Stopping lawsuit abuse starts with you

Every year during the month of October, Illinois Lawsuit Abuse Watch sets aside a week dedicated to creating public awareness about the very serious issue of lawsuit abuse in Illinois. “Lawsuit Abuse Awareness Week” is an opportunity to educate citizens about the tremendous economic and social cost we all pay as the result of personal injury lawyers who game the state’s legal system to try to hit the “lawsuit lottery.”

Illinois is plagued by an epidemic of lawsuit abuse that hinders job growth and clogs our courts. Personal injury lawyers have turned the ‘Land of Lincoln’ into the ‘Land of Lawsuits. They flock to Illinois to file their frivolous lawsuits in our state’s notoriously plaintiff-friendly courts, and as a result, Illinois businesses are leaving Illinois.

Legislators and judges should do their part to stop lawsuit abuse, but so should we.

If each citizen would take personal responsibility for his or her own actions, it would go a long way to curbing lawsuit abuse. It starts with each one of us working to solve our problems instead of filing lawsuits and taking the time to serve on juries instead of looking for a way out when that jury summons comes in the mail.”

Whenever we avoid jury service or joke about filing a lawsuit over some silly thing, it sends the message that frivolous lawsuits are acceptable. If we want to change the culture of lawsuit abuse in Illinois, then we as citizens have to remember that stopping lawsuit abuse really does start with us.