Vested Interest - June 2001 Issue

The President’s Thoughts

This is the first column that I will write for Vested Interest as the President of this organization. Traditionally, this column has been used to inform the membership of recent developments concerning our organization and to express the opinions of the President. Because I will be expressing some of my opinions in this column, I believe it is only fair that those of you who do not know me personally have an understanding of the perspective from which I express these opinions.

Most of this organization’s past Presidents have practiced in the area of common law personal injury litigation. Although I do have considerable experience concerning common law personal injury litigation, the vast majority of my practice has been in the area of workers' compensation.

During the first five years of my practice as an attorney, about half of my practice was devoted to labor law, and the other half of my practice was split up between personal injury, divorce and criminal law. These first five years were spent in practice with my father in a two-person law firm. He handled the workers compensation cases during this time period.

Because of the work I was doing in labor law, I became familiar with a number of union leaders across the State. Because my father had established an extensive reputation in the field of worker’s compensation, I was being asked by these union leaders to assist them and give them technical advice regarding workers’ compensation. Before long, I found myself to be a regular visitor to Springfield and an acquaintance of our past Executive Director James Dudley.

As the years passed, my practice became increasingly limited to workers’ compensation and labor law and the issues that defined them. And it seemed with each passing year another legislative proposal was made in our State legislature to reduce the benefits and rights of injured workers. At first these proposals were limited in nature and cloaked in the agreed bill process. Administrative bottlenecks were created and used to barter benefit levels in exchange for administrative expedience, but the Democrats held one or both houses during this time so some semblance of fairness could be maintained for the injured workers of Illinois. And then there was re-districting in 1991 along with a Republican map that split legislative districts in unimaginable ways. In the fall of 1994, the Republicans were finally successful in taking the majority in both houses. They made it immediately obvious that they intended to use this victory to make victims suffer in Illinois.

As everyone in our organization knows, the Spring of 1995 represented one of the great onslaughts on victims’ rights this State has ever endured. The Republicans, along with their friends in Big Business, held both houses and the governor’s seat and were determined to pass every draconian law they could imagine. They repealed the Structural Work Act. They made sweeping changes to laws involving medical malpractice and caps on damages for pain and suffering. Much of this legislation was held unconstitutional by our Supreme Court, however, the Structural Work Act has not been reinstated.

Big Business also had a “wish list” for workers compensation. Included on their “wish list” was the further restriction of victims’ rights under the workers’ compensation laws. They proposed severe limitations on repetitive trauma injuries, a condition that disproportionately affects women. They proposed the forced signing of medical authorizations by victims that would have opened up the entire medical, sexual and psychological background of a victim to their employer no matter how slight the injury. We all feared this legislation would be forced through the legislature by Republican leaders in the same manner the common law legislation had been passed. Fortunately, the outcome of their efforts was not as successful as their prior efforts had been.

In what may have been one of this organization’s greatest legislative victories, we stood strong with labor and defeated this legislation. It was during my lobbying efforts in Springfield on these issues that I felt I had something to offer our organization in a leadership role and welcomed my nomination as Third Vice President.

I write to you today as the President of your organization. I am following in the very capable footsteps of my predecessor, Larry Rogers. He has blessed us all with a very capable and accomplished year. My admiration for Larry grew with each passing month of his Presidency. His departure leaves a void that is not easily filled.

I know the obligations and responsibilities of this office are considerable, but I also know we are an organization of many and with the your assistance I will fulfill these obligations and responsibilities. Please know that I invite your ideas, criticisms, and assistance.

We have an important year ahead of us. We are once again in the midst of redistricting and we will be involved in the election of every representative and senator in our State along with all of the statewide offices next year. If we are ever going to be in a position to assert victims’ rights instead of just defending them, we must elect a pro-consumer, pro-worker governor in 2002. We have lived under one of the most unfair political maps ever devised for the last ten years in this State. Minorities have been under-represented. Cities, like Aurora, have been unrepresented. The next map will have to be better. We will have an opportunity to elect a pro-consumer Senate while maintaining the House. Through your efforts we can do this.

I look forward to an exciting year. The hours will be long, and my efforts will be great. We need to increase the membership of our organization and extend our political impact. That is one of my goals. I look forward to meeting those of you whom I have not met as I travel around the State representing our organization. You are all a part of this organization, and we need your help. My door will be open to all.

We stand together for the rights of victims.

Kim Presbrey, President 2001-2002
Illinois Trial Lawyers Association