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Get called to jury duty less often, and get paid more if you get picked? It sounds good if you’re a juror. But not all lawyers are convinced Illinois’ new civil trial system — slicing juries from 12 to six people — is all it’s touted to be. With concerns over diversity, cost and unpredictability, some are worried the new numbers game could drastically reshape civil litigation.
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Bruce Rauner
SPRINGFIELD — Before he suggested plaintiff lawyers are a root cause of corruption at the Illinois Supreme Court, Gov. Bruce Rauner was targeting one of their legislative achievements last year — a pay hike for jurors in civil cases.
Rauner wants to repeal a law pushed by the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association that increases jurors’ pay while reducing the number of people who serve on juries in state civil cases from 12 to six. The stance was part of an agenda issued last month called “The Illinois Turnaround.”
The document, under a heading “Restore Jury Composition,” says the law should be repealed, but it doesn’t explicitly say that Rauner wants to try to keep civil juries at a dozen members instead of the size change that takes effect June 1.
Rauner’s office did not respond to questions today.
Counties in Illinois currently compensate jurors at different rates, but existing law states the smallest counties must pay at least $4 a day while midsize and large counties pay at least $5 and $10 per day, respectively. Cook County currently pays jurors $17.20 per day.
The new law will increase the rate to $25 for the first day of service and $50 per day thereafter.
The bill’s supporters said at the time that the increase would be paid for by another portion of the bill that halves the number of jurors in civil cases from 12 to six.
The law was pushed in the final days of the legislative session last year and drew scorn from Republicans, who called it a power play by the trial lawyers’ group and a “parting gift” from former Gov. Patrick J. Quinn, a Democrat.
John D. Cooney, ITLA president and a partner at Cooney & Conway, could not be reached for comment today.
Joseph A. Power Jr. of Power, Rogers & Smith P.C., who testified in legislative hearings in favor of the pay increase said he wasn't surprised that Rauner wanted to repeal the civil juror law.
"He’s not concerned about the little guy. He’s not concerned about the juror having their car taken away from them or being evicted from their house because they can’t make a mortgage," Power said.
Rauner’s public opposition to the measure is the latest dustup in an increasingly antagonistic relationship with the trial lawyers’ bar.
In his State of the State speech in February, Rauner called for prohibitions on trial lawyer donations in judicial elections. The trial lawyers’ association called that a “declaration of war.”
Last week, Rauner told the suburban Daily Herald newspaper that he doesn’t trust the Illinois Supreme Court to be rational because the justices get campaign donations from attorneys who argue at the court.
He said the court’s justices are “activist judges who want to be legislators,” among other things.
He also singled out trial lawyers.
“We have a system where we elect our judges, and the trial lawyers who argue cases in front of those judges give campaign cash to those judges. It’s a corrupt system,” Rauner said.
A day later, he told another newspaper’s editorial board that he “probably didn’t use words carefully enough.”
“I believe our judicial system is full of conflicts of interests. And the Supreme Court is part of the judicial system. It’s not the Supreme Court, per se, it’s the system,” he told the Quad-City Times newspaper on Wednesday.
He said later that he’s “just troubled by the conflict. I don’t criticize them. They’re doing the best they can. They’re good people. I don’t criticize individual judges or a particular court. The system, I think, has conflicts.”
It’s difficult to imagine a Democratic legislature would side with Rauner on the issue after passing the bill on a party-line vote just before he assumed office.
But the Senate sponsor of the bill was open to a change in the law earlier this year when he introduced legislation that would allow counties to opt out of the pay-increase and go back to the old rates.
Senate Bill 59 would give county boards the option to go back to the old juror pay rates of $4, $5 and $10 per day. It’s sponsored by Sen. John G. Mulroe, a Chicago Democrat, a handful of other Democrats and one Republican.
It passed the chamber’s Judiciary Committee unanimously in March, though it has yet to be voted on by the full chamber.
Mulroe said he’s still hearing from counties and still trying to come up with new changes to help county officials concerned about dipping further into their budgets to pay for jurors.
He said one idea could be waiving fees for jurors who are still getting paid by their regular employers during their jury service.
“We want to save the counties money, and we’re trying to pay our jurors more. So we’re trying to accommodate and take in everybody’s data and see if we can come up with a good approach,” Mulroe said.
David H. Levitt, partner at Hinshaw and Culbertson LLP and president of the Illinois Association of Defense Trial Counsel, said he hadn't heard Rauner's position on the law until today.
It's one he agrees with.
"We’d be in favor of repealing it and we think it’s unconstitutional anyway," Levitt said. "We’d love to figure out a funding mechanism to get jurors more money. They work hard…but the way to do it is not to take away the constitutional rights of the defendants."