury system to serve the interests of the corporate world. Well done Michael.