CBA Record April-May 2018

Viewpoint

M ost lawyers have represented cli- ents in low damage commercial cases in the Law Division of the Circuit Court of Cook Count and have struggled to economically handle these matters. When the litigant is a small busi- ness or an individual it is difficult, if not impossible, to litigate a commercial lawsuit which is too large for small claims court but relatively small (under $75,000) for the Law Division. The Illinois Supreme Court and Chief Judge Timothy C. Evans have provided a solution to this problem with court ordered arbitration. In 2015, Chief Judge Evans designed and recommended to the Supreme Court a court ordered arbitration program for smaller commercial cases pending in the Law Division’s Commercial Section. The Supreme Court approved the program, first as a pilot and then, in 2016, made it permanent. Lawyers and their clients appreciate the program because it reduces the time involved in a commercial case while permitting the litigants to explain their cases to an experienced arbitrator who then promptly issues an award. Fur- ther, access to court or jury is preserved because litigants retain the right to reject an arbitrator’s award and proceed before a judge. It has become Illinois’ largest court mandated arbitration program for com- mercial cases over $50,000 (Municipal Court/small claims cases allege damages of less than $50,000). Judges have referred 900 cases to the program and 90% of them have been disposed in their entirety within six months of their referral. Examples of the kinds of commercial cases which can be referred to arbitration are: (1) Plaintiff was terminated from his job and was not paid $39,720 in wages he was owed. He sues his former employer for violation of Illinois Wage Payment and Collection Act; (2) two individuals owned a small business and fell into a dispute over the division of the profits and one sued the other for $60,000. These provisions benefit the litigants and their lawyers in small commercial cases by reducing the costs and delay of litigation and preserving a litigant’s right to use the courts.

The success of the commercial arbitration program is due in part to its uniqueness, which includes: • it applies to larger cases and not small claims matters; • the case is referred to arbitration after the answer to the complaint is filed; • the arbitration hearingmust be heldwithin fourmonths of the referral; • the use of one arbitrator instead of a panel of three; • litigants do not pay a fee for the arbitration; • the arbitrator’s award must be filed on the second business day following the conclusion of the hearing; • if a party rejects an award the rejectionmust be filed seven days after the award is entered; • an award rejection fee of $750; • arbitrators are qualified commercial lawyers who undergo training in this arbitration program; • a fee shifting provisionwhich provides that if a party rejects an award and then fails to obtain a better result at trial, the rejecting party is responsible for the non-rejecting party’s attorney’s fees incurred in connection with the arbitration.

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The Chicago Bar Association

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