“We chose it, because it had a great view of St. Louis,” Travis Akin of Illinois Lawsuit Abuse Watch (I-LAW) confided to a RiverBender reporter on July 13, explaining why his group had selected Malcolm Martin Memorial Park in East St. Louis as the site of their rally that day.
“St. Louis was listed as the top judicial hellhole in the country by the American Tort Reform Foundation last year,” Akin added, “and, unlike Illinois, the Missouri legislature is doing something about it. The 'Show-Me State' is showing the way to lawsuit reform.”
The article posted at RiverBender.com provoked an irate response from the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association (ITLA).
“Long before the term 'fake news' was being used, the Illinois Lawsuit Abuse Watch (I-LAW) was hawking disinformation to confuse public understanding and promote rage toward our judicial system,” the release said.
Funny! Trial lawyers sneering at fake news – which, along with junk science, is the very thing some more unscrupulous trial lawyers have relied on to justify attacks on reputable businesses and to propagandize the pool of potential jurors!
“Today, I-LAW and its big business backers have chosen East St. Louis, one of the poorest communities in Illinois, as the place to hold a celebration of new Missouri laws that, if enacted in our state, would stack the economic deck further against lower and middle-income families and shift the burden of caring for those harmed by corporate malfeasance away from those who caused the injuries and onto the backs of taxpayers,” the release said.
Stacking the economic deck further against lower and middle-income families? Isn't that what the trial lawyers, allies on the bench, and puppets in the state legislature have been doing for decades, attacking and destroying the productive businesses that employ the breadwinners of lower and middle-income families?
ITLA should hold its own rally at Malcolm Martin Memorial Park and apologize for the harm they've done.