The Workings Of Madison County

For the past 20 years, there has been a thriving industry by the rolling hills of two south-western Illinois counties which made millionaires out of personal injury lawyers and their clients. In St Clair County, you will find a couple of quiet courthouses and expensive lawyers who won hundreds of millions of dollars in awards and settlements from several corporate giants. Nearly $ 58 million was awarded to forty seven workers from one of the huge companies after they were injured in January 1979 during the clean-up of a toxic spill at Sturgeon, Missouri. In terms of dioxin leading to permanent injuries for people, this was the first verdict issued.

Made into millionaires by the jury were 32 of the 47 workers who filed suit, more than the total number of reported million dollar injury verdicts in any state. According to an East St Louis attorney who won a $ 15.65 million verdict against a big company in St Clair County this year, the legal community is an industry. They hire union people, they live here, they go to the grocery stores, and they buy houses. The reputation for big awards given by the counties' jurors, drawn from a largely blue collar pool, has spread.

According to the research director of a jury verdict research company, the latest verdicts would top the total number of million dollar awards in the entire New York state. What the lawyers receive is about a third of the award in personal injury cases and about a quarter of what they win for their clients in railroad and barge injury cases. Now that two federal laws have been made, the injured railroad and barge workers can easily contact the talented, high powered lawyers whose specialized offices dot the southern Illinois countryside.

With the help of the Federal Employees Liability Act of 1910, it is possible wherever the railroad does business for the injured railroad workers to file personal injury claims. In Madison and St Clair counties, the tracks of a dozen rail lines crisscross them. In this case, there is also the Jones Act of 1915 where it is possible for barge and towboat workers to file personal injury claims in the area similar to what the crewmen injured on the Mississippi River from Minneapolis to New Orleans do. 33 months is the time that you need to wait to get a trial on a personal injury suit in Madison or St Clair counties but in Chicago it is usually five to six years.

According to the St Clair County Circuit Judge, every settlement meant 20 percent for keeps, 75 percent for the plaintiff, and 5 percent was donated to the union's legal defense fund. They would call this the ticket system wherein a lawyer to whom union officials would steer their members was said to have a ticket. The judge has been either a judge or lawyer in the area for years and he said that the awards stood up on appeal. Working for the railroad and steel mills for two or three generations were the people in this area.

When it comes to the Madison County government and the lawyers and business people in the area, the suits have blessed them financially. With filing fees of close to $ 100 a case for civil suits greater than $ 15,000, operating with a surplus of close to $ 500,000 for each of the past three years was the Madison County Circuit Clerk's office as said by the Madison County Circuit Clerk. Without traffic violations, 15,294 civil suits were filed in the fiscal year ending June 30.

A personal injury lawyer said that people did not know that this is actually a multi-million dollar business. Not only are they paying for corporate personal property tax but other taxes too. Their common action is renting buildings and putting their money from these judgments into the local banks.