BUYING JUSTICE

Verdict cash bankrolls judicial campaigns and "independent" public-relations support.

Campaign largesse is central to the litigation industry’s strategy nationwide, but no state’s justice system has been as corrupted by triallawyer dollars over the last two decades as Illinois’. Trial Lawyers, Inc. pumps millions of dollars into the campaigns of its favored candidates for state judgeships—many of whom are the relatives or law partners of powerful plaintiffs’ attorneys. These judges preside over a system rigged to enrich their families, friends, and allies—and cash in themselves when they leave the bench and return to private practice.

Jackpot Justice for All

The plaintiffs’ bar in Madison County provided 75 percent of the contributions to judicial campaigns between 1980 and 2002.[158] In 2002, for example, Judge Nicholas Byron received 81 percent of his donations from plaintiffs’ attorneys. That same year, Melissa Chapman—the daughter and law partner of Morris Chapman, patriarch of the Madison County trial bar—collected a staggering 90 percent of her donations from plaintiffs’ lawyers (see graph) in her successful run for the Fifth District Appellate Court.[159] From 2002 to 2004, trial lawyers poured more than $800,000 into the campaigns of eight candidates for the Madison County Circuit Court and the Fifth District Appellate Court.[160] Is it surprising that these judges tolerate flagrant forum shopping, certify virtually any class action, and maul the rules of civil procedure to favor plaintiffs?

But the litigation industry’s fund-raising dominance is not limited to Madison County’s notoriously shady judicial elections: it extends throughout Illinois, across all branches of government. In 2004, an incredible 78 percent of all contributions to the Illinois state Democratic Party came from plaintiffs’ lawyers and their firms (see graph).[161]

To further influence elections—and to obscure its special-interest lobbying—the trial bar also finances political action committees like the Justice for All Foundation, which, despite its innocuous name, exists primarily to funnel trial-lawyer money into judicial campaigns. In 2004, for example, Madison County asbestos lawyer Randy Bono gave Justice for All almost $400,000, while the law firm with which he’s affiliated, Simmons Cooper, chipped in $275,000—money that helped the PAC spend over $1.3 million to support the supreme-court campaign of Madison County judge Gordon Maag.[162] Justice for All also serves as a vehicle for out-of-state law firms to help preserve Illinois’ magic jurisdictions: Texas plaintiffs’ firm Baron and Budd sent $25,000 to Justice for All in 2004; the firm filed its most recent asbestos case in Madison County only last month—on behalf of an out-of-state plaintiff.[163]

Trial Lawyers, Inc.’s Attack Dogs

To further obscure its role in funding the campaigns of its favorite-son candidates, Trial Lawyers, Inc. operates a clever public-relations effort in Illinois. Chief among the litigation industry’s surrogates are self-described “campaign-finance watchdogs” whose purported mission is to clean up state electoral politics, but who are more attack dogs than watchdogs, who work to suppress the political speech of tort-reform candidates.

Trial lawyer–allied "watchdog" groups are pushing campaign-finance "reforms" designed to hinder competitive campaigning.

For instance, Illinois Campaign for Political Reform (ICPR), led by trial-lawyers allies, showed its true colors during the hotly contested 2004 supreme-court race betweenGordon Maag and Lloyd Karmeier.[164] Disturbed by the fact that Trial Lawyers, Inc.’s candidate at last faced a well-financed opponent able to spread a reform message, ICPR pressured the candidates to agree to a “tone and conduct” pact disavowing negative advertising, including by third parties.[165] But when Maag attacked Karmeier’s integrity—and even his law school grades—ICPR unsurprisingly refused to rebuke him.[166]

A Crucial Juncture

The result of this massive political giving and persistent public messaging in Illinois is a judiciary, legislature, and governor’s mansion populated by former plaintiffs’ attorneys and allied opponents of tort reform. Fortunately, business groups and tort reformers have begun to fight back, and the state’s voters seem to be waking up to the deleterious toll that litigation has taken on their health-care system and economy.

But Trial Lawyers, Inc., having collected billions of dollars from the dysfunctional status quo ante, will devote vast sums to forthcoming judicial campaigns in an effort to reestablish its dominance. Illinoisans should expect a proliferation of “consumer-advocacy” groups—who will speak passionately on behalf of “the victims,” but whose purpose is to restore the parasitic perquisites of Trial Lawyers, Inc.’s fat cats. Already, ICPR and other “watchdog” groups are pushing campaign finance “reforms” designed to block competitive campaigning.[167] (Needless to say, neither these groups nor their parrots in the mainstream media seemed to mind when the plaintiffs’ bar was the only serious donor to judicial campaigns.) Only time will tell whether Trial Lawyers, Inc. will succeed in tightening its grip on Illinois’ courts, or whether the state’s citizens will fight back and elect judges who’ll fairly and impartially mete out real justice and serve the common good.

