Vested Interest - October 2000 Issue

The President’s Thoughts

NOVEMBER ELECTIONS

The importance of a strong voter turnout for the November elections cannot be emphasized enough. It is extremely important that we all do everything that we can to encourage our families and friends to come out and vote in this election. Both the National and State level election results will hinge dramatically upon voter turnout. Please do everything that you can to encourage as many as possible to come out to vote.

FORD/FIRESTONE TRAGEDY

The number of deaths attributable to the Ford/Firestone tragedy is continuing to rise. The death toll now stands at approximately 120 deaths. This tragedy, like no other, demonstrates the importance of our tort system and the unfairness associated with the "tort deform" activities of the insurance companies and those who are anti-consumer and anti-victim rights. The unfairness associated with an attempt to place caps on noneconomic damages becomes glaringly apparent when one looks at the deaths associated with the Ford/Firestone fiasco. The death of a mother who leaves surviving children and a spouse and has devoted her life to being a homemaker and parent while not working outside the home, makes it readily apparent that the attempts at placing limits on non-economic damages is arbitrary, capricious and unjust. This is even more apparent in view of the failure of Firestone to disclose to the United States Governmental Agencies the failure of these tires in foreign countries prior to the deaths occurring here in the United States. The disclosure of those foreign defects could have prevented the loss of life here in the United States. We should remain vigilant in our efforts to oppose any tort deform activities on the part of anti-consumer and anti-victim rights proponents.

COMPLAINT BOOK

Our complaint book is now available for purchase through the ITLA office. It is the first ITLA complaint book to be published in over ten years. It provides samples of complaints in all types of cases from the simple auto case to the complicated medical malpractice case. It is an extremely popular offering and today we have sold approximately 200 books. Please contact the ITLA office if you are interested in obtaining a copy of this outstanding offering. It is available at a cost of $150.00.

THE MENTORING PROGRAM

We have met with Paul Vallas, the Chief Executive Officer for the Chicago Public School System. He is extremely excited about the possibilities of joining TTLA's Mentoring Program with the school system. They currently have in place a Law and Justice Program, which he believes would work extremely well with a Mentoring Program, sponsored by ITLA. He has given us the name of his Administrator in charge of their Law and Justice Program and a meeting will be set up between his staff and the ITLA Mentoring Committee so that we can work out details about how the two programs can work in cooperation with each other. We will keep you informed of the progress in establishing the Mentoring Program.

SEMINARS

Our seminars remain extremely successful with the most recent being Anatomy of a Trial, which was held on October 9, 2000, in Chicago. It offered presentations by several of our outstanding and extremely experienced trial attorney's including many of our past presidents like Thomas Demetrio, Al Hofeld, Bill Harte, Joseph A. Power, Jr., and many others. It was extremely well attended and we look forward to the continued success of these seminars. We will be sending information about the upcoming seminar in Las Vegas, which will take place during March 2001. This is always a very popular outing because of the information provided and the exciting Las Vegas venue. Once you received the details, please make your reservations early so that we can make it an outstanding success.

JUDGE REAGAN

Our immediate past President, Mike Reagan was sworn in as a Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois on Monday, October 23, 2000. Our congratulations to Mike on this outstanding honor. It is the first time that an ITLA past president has accomplished such a tremendous feat. I know Mike will do an outstanding j ob and we should all wish him well in the task that he has before him. As always, Mike, if any of us can be of any help to you, you know that we are always available.

Remember, Together we are strong.

Larry R. Rogers President,
Illinois Trial Lawyers Association