An Increase In Personal Injury Claims

Personal injury lawyers and their clients have made millions thanks to a thriving industry amid the rolling hills of two south-western Illinois counties, one that has existed for the last 20 years. When it comes to St Clair County, quiet courthouses are plentiful and the high priced lawyers have won hundreds of millions of dollars in awards and settlements from several corporate giants.

Nearly $58 million in settlements was given to the forty seven workers from one of the huge companies in January 1979 after they were injured during the clean-up of a toxic spill at Sturgeon, Missouri. Here, you have the first verdict issued with regard to dioxin permanently injuring people.

Here, out of 32 of the 47 workers who filed suit, more than the total number of reported million dollar injury verdicts in any state, the jury made them millionaires. As an East St Louis attorney who won a $15.65 million verdict against a big company in St Clair County this year said, the legal community has transformed into an industry.

Other than living here, they buy houses, go to the grocery stores, and hire union people. Known for big awards are the counties' jurors and they come from a largely blue collar pool.

Considering the entire New York state, the latest verdicts would top the total number of million dollar awards based from what the research director of a jury verdict research company predicted. In this case, it is normal for lawyers to get 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. It will be easier for the injured railroad and barge workers to reach the talented, high powered lawyers whose specialized offices dot the southern Illinois countryside now that two federal laws are in effect.

The Federal Employees Liability Act of 1910 allows injured railroad workers to file personal injury claims wherever the railroad does business. Here, Madison and St Clair counties are crisscrossed by the tracks of a dozen rail lines.

There is the Jones Act of 1915 as well and here is where barge and towboat workers can file personal injury claims in the area like the crewmen injured on the Mississippi River from Minneapolis to New Orleans do. Running for five to six years is the waiting period in Chicago for you to get a trial on a personal injury suit but in Madison and t Clair counties it is only 33 months.

Whenever they won a case, they kept 20 percent, 75 percent went to the plaintiff, and 5 percent was donated to the union's legal defense fund according to the St Clair County Circuit Judge. Such an arrangement is the ticket system and a lawyer to whom union officials would steer their members was said to have a ticket.

In this case, for plenty of years the judge has been either a judge or lawyer in the area and he said that the awards have stood up on appeal. Serving as workers for the railroad and steel mills for two or three generations were the people living here.

Financially, the Madison County government and the lawyers and business people in the area have been blessed by the suits. As said by the Madison County Circuit Clerk, the Madison County Circuit Clerk's office was able to operate for each of the past three years with a surplus of close to $500,000 because of filing fees of close to $100 a case for civil suits greater than $15,000. Filed in the fiscal year ending June 30 alone were 15,294 civil suits excluding traffic violations.

According to a personal injury lawyer, people do not realize that they are dealing with a multi-million dollar business in this case. They are paying lots of taxes other than corporate personal property tax. He adds that they rent a lot of buildings and put their money from these judgments into the local banks.