Vested Interest - November 2005 Issue

The President’s Thoughts

In recent years, one has had to wonder whether truth and integrity still matter. But they do. "Scooter" Libby was just indicted for "merely" lying to the FBI and the grand jury about how the identity of a covert CIA agent was leaked to the media, blowing her cover. Recently we have seen the trial of former Governor George Ryan unfolding. Ironically, the same prosecutor brought both cases.

Insurance companies have misled the public and doctors into believing that malpractice lawsuits were causing insurance premium spikes. Do they have clean hands?

Donald Udstuen resigned his position as the longtime Chief Operating Officer of ISMIE in 2002. He was also a lobbyist for the Illinois State Medical Society and a close associate of former Governor Ryan. He is now cooperating with federal prosecutors and is expected to be a witness in the Ryan trial explaining how he took kickbacks on state contracts during the Ryan administration while he was on the board of METRA. These activities would appear to have been in violation of his employment agreement with ISMIE and ISMS, which required him to work exclusively for them. According to an agreement he had with ISMIE, "the right of a participant to receive distributions under the deferred compensation agreements may be forfeited for acts contrary to the interests of ISMIE." ISMIE executives decided to give Udstuen almost $5 million in "deferred compensation" when he resigned just before he was indicted.

The next year, the ISMIE doctor policy-holders got socked with a 35% rate hike, even though payouts on claims had not changed for several years. The second day of hearings on ISMIE's premioums is set for November 9.

On another note, let's talk about professionalism. I ask that all of us answer the calls to maintain professionalism which have come from Illinois Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert Thomas, ISBA President Robert Downs, ABA President Mike Greco and others. The new Illinois Supreme Court CLE requirements present an opportunity for ITLA, through its high-quality seminars, to enhance our stature as skilled and ethical attorneys.

Much of the ammunition used to attack the civil justice system comes from the few cases which are truly "frivolous." We should continue to refrain from filing such cases and to speak out against cases with no objective merit. But unwarranted attacks by sore loser insurance companies and corporations against juries who reach just verdicts and judges who make appropriate rulings are increasing. We should step up our effort to defend juries and the judiciary against these unwarranted attacks. We all can and should devote more time and effort to educating the public about the real workings and benefits of our precious system of justice. You have opportunities in your local Chamber of Commerce and civic organizations like the Rotary Club. You have past or current clients, including some from the business community who can speak to the value of the justice system. There are consumer groups you can support who defend the civil justice system. You and your clients can contact elected officials to insist that they speak out in support of preserving the civil justice system. You probably even know doctors who you could educate about how their insurance companies take advantage of them as their premiums continue to rise no matter what happens with payouts or legislation. Doctors should be urged to stop blindly accepting propaganda from the insurance industry and its well-compensated executives who care nothing about them.

As the President of the ABA, Mike Greco recently said : "The lawyers who have been responsible for monumental change in America did not assume that someone else would bear the burden, that someone else would confront the challenge, that someone else would advance civil rights, that someone else would have overruled bad law, that someone else would defend our freedoms. Instead, those great lawyers knew that what they did not value would not be valued. That what they did not change would not be changed and what they did not do would remain undone."

Keith A. Hebeisen, President
Illinois Trial Lawyers Association