Madison County has its deserved reputation as a “judicial hellhole” because plaintiffs recognize that its judges are friendlier to questionable class actions and asbestos cases, leading it to become a magnet jurisdiction for these actions. (See Apr. 15; Apr. 5; Jan. 5 and links therein; John Stockinger, “Advocates call for reform of Madison County legal system”, Alton Telegraph, Jun. 9.) Now, the Astroturf trial lawyers’ group “Victims and Families United” (Feb. 20) tries to defeat that perception by trumpeting some statistics about medical malpractice in the region. Previously, the group had tried to suggest there was no medical malpractice crisis, despite the fact doctors were leaving the area by the dozens, by pointing out the low number of verdicts in the area; of course, verdicts are a small fraction of payouts to lawyers in settlements. So the trial lawyers have responded by making up some numbers, and trusting that the press won’t delve too deeply into the claims.
By manipulating a couple of denominators, the trial lawyers’ group purports to show that settlement payouts are average for the state. The Madison-St. Clair region has 4.2% of ISMIE’s $270 million in payouts in 2003, they say, and 4.2% of the population; therefore, payouts are supposedly in line with the rest of Illinois. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch uncritically reports these numbers, as well as uncritically calling the trial lawyers’ group a “victims’ rights group.” (William Lamb, “Data do not justify Metro East’s malpractice reputation, group says”, Jun. 10).
But the numbers are bogus. ISMIE doesn’t insure “population”, it insures doctors, and doctors per capita are lower in Madison and St. Clair Counties than elsewhere in the state; off the bat, one would expect lower payout rates for these counties if they were typical for Illinois. Worse: the $270 million denominator is fictional. Using the actual denominator of $226 million (see 2003 ISMIE Annual Report at 25) or $234 million (John Stockinger, “Victims group disputes claims of insurance crisis”, Alton Telegraph, Jun. 11), and the Madison/St. Clair per capita number (a number that already understates the extent of the problem) turns out actually to be 116% to 120% of the statewide average–a number that can be found nowhere in the press coverage. (Patrick J. Powers, “Claims here mirror state”, Belleville News-Democrat, Jun. 12).
At least the Alton Telegraph balances it with other statistics that tend to show the fiction: average payment to plaintiffs in the area jumped from $276,000 to $495,000 between 2002 and 2003. In the past five years, ISMIE has paid out $33.5 million in verdicts, settlements and expenses, while earning only $29.6 million from Madison/St. Clair County-area premiums.
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