A bill raising the maximum award for Court of Claims cases twentyfold in response to a Legionella bacteria outbreak at a state veterans’ home passed its first legislative hurdle Tuesday. Sen. Michael Hastings, a Democrat from Tinley Park, succeeded in passing Senate Bill 2481, which would raise the cap currently applied to tort cases from $100,000 to $2 million and make procedural changes to the Court of Claims. It arrived in the House Wednesday. For more on the bill, and the four similar measures still in …