Vested Interest - February 2003 Issue

The President’s Thoughts

I am often asked three questions: 1. What is ITLA doing in relation to proposed Illinois legislation? 2. How are "we" responding to President Bush’s legislative proposal? 3. What can I do?

Here are my answers.

In relation to state legislation, the ITLA Legislative Committee met after the elections last fall and discussed a potpourri of legislative proposals. These proposals were next examined by the Executive Committee of the Board of Managers. The Executive Committee has had several meetings to discuss what legislative proposals should be initiated during this session. These proposals are now being written up as legislation. Under the direction of our Executive Director, Jim Collins, we are formulating our strategy as to how this legislation will be introduced and successfully passed. As President, I have encouraged our Executive Committee to be both creative and bold while at the same time not being avaricious. When we review this first legislative session this summer, it is my desire that hindsight will tell us that we were neither too timid nor too aggressive.

On a national level, the plaintiffs’ response to President Bush’s proposed reforms are being directed by three groups: Association of Trial Lawyers of America, Center for Justice and Democracy, and Public Citizen. As a representative of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, I attended a meeting in Washington, D.C. on January 25, 2003. Representatives from all of these groups were in attendance and the rather formidable response plan was discussed. However, as several of our fellow members have pointed out to me, we cannot expect other people to fight our battles on the national level. For those that read this column on a consistent basis, my December, 2002, thoughts detailed the cloture procedure in the Senate. Forty-one Senate votes are needed to defeat President Bush’s Tort Reform Legislation. The message I walked away with after the January 25th meeting in Washington, D.C. was that 41 solid votes are not currently present. It may be superfluous for me to state the prodigious and pervasive amount of work that ATLA is doing to prevent this legislation from succeeding. I also want you to know how impressed I was with the zeal and commitment of the Center for Justice and Democracy and the Public Citizen groups. Here in Illinois, the Coalition for Consumer Rights and Families Advocating Injury Reduction (FAIR) are leading the charge to promote awareness of the inequities and misguidance of President Bush’s legislation.

So here is what you can do.

1. Support ATLA by becoming a member of their Leaders Forum. This will provide extra support for ATLA’s fight against tort "reform" and achieve greater visibility and involvement. Firm’s can enroll at the following levels: Patron ($1000 per month), Benefactor ($2500 per month), or Inner Circle ($5000 per month). Of course, any support you can provide would be appreciated.
2. Support the Center for Justice and Democracy and Public Citizen by sending them a check. These people are working day and night to protect our clients’ rights.
3. Support the Coalition for Consumer Rights and FAIR here in Illinois.
4. Have your clients join FAIR. Testimony of injury victims is one of most potent weapons against tort "reform." While money is always an asset, they also need referrals. We are asking ITLA members to consider referring successfully closed cases of clients to FAIR to reinvigorate its’ membership. We will need the support of FAIR members at several events this month. A client’s one-year membership is $30. Contact Jim Borman at the Coalition for Consumer Rights at 312/939-4566.
5. The Center for Justice and Democracy has organized a Medical Rights Lobby Day 2003 to be held Wednesday, February 12, 2003, in Washington, D.C. If you want to attend Medical Rights Lobby Day 2003, please contact Rebecca Hoffman, Organizing Director of Center for Justice and Democracy, 917/438-4608, or Rebecca@centerjd.org.
6. The Center for Justice and Democracy also has a bus that is traveling across the country spreading the message in opposition to the proposed legislation. The Medical Rights Bus Tour, 2003 is a grassroots education and advocacy bus tour created by consumer and patients’ rights groups in direct response to President Bush’s recent announcement supporting severe limits on the rights of patients injured by medical malpractice. Tentatively, the bus will be stopping in Batavia on Tuesday, February 25 and in Chicago on Wednesday, February 26. We will need members and victims out in support of these efforts. More information as it becomes available will be made available on the ITLA web site.
7. Respond to the insurance propaganda in any local medial outlet. ITLA has all the facts you will need to make a response to any article that you might see locally. Below, we have included a letter that was printed in the Chicago Tribune on January 28, 2003. A similar letter was printed in the Chicago Sun-Times on January 26, 2003 and the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin on January 17, 2003. We need to get the message of the duplicity of the insurance industry out and you can do it.
8. Have your clients send letters to both representatives and senators. Specifically, Senator Peter Fitzgerald is not a lock-step Republican. He may be amenable to being persuaded as to the truth of this issue. Letters should be faxed to their Washington office or mailed letters should be sent to their district offices. Phone calls are also great. Enclosed you will find a sample letter to send to your clients.

Robert J. Bingle, President
Illinois Trial Lawyers Association

Reform insurance industry, not legal system

I was surprised to read that a retired circuit judge from Pocahontas, Ill., has so blithely and blindly bought into the insurance industry’s propaganda relating to our civil justice system ("The impact of excessive awards in injury cases," Voice of the people, Jan. 18, by John L. DeLaurenti). If DeLaurenti had done his research, he would know that there is little or no connection between the cost of medical malpractice insurance and medical malpractice verdicts. Instead of repeating trite, insurance industry rhetoric, Illinois citizens, including physicians, should be directing their energies at regulating the monolithic, Bush administration-supported insurance industry.

The crisis that DeLaurenti is so concerned about is the same crisis we experienced in the mid-‘70s and mid-‘80s when insurance companies also lost their shirts and billions of dollars due to poor management and poor investments.

The question that can be raised is, why didn’t we have a medical malpractice crisis in all of the off-years in the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s? Certainly jury verdicts did not decrease.

The obvious answer can be found in the significantly profitable financial statements of insurance companies during those years. In short, they were making millions of dollars, so there was no need for a medical malpractice crisis.

Before Congress and DeLaurenti jump on the President Bush anti-lawyer and anti-civil justice system bandwagon, these facts should be examined:

• Consumer groups, a bipartisan legislative committee and even the insurance industry say insurers’ bad business practices, not jury awards, drive up premiums.
• Experience in states with caps has shown – and insurers and tort "reformers" admit – that caps and tort "reform" do not lower doctors’ premiums.
• Median payouts in medical malpractice cases are relatively low and have not risen significantly over the past decade.
• Most people with legitimate medical malpractice claims never go to court.
• Insurers themselves admit that they don’t settle frivolous claims.
• Though California has some of the most draconian limits on the rights of patients in medical malpractice, average medical malpractice premiums are higher than in states without caps, premiums and healthcare costs continue to rise and most Californians want to eliminate the cap. The state had to pass insurance reform to stop skyrocketing premiums after its tort "reform" succeeded only in filling insurers’ pockets.
• Caps don’t reduce premiums.

We have had tort reform in Illinois since 1986. Since 1986, punitive damages in medical malpractice cases have been eliminated. There has been a legislative cap on attorneys’ fees in medical malpractice cases and a signed affidavit by a physician attesting to the meritorious nature of the claim is necessary before a medical malpractice lawsuit can be filed in Illinois. For 17 years, this tort reform has been in effect in Illinois; ask the physicians in Illinois how much this pervasive tort reform has cut their medical premiums.

Bush’s program doesn’t reduce premiums, it just discriminates against patients most seriously injured by malpractice and assures insurance industry profits. The only thing all citizens of Illinois, doctors, lawyers and injured people included, need to reform is the insurance industry – not the legal system.

Robert J. Bingle, President
Illinois Trial Lawyers Association
Voice of the People, Chicago Tribune, January 28, 2003