“Fighting Suits Saves Money for Chicago”

Vowing no longer to be Mister Nice City (assuming it ever qualified as such), Chicago is now willing to pay $50,000 to fight (successfully) a police-misconduct case it could have settled for $10,000:

Even though the city stands to lose money litigating every case under $100,000, a spokeswoman for the law department said that recently compiled figures showed the strategy seemed to be saving taxpayer money by dissuading lawyers from suing the police unless they are confident of victory.

(& welcome Coyote readers).

Filed under: Chicago, police, taxpayers

Chicago’s hard line on police-misconduct claims

A year ago the city of Chicago announced a change in its litigation posture in claims against police: it would refuse to settle claims it did not consider strong and would prepare for trial instead. “In the past, the city often settled ‘defensible’ cases because the city’s legal expenses could far exceed the cost of a settlement.” Now the city law department is claiming “astonishing” success for the policy, citing a 50 percent project drop in claims against police. Plaintiff’s lawyers say their clients are handicapped before juries because they often have police records and that “the door has been slammed shut.” [Frank Main, Chicago Sun-Times]

Filed under: Chicago, police, settling low-merit cases

International gun control?

Chicago Mayor Richard Daley wants to begin a new chapter in gun-control-through-litigation by commencing proceedings in the World Court. I discuss that wretched idea at Cato at Liberty (& thanks to Glenn Reynolds and Damon Root for the links)

Filed under: Chicago, guns, international human rights, international law

The story of Emery Joe Yost

A Chicago parks supervisor, Mr. Yost reported a man behaving strangely, and wound up facing a decade’s worth of pro se suits that he says have cost him “well in excess of six figures.” [The Provocateur and related documents; CBS2Chicago; more from law firm representing Yost]

Filed under: Chicago, pro se

Sidewalk altercation leads to close encounter with plate glass window

And suits against multiple defendants follow, including an allegation that the owners of the salon in question had reason to know that the sidewalk in front of their window was “frequently traveled by intoxicated pedestrians.” [WBBM Chicago]

Filed under: Chicago, personal responsibility, roads and streets

Speaking in Chicago Monday, April 12

Chicago-area readers may be interested in attending a 12:15 pm lunchtime debate sponsored by the University of Chicago Law School Federalist Society between me and Tom Geoghegan about tort reform and the role (or non-role) of Republican deregulation in the litigation explosion—a debate I’ve previously engaged in in print.

Filed under: Chicago, Federalist Society, live in person, Ted Frank, Thomas Geoghegan

Woman attacked by homeless sues grocery store

“A woman who says she was attacked by a homeless man and woman while leaving a Jewel Food Store is suing the store and the alleged homeless individuals.” [Jennifer Fernicola, ChicagoNow]

Filed under: Chicago, premises liability, third party liability for crime

Claim: underfunding of Chicago transit authority constitutes racial bias

Subsidies are better for the Metra commuter rail line than for the city subways, which carry a more heavily minority ridership, says the class-action lawsuit against the State of Illinois, the RTA and the Metra. [Jennifer Fernicola, ChicagoNow]

Filed under: Chicago, discrimination law, railroads

The year in Chicago slip-and-fall cases

Confetti on a nightclub stage, a wrestler hurt getting out of the ring, and of course the celebrated dolphin-splash suit [Jennifer Fernicola, Chicago Now]

Filed under: Chicago, slip and fall

“We were getting people with 60 hours of college credit who were reading at a third-grade level. What do you think you’ll get if you have no screening process?”

So asks Charlie Roberts, who ran the testing division for the Chicago Police Department from 1995 to 1999, upon learning that the city is simply going to give up on testing because of the threat of lawsuits. (Fran Spielman and Frank Main, “Police may scrap entrance exam”, Chicago Sun-Times, Jan. 6.) The problem is exacerbated by the EEOC’s Four-Fifths Rule—of dubious constitutionality after Ricci—which holds that any selection process that results in a selection rate for any race, sex, or ethnic group less than four-fifths of the most successful group is “adverse impact” that “constitutes discrimination unless justified.” 41 CFR § 60-3.

Filed under: Chicago, discrimination law, disparate impact, EEOC, police, testing