[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 15]
[House]
[Pages 20619-20620]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                THE JUDGES OF MADISON COUNTY, PART THREE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Norwood) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. NORWOOD. Mr. Speaker, tonight is part three on the judges of 
Madison County, Illinois. As I promised last week, I am back on the 
floor tonight to talk about a place that has the dubious distinction of 
being America's number one ``judicial hellhole,'' Madison County, 
Illinois.
  Mr. Speaker, they do not give out awards like the number one 
``judicial hellhole'' from the American Tort Reform Association to just 
anyone. No, sir, only a court that continually misapplies civil laws, 
regularly violates fundamental constitutional rights of defendants, and 
caters to the interests of opportunistic trial lawyers can get a 
recognition like that. Sadly, Mr. Speaker the Circuit Court of Madison 
County, Illinois, got this distinction the old-fashioned way; they 
earned it.
  Tonight, Mr. Speaker, I want to continue a story I started last week 
on one of the ways they earned this awful award by trashing someone's 
first amendment rights. I stood on the floor last week, and I told the 
Members about the former Attorney General and U.S. Court of Appeals 
Judge Griffin Bell and his experience with Madison County. I told the 
Members that, at a public forum in April of this year, Judge Bell said 
that counties like Madison County are a serious ``stain on our 
system,'' meaning the judicial system. I also told the Members that 
Judge Bell called for an investigation into the administration of civil 
justice in Madison County. I finally told the Members, Mr. Speaker, 
that the wrath of the ``judicial hellhole'' was felt the very next day 
when Judge Bell and his firm were barred from appearing in their 
courtroom. But as Paul Harvey might say, what I did not tell the 
Members, Mr. Speaker, was the ``rest of the story.''
  Hold on to your hat, Mr. Speaker, because, not long after that 
outrageous act by the Madison County Court, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch 
reported that a Madison County judge closed his courtroom to report his 
warning to cover a hearing about a fee dispute between prominent local 
trial lawyers. See, Mr. Speaker, as it turns out, the hearing was 
likely to include arguments over the lawyers' share of fees stemming 
from a very large class-action settlement, and for once, dollar amounts 
would likely be released regarding the sizable sums of money that these 
greedy trial lawyers stood to pocket.
  So what happened? Well, you guessed it. The Madison County judge 
simply refused public access to the transcripts and exhibits from that 
hearing. Yet, once again, free speech lost, and trial lawyers won.
  Mr. Speaker, the message from Madison County Circuit Court judges is 
simple: We have absolutely no respect for the first amendment. Folks 
speaking out against our brand of civil injustice

[[Page 20620]]

should expect intimidation and retaliation, and finally, when court is 
in session, no one is safe unless of course he is of their trial 
lawyers.
  Mr. Speaker, last month, I wrote a letter to U.S. Attorney General 
Ashcroft asking him to formally investigate the judicial hijinks taking 
place in Madison County, Illinois. To my surprise, one of the Madison 
County trial lawyers, a Mr. Randall Bono, took time to ask in a local 
newspaper, why in the world would someone from Georgia ``have an 
interest'' in Madison County?
  Mr. Speaker, that is pretty easy. When sleazy trial lawyers like 
Randall Bono retire when they are 42 years old, because they have 
pocketed millions of dollars through frivolous lawsuits, when a local 
court decides to hear cases from around the country it has no business 
hearing, when the local judicial system stops being a public trust and 
becomes a private trough for greedy trial lawyers like Randall Bono, 
when these and countless other injustices are allowed to continue 
anywhere in this great Nation, it is not a local issue, Mr. Speaker; it 
is a national issue. And this Congressman from Georgia, for one, has 
had enough.
  Mr. Speaker, let me make this loud and clear to trial lawyers like 
Randall Bono and corrupt judges of Madison County: They may try to hush 
up, but I am coming after them, and I cannot and I will not be 
intimidated on these issues.

                          ____________________