THE $100 MILLION JUDGESHIP The 2004 election battle between Republican Lloyd Karmeier and Democrat Gordon Maag for a seat on the Illinois Supreme Court became a state referendum on lawsuit abuse.[168] Set against the backdrop of pending medical-malpractice reforms in Springfield, the race soon evolved into a flashpoint in the national battle for tort reform.   For 34 years, the Fifth District justice had been a Madison County Democrat, duly anointed by the local branch of Trial Lawyers, Inc. The seat had not even been contested since 1992, and no electoral challenge was expected before 2010.[169] Gordon Maag, a former plaintiffs’ lawyer and at the time a state appellate court judge, was tapped as the successor.   Then Lloyd Karmeier—a Washington County Republican whose 17 years on the bench earned him a “highly qualified” rating[170] from the state bar association—had the temerity to throw his hat into the ring, disturbing the peaceful transfer of trial-lawyer power.   The race was crucial to legal-reform efforts. A loss in the Fifth District might jeopardize Trial Lawyers, Inc.’s control over the Illinois Supreme Court, which in striking down legislative attempts to rein in runaway lawsuits represents the litigation industry’s last line of defense against tort reform.[171] And because the Fifth District’s supreme-court justice names judges to lower-court vacancies, Karmeier would be able to weaken the tort bar’s grip on Illinois’ courts.[172]   Naturally, with the stakes so high, so was the campaign spending. Madison and St. Clair County lawyers poured $2.7 million directly into Maag’s campaign, and they and others funneled $1.7 million through the Democratic Party and the Justice for All PAC.[173] But businesses and pro-reform grassroots lobbies fought back, donating a roughly equal amount of money to the Karmeier campaign.[174]   In the end, southern Illinois voters were so fed up with doctor flight and job losses that they awarded Lloyd Karmeier the seat decisively, with 57 percent of the vote and 29 of 37 counties in the heavily Democratic district.[175] What’s more, Maag failed in a separate election to earn the 60 percent voter approval that he needed to retain his appellate judgeship.[176] How did Maag react? He sued, of course, claiming that Karmeier’s supporters had “defamed” him and seeking damages in excess of $100 million—a hefty price tag indeed for a judgeship that pays less than $200,000 per year.[177]

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158. See Justice For Sale, supra note 86, at 3.
159. See id. at 4.
160. See Kevin McDermott, Plaintiff Bar Gives Top Dollar to Judges’ Campaigns, St. Louis Post-Diispatch, Sept. 20, 2004.
161. Calculated from Illinois State Board of Elections data, available at http://www.elections.il.gov/CampaignDisclosure/CommitteeList.aspx (last visited Oct. 4, 2006) (spreadsheet on file).
162. See Gonzalez, supra note 36.
163. See id.; Steve Gonzalez, Arizonan Names 40 Defendants in Asbestos Suit, Madison County Rec., Sept. 11, 2006.
164. See generally Illinois Civil Justice League, “Justice” At Stake (Feb. 7, 2005), available at http://www.icjl.org/JusticeAtStake.pdf.
165. See id.; Geri I. Dreiling, Supreme Fight, Ill. Times, May 27, 2004, available at http://www.illinoistimes.com.
166. See id.; Illinois Civil Justice League, supra note 164. See also Editorial, ISBA’s High Horse, Madison County Rec., Sept. 5, 2004. But see Paul Hampel, Tort Reform Group Is Ordered to Pull Ad, St. Louis Post-Diispatch, Oct. 19, 2004; Ann Knef, ILAW Director Has No Plans to Stop Educating, Madison County Rec., Oct. 21, 2004.
167. See generally Illinois Civil Justice League, Watching The Watchdogs (Apr. 12, 2005), available at http://www.icjl.org/WatchingWatchdogs.pdf.
168. See, e.g., High Stakes Election Has Some Reeling, Many Glowing, Madison County Rec., Nov. 5, 2004.
169. See Kevin McDermott, All Eyes on the Fifth, Ill. Issues, Sept. 2004, available at http://illinoisissues.uis.edu/features/2004sept/fifth.html.
170. See Dreiling, supra note 165.
171. Cf. Best v. Taylor Machine Works, 689 N.E.2d 1057 (Ill. 1997); Bernier v. Burris, 497 N.E.2d 763 (Ill. 1986).
172. See Kuehn Replaces Maag on Appellate Court, Madison County Rec., Nov. 17, 2004.
173. See Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, http://www.ilcampaign.org/issues/judicial/maagchart.html (last visited Oct. 5, 2006).
174. See Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, http://www.ilcampaign.org/issues/judicial/karmeierchart.html (last visited Oct. 5, 2006).
175. See Ann Knef, #1 News Story: Karmeier Wins Costliest State SC Race; Maag Not Retained, Madison County Rec., Dec. 28, 2004.
176. See id.
177. See Ann Knef, Maag Files $110 Million Defamation Suit, Madison Ccounty Rec., Dec. 20, 2004. For appellate judge and supreme courtjustice salaries, see State and Local Funding for the Illinois Courts, http://www.state.il.us/COURT/SupremeCourt/Funding.asp (last visited Oct. 5, 2006).