from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Illinois Supreme Court has yet to weigh in on venue for asbestos suits
By Paul Hampel
Of the Post-Dispatch
09/19/2004
A Florida resident who claimed he got cancer from exposure to asbestos in England. A man from Oregon whose death is blamed on asbestos fibers inhaled in Alaska. A man who lived on both coasts and died after he allegedly had contact with asbestos in Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Virginia and West Virginia.
Though separated by thousands of miles, these men found common ground as plaintiffs in Madison County.
How did they end up here?
The first step is often the referral.
Many SimmonsCooper clients are referred to them by the law office of James Sokolove, a Massachusetts firm that advertises heavily on television. The Sokolove firm gets a fee for the referrals; John Simmons, managing partner of SimmonsCooper, declined to comment on the fee.
The St. Louis law firm of Brown & Crouppen, another advertising fixture on local television, also refers cases to SimmonsCooper.
Before a suit can be filed in any county, it must conform to judicial venue and jurisdiction provisions.
Jurisdiction is the power of a court to decide a case.
Venue is the place deemed proper to bring a suit.
In Illinois, venue offers considerable flexibility.
Edward J. Kionka, who teaches civil procedure at St. Louis University School of Law, said Illinois law "starts with the proposition that the plaintiff has the right to try a case where he wants."
Kionka said the trial judge has discretion in deciding venue, and an appeals court is supposed to reverse only when the circuit judge has "abused his discretion," not simply because an appellate judge would have decided the case differently.
The Illinois Supreme Court last year overturned a 5th District Appellate Court ruling that had kept a railroad injury case in Madison County, but the Supreme Court has not dealt with venue in an asbestos case.
Lawyer Jeff Sarles, with the Chicago firm of Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw, said he thinks an "asbestos exemption" has developed on venue.
Madison County judges "say that asbestos is a national issue, so that it can be handled nationally," said Sarles, whose firm has defended asbestos cases.
He expects the "exemption" to continue until the Illinois Supreme Court rules on venue in an asbestos case.

Many defense attorneys say that the 5th District Appellate Court in Mount Vernon rubber-stamps venue appeals out of the county.
Fifth District Judge Gordon E. Maag disputes that.
Maag, a one-time defense lawyer in Belleville, later a plaintiff lawyer with the Lakin firm in East Alton and now a candidate for the Illinois Supreme Court, said the appellate panel received 45 venue appeals from 2001 to 2002. He said the court agreed to hear appeals in 35. Of the 18 cases the judges ruled on, they affirmed the trial court 13 times and reversed it six times.
Said Maag, "This is certainly not a monolithic court where the defendant never wins."
A record award

A case that seemed to raise obvious venue questions was the mesothelioma suit filed by Randall Bono of the SimmonsCooper firm on behalf of Roby Whittington against U.S. Steel.
Whittington had worked in the company's plant in Gary, Ind. U.S. Steel is based in Pennsylvania and at the time did not own the Granite City works.
But the case met venue requirements because U.S. Steel did business in Madison County.
Ed Matushek of Chicago, the lead attorney for U.S. Steel, did not challenge the venue. Time was working against him, he said, because the court had granted a motion for a quick trial.
"We had witnessed in the preceding months scores of (venue change) motions being denied by the circuit court in similar cases," he said.
A jury awarded Whittington $250 million, a U.S. record. It was later settled for an undisclosed amount but reported to be under $50 million. Whittington died in January.
"Fair money fast"

Bono contends that filing in Madison County makes perfect sense for his clients, who suffer from mesothelioma, a fatal cancer of the lining of the lungs and abdomen.
Bono lauds what he calls "a fair money fast" system in the county and says it ought to serve as a national model.
"We can move our cases here in six to 18 months," he said. "Up in (circuit court in) Cook County, it takes them between a year and four years.
"If you were dying, where would you go?"
Kionka, the St. Louis University professor, suggests that plaintiff lawyers who do not forum shop face the risk of being targets of lawsuits themselves.
"My view? That is what lawyers are supposed to do - look for the best result for their client," said Kionka, who in private practice has handled appeals on behalf of asbestos plaintiffs. "It would be legal malpractice if they didn't file in the place where they would get the most money."