[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 15]
[House]
[Page 19974]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      THE JUDGES OF MADISON COUNTY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Norwood) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. NORWOOD. Madam Speaker, the previous speaker makes me want to 
spend my next few minutes talking about another subject. I guess what I 
need to do is just totally say that I am sorry to be in the same room 
with some of those remarks, but I will stay on my subject tonight, 
because I rise tonight to begin a discussion of the ``number one 
Judicial Hellhole'' for 2003, as named by the American Tort Reform 
Association.
  A year ago, prior to a long list of complaints I received from 
Georgia companies, I had never heard of the place known as Madison 
County, Illinois. Now that has changed within the last year; and from 
the facts that I have heard, it seems that the judges of all people of 
Madison county regularly apply the civil laws in an unfair manner and 
violate the fundamental constitutional rights of defendants, 
particularly those that hail from other States. One might wonder why a 
person from Georgia would be complaining about judges in Illinois. 
Well, the reason is they are affecting my constituents and the citizens 
of my State.
  Madam Speaker, I could not sit on these complaints from good Georgia 
companies any longer. I sent a letter to Attorney General Ashcroft on 
September 10 asking for a formal investigation of Madison County.
  Little did I know that this letter would send the attorneys of 
Madison County into complete temper tantrums. It should. They are 
guilty of lining their pockets at the expense of their clients. Yes, at 
the expense of their clients. And perhaps, Madam Speaker, one of the 
most guilty is Randall Bono.
  Mr. Bono's law firm, Simmons-Cooper, generated over $1 billion in 
settlements in 2003. Somewhere between 30 to 40 percent of those 
settlements were kept by that firm. The public service that Mr. Bono 
has offered in his career includes two lawsuits against Ameritech. He 
walked away with $16 million. His clients each got a $5 phone card.
  Contrary to the comments Mr. Bono made during his tantrum, my only 
motivation is to protect the companies of Georgia from frivolous 
lawsuits. Not only do those frivolous lawsuits triple car insurance 
rates for the people living in and around Madison County, they also 
send doctors fleeing from the region and, of the greatest concern to 
me, they force American companies to close up shops and take good 
American jobs overseas to avoid such harassments.

                              {time}  1930

  These kind of illegal shenanigans do cause outsourcing of jobs. We 
are all suffering, and for what? To line the pockets of lawyers like 
Bono?
  The letter I sent to Attorney General Ashcroft is five and a half 
pages full of cases where defendants' constitutional rights to due 
process have been violated. I can take all night reviewing them, and I 
will outline them over the coming weeks. However, what I want to 
outline here is a possible reason why Madison County has become such a 
judicial hellhole.
  Between 1980 and 2002, 90 percent of the contributions made to 
Madison County judicial candidates came from plaintiffs' lawyers. 
Judges have received tens of thousands of dollars in contributions, 
even in the years that they are unopposed. Several plaintiffs' firms 
with no Madison County office have contributed money to Madison County 
judicial campaigns.
  Madam Speaker, I have a strong belief that when Attorney General 
Ashcroft looks into the situation in Madison County, he is going to 
find that the cases I have outlined are just the tip of the iceberg.
  I take it very personally when judges try to legislate from the 
bench. I take it even more personally when they overreach their power 
and steal from good companies in Georgia.
  This will be an ongoing thing, Madam Speaker. I will report to my 
colleagues every night of how we are doing in the hellhole of the 
United States, Madison County, where the judges and plaintiffs' lawyers 
are stealing from the people.

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