Vested Interest - Michael P. Schostock, ITLA President 2003-2004

May 2004 Issue
My year-long tenure as President of ITLA began last June when our organization knew that the enemies to our civil justice system would marshal their forces in an attempt to restrict the rights of injured victims nationwide by passing federal legislation concerning medical malpractice, asbestos litigation, and class action cases. Those predictions proved accurate as measure after measure has been advanced by the wrongdoers’ protection lobby of the American Medical Association, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and affiliated interest groups supported by the insurance industry. ATLA once again rose to the challenge in helping defeat this mean-spirited legislation. [View Full Issue]

April 2004 Issue
I just got off the telephone with a reporter from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, who was seeking my opinion about the most recent radio ads running in Springfield and the metro-east area portraying our profession as "a bunch of sharks in a feeding frenzy." The ads were put out by the Illinois Chamber of Commerce. The reporter told me that the spokesperson from the Chamber admitted that their primary goal is to influence jurors on tort cases and ultimately persuade voters to cast their ballots for pro-tort reform candidates. [View Full Issue]

March 2004 Issue
While writing this month’s President’s Thoughts from the ITLA office in Springfield, I had the great pleasure of watching Illinois' Democratic Senator, Richard Durbin on C-Span, passionately advocating against the Senate Republican’s newest attack on the victims of medical malpractice – Senate Bill 2061. Appallingly titled, "The Healthy Mothers and Healthy Babies Act," this piece of legislation was in many ways even more insidious than the bill that failed in the Senate last July. It was almost as if the proponents of this bill having failed to eliminate the rights of all patients injured by medical negligence, decided that they would cruelly target the most vulnerable and innocent of all victims – pregnant mothers and their unborn children. [View Full Issue]

January/February 2004 Issue
Anyone who previously thought Newsweek was a left-leaning weekly news magazine should think again after reading their December 15, 2003, issue featuring "Lawsuit Hell" as the cover story. Written by self-styled legal reform advocate Stuart Taylor, Jr., the article was perhaps the worst piece of "journalism" I had ever read regarding our civil justice system. If you haven’t seen it yet, you should. [View Full Issue]

December 2003 Issue
With the Holiday Season once again upon us, it’s appropriate to take stock of our collective good fortune. There is certainly much to be thankful for... [View Full Issue]

November 2003 Issue
Over the last ten months a national debate has raged over the rising cost of medical malpractice insurance premiums and its purported adverse influence on access to health care. Leading the charge has been the American Medical Association, who claims that escalating costs of medical malpractice insurance are increasing health care costs to the public and forcing doctors in many states to move or close their practices. However, a recently released report from the General Accounting Office (GAO) found that this claim is largely unsubstantiated. [View Full Issue]

October 2003 Issue
Several months before I was sworn-in as President of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, I had a conversation with Jim Collins regarding the ITLA newsletter, Vested Interest. I was concerned that the newsletter looked somewhat tired and outdated. Jim informed me that Vested Interest had not been updated for at least 16 years, so I recommended that we make efforts to revitalize this important part of our Organization, especially since significant technological advances have been made over the last decade that would enable us to produce a far more attractive product. [View Full Issue]

September 2003 Issue
Over the last six months, I and other members of the Executive Committee have engaged in a dialogue with various physician groups about the current medical malpractice liability crisis. These discussions have ranged from informal get-togethers to symposiums where hundreds of physicians have attended to hear our members speak about what we believe is driving this current crisis. When these discussions began, the level of frustration, anger, and in some cases, hopelessness was palpable. [View Full Issue]

July 2003 Issue
In the February 2003 edition of Vested Interest, past President, Bob Bingle outlined our legislative approach during the upcoming Spring session. He encouraged our Executive Committee to be both creative and bold, while at the same time not being avaricious. Bob was hopeful that when we looked back on the legislative session, our Association would see that we were neither too timid nor too aggressive. [View Full Issue]

June 2003 Issue
As your new President, I had intended on introducing myself in this first President’s page while outlining some of my ideas for the upcoming year. No such luck. Unless you have been living under a rock during the last several months, you know that President George Bush has made nationwide tort "reform" of medical malpractice cases one of his highest domestic priorities. [View Full Issue]

Vested Interest Past Issue Archive