Sept. 11--Illinois is the third-worst state when it comes to being fair to businesses that get sued, and its reputation has only worsened over the years, a new study shows.
Harris did the Lawsuit Climate Survey on behalf of the U.S. Chamber's Institute for Legal Reform. The polling firm did a national sample of 1,203 in-house general counsel, senior litigators and other senior executives at companies with at least $100 million in annual sales who said they had recent litigation experience in each state they evaluated.
Illinois was the fifth-worst in 2012, the last time the survey was done. It was sixth-worst in 2010. It got low marks in such areas as treatment of class-action suits, damages, timeliness, judge impartiality, judge competence and jury fairness.
The state was dragged down partly by courts in Cook and Madison counties, which were named among the four worst local jurisdictions in the nation.
The kindliest to businesses were Delaware, which ranked first, followed by Vermont and Nebraska.
Illinois' ranking of No. 48 put it ahead of only Louisiana and, at No. 50, West Virginia.
Illinois neighbors Indiana, Missouri, Iowa and Wisconsin were Nos. 18, 42, 4 and 20, respectively.
Three-fourths of survey respondents said a state's litigation environment influences business decisions at their companies, including where to locate or do business.
byerak@tribpub.com
