Drive down any Illinois highway, and you can’t miss the giant billboards plastered with smiling lawyers promising easy money if you “call now.” These ads don’t just clutter our skyline, they reveal a deeper problem in our civil justice system. They sell the idea that lawsuits are lottery tickets: no cost to play, big payout if you win. But unlike the state lottery, the real losers aren’t just unlucky gamblers. They’re all of us.
That’s why Lawsuit Abuse Awareness Week is so important, as it gives us a chance to take a closer look at the issues. Excessive tort litigation drains Illinois families and businesses of $1,919 every year, according to a recent study. That’s like forcing every Illinoisan to buy nearly $2,000 worth of lawsuit lottery tickets annually with little to no chance to ever “win the jackpot.” The only winners are the trial lawyers whose billboards line our roads.
Nice for them, not so nice for Illinois families.
This “tort tax” drives up the cost of everything we buy. Employers spend money defending themselves against meritless lawsuits instead of creating jobs or lowering prices. Small businesses are especially vulnerable, as just one frivolous claim can take months, drain savings and lead to permanent closure.
Illinois’ reputation as a “judicial hellhole” also deters investment. When companies decide where to expand, they steer clear of states where jackpot justice is the norm. That means fewer opportunities for Illinois workers and communities.
To be clear, this isn’t about denying justice to those with legitimate claims. A fair system should protect people who are truly injured. But right now, the billboard culture sends the wrong message: Lawsuits are free, easy and riskless for plaintiffs, while the hidden costs are shifted onto everyone else.
As we close out Lawsuit Abuse Awareness Week, Illinois legislators should be reminded of the needed reforms: Crack down on misleading lawsuit ads, end venue shopping and restore fairness so businesses can defend themselves without being forced into unfair settlements.
Until then, every billboard promising a jackpot should remind us: Illinois families are already paying for someone else’s lottery ticket. That’s a gamble none of us can afford.
Phil Melin, executive director, Illinois Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse, Lake Forest
Here’s how you rescue Edgewater
Walk down Broadway in the 48th Ward and you’ll see the consequences of bad zoning: vacant lots, strip malls and boarded-up storefronts — all next to the Chicago Transit Authority’’s $2.1 billion Red and Purple modernization project.
This decline wasn’t inevitable. In 2006, just 805 voters in four precincts forced a downzoning of Broadway between Devon and Foster avenues. Single-family homes make up only 7.6% of Edgewater’s housing stock, yet that tiny referendum let a handful of homeowners dictate housing economics for 60,000 residents.
The result? A generation of stagnation: approximately 800 units of housing in 20 years, rising housing and commercial real estate costs and wasted, transit-rich land.
Now the same people are back, calling themselves “Save Edgewater.” Don’t be fooled. For two decades, north Edgewater block club leaders have abused aldermanic prerogative to control zoning and housing. They’re not saving Edgewater, they’re saving their own power.
The consequences are real. Since 2000, Edgewater has lost 10% of its population, with losses concentrated among nonwhite, immigrant and working-class neighbors. Housing costs have spiked. Seniors can’t find accessible apartments. Students can’t afford to rent near school. Families are being priced out.
“Save Edgewater” denies today’s housing crisis because it helped create it.
The Broadway land use framework offers a better path. After a year of community input — six ward meetings, seven neighborhood-hosted sessions, virtual forums and thousands of public comments — support is overwhelming. Twenty neighborhood organizations and more than130 environmental groups back it. In my own block club, 83% of members support it. The community is ready for change.
The framework reverses decades of obstruction and sets a sustainable course for the future. A neighborhood that once welcomed immigrants, working-class families and young professionals should not be preserved as a museum piece for a privileged few.
The status quo isn’t neutral; it’s an active choice to exclude. Edgewater deserves better. The City Council’s Zoning Committee should approve the Broadway Land Use Plan without delay.
Anthony Pence, president, Edgewater Triangle Neighborhood Association, and member, 48th Ward Zoning Advisory Council
Keep dogs out of restaurants
There is a very popular restaurant in the town of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. (You see its T-shirts everywhere.) They allowed dogs in its large outside seating area for as long as I can remember. Then one year, it banned dogs all together. The restaurant reprinted the menus and placed the reason for the ban on the back of the menu. The business banned the dogs, not because of the dog’s behavior but rather it was the dog owners’ behavior. Restaurant officials said that owners believed that their dogs’ behavior was better than it really was. Chicago should not have to learn this lesson.
John Tebbetts, Gurnee
All aboard the nepotism train
In Chicago, if your father is Walter Burnett and has served the city as an alderman for 30 years, then the mayor and City Council unanimously agree that you have earned the right to continue in his footsteps.
What about if your father served the city as a firefighter for 30 years? What about if your father and grandfather each served for 30 years?
Why does that child, who wants to follow in the footsteps of their family members, have to be added to a random lottery?
I think an obvious next step for the City Council should be to create a family hiring preference for the Chicago Fire Department.
Marty Malone, Beverly