In the News Today – September 9, 2015

The head of the Illinois-based Better Government Association highlights a University of Illinois professor’s proposal for breaking the state’s budget stalemate between Governor Bruce Rauner and the legislature, which includes legal reform. He writes that the governor should “give Democrats a choice between stricter rules on where to file personal injury lawsuits, restricting ‘pain and suffering’ awards, or sponsoring a constitutional amendment to determine if voters wanted to limit certain damages.” (The Herald & Review)

“The rules governing asbestos-litigation cases have been ordered to be revised by a Manhattan judge,” a development that will impact many firms, including indicted Assemblyman Sheldon Silver’s former firm, Weitz & Luxenberg. That firm was told, along with other firms, by Judge Peter Moulton “that they and their adversaries need to create new rules for the cases, or he will do it for them.” (The Jewish Voice)