Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) quietly signed S.B. 328 into law late last week, creating unprecedented liability for businesses across the country.
“New York and Pennsylvania lawmakers passed similar legislation, but New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) has had the wisdom to veto this misguided jurisdictional expansion twice for being too anti-business for her state, citing its sweeping overreach and the risk of driving businesses out of the state,” said Tiger Joyce, president of ATRA. “Gov. Pritzker unfortunately failed to follow his fellow Democratic governor and thanks to him, Illinois is likely to see a mass exodus of businesses and a sharp decline in new business investments.”
The bill was signed on August 15 along with more than 250 other bills. In a letter sent to Gov. Pritzker in June urging him to veto the bill, ATRA outlined myriad concerns and noted that the bill would undermine the Pritzker administration’s “Open for Business” economic growth plan.
The new law will allow out-of-state businesses to be sued by out-of-state plaintiffs in Illinois courts for incidents with no connection to the state.
“No other state — except Pennsylvania, which is home to the nation’s worst Judicial Hellhole® — has adopted such an extreme approach,” Joyce said.
ATRA recently named Illinois a “Lawsuit Inferno” in its annual Legislative HeatCheck report, due to the legislature’s passage of S.B. 328, sponsored by Sens. Don Harmon (D) and Mary Edly-Allen (D) and Rep. Jay Hoffman (D). A previous version of the bill, S.B. 26, was jammed through in an 11th-hour effort, mirroring similar moves seen from the Illinois trial bar in past years.
With the state’s new law in place signaling to personal injury lawyers nationwide that Illinois is ready to host trial attorneys and their frivolous lawsuits, the new influx of litigation likely will be filed in Illinois counties with “Judicial Hellhole®” reputations. Cook County hosts 91% of the state’s high-value civil cases despite having only 40% of its population. Madison and St. Clair Counties are notorious for attracting asbestos litigation, earning them “Dishonorable Mentions” in the latest Judicial Hellholes® report.
More than 208,000 jobs are lost annually in Illinois due to excessive tort costs, while each resident pays $1,919 annually in a hidden “tort tax” — one of the highest in the nation. In Chicago, that figure jumps to nearly $2,500 per person.
“We cannot overstate just how detrimental this jurisdiction expansion will be for the Illinois economy,” Joyce said. “Gov. Pritzker might as well post ‘Closed for Business’ signs along the state lines because that is the exact message he’s sent to job creators across the country. It’s unfortunate for Illinois families and small businesses whose taxes underwrite the courts — as more out-of-state lawsuits flood the system, it will become harder for locals to have their own cases heard quickly and fairly while costs will skyrocket for them.”
While language accompanying the signing stated that the new law is only to apply to actions covered by the Uniform Hazardous Substances Act of Illinois, attempting to clarify that it should not apply to food and medicine, the language remains extraordinarily broad and is likely still to be inappropriately applied and utilized for needless litigation.
ATRA will closely monitor the litigation situation in Illinois as more unfolds in the coming months.