State’s fault scheme evolution shows collision of law, politics

For the Defense

By Donald P. Eckler and David H. Levitt

Donald “Pat” Eckler is a partner at Pretzel & Stouffer focusing on professional liability defense, insurance coverage litigation, and general tort defense. He is the legislative chair of the Illinois Association of Defense Trial Counsel. David H. Levitt is a partner in the Chicago office of Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP. He is a past President of the Illinois Association of Defense Trial Counsel, and chair of DRI’s Task Force on Third Party Litigation Funding. Their views are their own and not those of their firms or their clients.

Posted May 6, 2020 11:58 AM

This is the second of a two-part column. The first part published April 29.Last week, we articulated the fundamental unfairness in the current system of fault apportionment in Illinois that allows the plaintiff to take advantage of all possible contributions to total fault when determining the plaintiff’s amount of fault, but does not do the same for the determination of the defendant’s fault, and requires that the jury be advised of the consequences of finding the plaintiff more than 50% at fault.To arrive at …

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