Letter: Whose side is Edly-Allen on?

To the Editor:

Sometimes a bill makes you question whose side your elected officials are really on. Senate Bill 328 is one of those – and for Lake County residents, it raises serious concerns about our state senator, Mary Edly-Allen.

SB 328 opens Illinois courts to out-of-state plaintiffs with no real ties to our state. It lets trial lawyers file lawsuits here on behalf of people injured elsewhere, suing companies that don’t even operate in Illinois just to exploit our plaintiff-friendly courts.

Who pays the price? We do.

Lake County courts already handle legitimate disputes from local families and small businesses. Now imagine you’re a small business owner in Libertyville or a family in Grayslake. You go to court, only to find your case delayed because someone from California is suing a company from New Jersey in our backyard. That’s not justice. That’s a political favor.

State Sen. Edly-Allen didn’t just vote for SB 328 – she introduced it. And she took $4,000 in campaign cash from the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, the group pushing the bill.

This might be politics as usual in Springfield, but it’s not acceptable here. When it mattered, our senator sided with political donors and not the people she was elected to serve.

There’s still hope. A new lawsuit argues that Edly-Allen rammed the bill through using a shady “gut-and-replace” tactic that may have violated the Illinois Constitution, according to a recent article published by the Lake County Journal. And Gov. [JB] Pritzker can still veto it.

No one in Lake County asked for more lawsuits from out-of-state trial lawyers. We’re asking for fairness, timely justice and elected leaders who work for us – not the special interests.

State Sen. Edly-Allen made her choice. She chose the trial lawyers over normal people and small businesses – and tried to do it in secret. We noticed.

Phil Melin

Executive director, Illinois Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse