By Dave Dahl
SPRINGFIELD – Looking back upon the just-completed fall veto session, Gov. Bruce Rauner is still upset about the override of his amendatory veto to raise the limit on damage awards to plaintiffs who sue the state through the Court of Claims.
The old limit was $100,000. The governor’s amendatory veto changed it to $300,000. The new law changes it to $2 million. All this comes as lawsuits are rolling in over the fourteen deaths from Legionnaires’ disease at the veterans’ home in Quincy.
“It was falsely sold as a Quincy veterans’ bill,” Rauner said. “That is fundamentally false. This bill applies to all tort claims against the state of Illinois. This is not a Quincy bill. This is a broad tort cap bill. I view it as a major sop, a major giveaway, to the trial lawyers, who are a major funder of many of the legislators’ campaigns.”
The governor said he would have been okay with a bill narrowing the scope of the $2 million award to Quincy cases.
The Illinois Trial Lawyers Association issued a statement calling the governor’s comments “sour grapes” from someone who “has clearly learned nothing over the four years of his massively failed tenure.”
“To assume that anyone who goes into a health facility, assume they are eligible for Medicaid payments, treat them in that way, be billed and reimbursed in that regard,” he said, “and then hope to determine later whether they are truly eligible for Medicaid — it is fundamentally terrible policy.”
Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected]
