Madison County Enacts Mandatory Mediation Rules for Med Malp Cases

It looks like the judges of one of the nation’s most reviled “Judicial Hell Holes”, Madison County, Illinois, have adopted new local rules requiring the parties in all medical malpractice cases to mediate their cases. According to the Madison County Record, the “judges adopted the rules June 18, [2007] based on recommendations of the circuit’s Medical-Legal Committee.” They released the following statement: “In order to alleviate the burden to the parties of protracted litigation in medical malpractice actions, to further the administration of justice, and to prevent unnecessary delay, the court hereby implements” new local rules. The parties are now required to mediate all “healing arts malpractice actions” within 90 days of the depositions of all Plaintiffs and Defendants. Further, all medical malpractice cases will be reviewed by a panel of circuit judges which will meet on a monthly basis to ensure that the cases are being prosecuted in a timely manner.

Madison County, Illinois has long been considered by all but the most stalwart plaintiff’s lawyers as one of the worst jurisdictions in the entire U.S. in which to be sued. Since taking over as Chief Circuit Court Judge in May 2006, Judge Ann Callis has instituted rules to make it harder for out-of-state lawyers to file cases in Madison County and for plaintiffs to change judges readily in an attempt to remedy the poor image of the jurisdiction. This appears to be another step in the right direction, for both judicial reform and for mediation and ADR, in general.

Welcome to my blog.

Hello and welcome to the CKA Mediation and Arbitration Services blog. My name is a Christopher Annunziata and I am a civil mediator and attorney in Atlanta, Georgia. After more than a decade representing businesses and individuals in various civil litigation matters, I realized that my most satisfying results came when I could convince the opposing party (and sometimes my own clients) of the benefits of reaching a compromise solution. Because this is a big no-no in the corporate law-firm world (you can’t bill the file if you settle it!), I decided that I would use my experience assessing litigation risks, analyzing probable outcomes and recommending creative solutions and become a civil mediator.

I plan to use this blog to post about my practice and also to discuss recent developments in the field of Alternative Dispute Resolution, mediation, arbitration and Georgia law. I expect that many of the visitors to my website will be attorneys, but I will attempt to write about these topics in a way that will inform and entertain the non-lawyer, as well.

If you are interested in learning more about me and my practice, I invite you to visit my website at www.ckamediation.com.