From the Chicago Tribune

Judge sues over tactics used in election
Maag says critics lied in ads, fliers on his decisions
By Christi Parsonsbbb
Tribune staff reporter
December 22, 2004
When he was running for a Downstate seat on the Illinois Supreme Court, former trial lawyer Gordon Maag ripped into critics for casting him as the poster child for frivolous lawsuits and tarnishing his name.
Maag, a Democrat, has now filed suit against the Illinois State Chamber of Commerce and other groups that accused him of being soft on crime and lawsuit-happy. He is seeking $110 million in damages.
Maag lost his race for the high court as well as an insurance race he ran at the same time to retain a seat on an appellate court serving Madison County--home to some of the most famously plaintiff-friendly judges and juries in the country. In addition to calling him soft on crime, critics painted Maag as a potential tool of the county's powerful plaintiffs bar.
"It's laughable," said Ed Murnane, president of the Illinois Civil Justice League, the pro-tort-reform group that poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into the successful campaign to elect Republican Lloyd Karmeier to the Supreme Court. "Following an election in which the abuse of the court system clearly was an issue in the minds of many voters, a losing candidate ... resorts to a ridiculous lawsuit."
But Maag and his attorney, Rex Carr, say it's no laughing matter. They are asking the Madison County courts to award Maag $10 million they say he would have earned in pay and benefits from his position as an appellate court judge and in the legal profession had he not been attacked. In addition, they want $100 million in punitive damages.
Maag certainly isn't the first conquered candidate to claim he was defamed during a campaign. Post-election news coverage regularly reports the grumbling of political losers who say the ads and fliers leveled against them smacked of mudslinging.
Few go so far as to sue, realizing that even winning their case won't put them in office. And the U.S. Supreme Court has set a high bar for political figures to win a defamation suit, requiring them to prove opponents either knew statements they made were false or spread them with reckless disregard for the truth.
But Maag's lawyer said his case clears that bar by a country mile.
The race between Maag and Karmeier was fiery throughout, drawing the attention of business groups from around the country eager to score a win against a Democratic judge in legendarily pro-plaintiff Madison County and surrounding counties. Generous lawsuit settlements, which supporters of Karmeier said were driving businesses and doctors out of southern Illinois, became a central issue in the campaign.
In the end, the race became the most expensive judicial contest in Illinois history and both candidates were the targets of fierce negative ad campaigns paid for by interest groups on both sides of the debate over the need to limit lawsuit awards.
One piece of direct mail in particular infuriated Maag. Circulated by business groups including the state Chamber of Commerce, the piece listed six decisions rendered in criminal cases by the appellate panel of which Maag was a member.
Carr said he initially counseled Maag against filing the lawsuit, reminding him that people are entitled to be critical during a political campaign.
"I said, `Hold it, judge, they have a right to make fair comment,'" Carr said. "But when I saw the flier and the actual decisions, I saw it was a slam-dunk case of absolute, malicious lies."
For one thing, the flier said Maag's "questionable decisions" have brought justice to a "grinding halt." It also said his decisions have caused businesses and jobs to flee southern Illinois, a line that echoes the theme of the anti-Maag and pro-tort-reform campaign. Critics said Maag's views were part of a pro-plaintiff mindset regarding civil cases in the area's court system that made it unattractive to business.
But the decisions the flier listed are from criminal cases. The flier accused Maag of reducing criminals' sentences or overturning convictions.
Carr said Maag concurred in each of the opinions listed, but only wrote one of them. In the cases cited, the appellate court found errors at the trial court level, applied new case law or sent it back for further action by a lower court.
Carr said the charges in the flier are so blatantly false that no one could make them without lying or recklessly ignoring the truth.
"It's so egregious," Carr said. "All Judge Maag can do is say, `Look, I didn't say that. You have to go see the decision.' What voter is going to go read the decision? None. They're not going to check it out."
As a result, the lawsuit says, Maag has suffered harm. The statements about him held up him to "public hatred, ridicule and contempt," the suit says. His reputation and
But the targets of the suit say that Maag's complaint is with the voters, not with them, and that his complaints have no merit.
"Gordon Maag is a public official who participated in a lively and spirited campaign and lost," said Gregg Durham, spokesman for the Illinois Coalition for Jobs, Growth and Prosperity, which represents the chamber of commerce, and which is listed as a defendant in the suit.
"He placed himself on the public stage and in the public limelight when he chose to run for high office," Durham said. "Mr. Maag didn't like the people's decision, so he filed a lawsuit alleging defamation occurred during the course of his political campaign."
Clearly, legal experts say, Maag has a tough case to make.
"The guy's got a right to establish the elements of his suit," Koppelman said. "Even if he loses his lawsuit, he can put these guys onto a very hot griddle for a while."

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