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Madison and St. Clair counties are no longer on the list of "judicial hellholes", a list they topped for a number of years. It wasn't that long ago when plaintiff's were winning big in these local courts, but the number of cases has dropped off dramatically in the past few years, either through actual tort reform or internal decision making by the courts as to what cases they would hear.
The actual report on judicial hellholes is here, but in a very annoying pdf form.
Madison County trial attorney and the former head of the influential Lakin Law Firm was indicted yesterday on federal charges of drugs and sex with minors. I've written about him and the accusations in the past, but sort of forgot about it because so much time has elapsed. Yesterday I noticed many hits on the blog coming from people doing google searches for "Lakin" and figured something must have happened. Sure enough.
He was released on a $250,000 bond, had to relinquish his passport, but could still go to any of his several homes across the country including one in California and another in Florida. Lakin has always been a power player in local, state and federal politics, having been a big donor to most democratic "names". The one line in the Post-Dispatch story today that tickled me was this from another powerful Metro East attorney, Rex Carr: "He's done a lot of good for the political community."
The good really depends on which side of the fence you're on, or who's ox is being gored.
Well known Madison County plaintiff attorney, Thomas Lakin, who has been facing a lawsuit over giving cocaine to underage young people at his home as well as sexual misconduct with the same, has now been handed a complaint by the state of Illinois.
The Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission has filed a complaint against well-known Madison County lawyer L. Thomas Lakin, accusing him of sexual misconduct with two boys.
The allegations are similar to those made against Lakin by the two males and a girl in a pending civil lawsuit. Lakin's attorneys have strongly denied the allegations and have accused the minors' families of trying to extort $50 million. Joseph Tighe, Lakin's attorney in the licensure matter, could not be reached for comment.
Since around the time of the original lawsuit, Lakin has been difficult to locate, some believe he has been staying in his Pasadena home where he also has a law office, but "in March, Lakin put his law license on inactive status, meaning he cannot practice law. Inactive status is a way attorneys can, in effect, retire but reactivate their licenses at a lower cost than if they had officially retired."
The saga continues, the Thomas Lakin affair. After being the subject of a lawsuit alleging sex abuse and other drug related things, the Lakin family has now filed their own suit against the party of the first part. The Lakins and the Lakin law firm is claiming the original plaintiffs and their attorney have engaged in extortion.
As a follow up to last week's stories about Thomas Lakin, influencial Madison County attorney who was the subject of a lawsuit charging him with sexual abuse and cocaine, federal investigators are now probing the allegations made by the plaintiffs.
No one has heard a word from Lakin since this all became public.
After all the stories about the lawsuit filed against L. Thomas Lakin, a prominent Madison County attorney, someone in the family suggested doing a search to see who he was giving money to and how much. As you might expect most were democrats since Lakin cut his teeth on the democratic party, but what was something of a surprise was a $1000 donation he made to Friends of John McCain.
Actually, the FEC website (Federal Election Commission) can become addicting, why is it that looking up one person just naturally leads to looking up many? Fascinating really.
For the past few weeks the Belleville News-Democrat had heard rumors of a prominent Madison County personage who was the subject of a lawsuit, but the paper could never get to the bottom of the story. Finally, yesterday Madison County chief judge Ann Callis ordered the case opened and the defendent turns out to be L. Thomas Lakin founder of the Lakin law firm, a large group of attorneys who specialize in lawsuits, especially malpractice suits. State Represenative Jay Hoffman is a member of the Lakin law firm.
Lakin was accused in the lawsuit of sexually abusing minors, providing cocaine to the underage children in question and his firm and grown children are also cited for helping cover up evidence of the abuse.
Why the filed suit was not made public as most filed cases are, is open to question. The principals all deny they worked to keep it sealed. What is known is the case was filed on April 21 and later dismissed with the promise it will be re-filed. Lakin is accused of some disgusting behavior which I won't repeat here, but the newspaper stories flesh this out very clearly.
Lakin, an influencial democrat in local and state and national politics has not commented, but part of the lawuit claims he told the plaintiffs he was, "...the judge, the sheriff, everything in Madison County..." This I can well believe.
Related stories: Madison County Record, "Lakin named in sexual assault case"
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, "Suit names Lakin in sex abuse case"
The results of a poll which asked lawyers whether specific candidates for judicial office were qualified or not shows republican judges in Madison and St. Clair counties receiving the lowest scores. Ironically, while new Judge Don Weber-R-received a 35.5 rating, Circuit Court Judge George Moran who recently resigned because of weird goings on in his personal life, received at 78 percent rating.
It shouldn't come as a surprise that the many democratic trial lawyers in these two counties are attempting to oust any republican running for a court position, afterall, they have long had a sense of party entitlement which makes them go slightly crazy when an outsider (republican) gets into office. They have made Weber's short courtlife a twilight zone, asking for substitute judges when one of their cases is assigned to him. His total of substitute cases has reached 66 in the four months he has been on the bench.
Madison County Circuit Court Judge, Don Weber, the only Madison County Republican judge, has found himself with little to do since the Democratic big boys in legal circles have been moving for substitute judges each time they find themselves in his courtroom. So far 35 cases have been yanked from Weber by Chief Judge Edward Ferguson.
Weber is on the November ballot to retain his position and by keeping cases from him, the democrats have made his having any kind of record to run on impossible. Ah, life in Madison County. The local democrats have not recovered from their guy's loss to Lloyd Karmeier (R) for the Illinois Supreme Court and are not going to sit idly by while even one lone republican holds court office here. It's a birthright, don't you know. Democrats in Madison County get every office.
In a highly anticipated ruling, the Illinois Supreme Court overturned a Madison County judgement against the Philip Morris tobacco company. In 2003 Madison County judge, Nicholas Byron issued a 10.1 billion dollar verdict against the tobacco company finding that Philip Morris duped smokers into believing a light cigarette was safer than those of full strength.
The Supreme Court based its 4-2 decision on a section of the Illinois Consumer Fraud Act, which exempts conduct authorized by U.S. regulatory bodies. The court held that the Federal Trade Commission authorized tobacco companies to characterize cigarettes as "light" or "low tar and nicotine."
The Madison County Record has more on what they are calling a 'landmark ruling'. Two justices wrote a dissent and one did not vote claiming a relationship with one of the attorneys involved in the case.
This is a huge turnaround in legal decisions for Madison County which recently fell out of first place in the rankings of judicial hellholes nationwide. Rio Grande Valley and Gulf Coast Texas is now number one with Chicago's Cook County taking second place. West Virginia is third with Madison and St. Clair Counties in S. Illinois coming in 4th and 5th. Good news as it is that Madison and St. Clair are no longer 1 and 2, the state is still leading the way for lawsuit shopping. Cross posted at Illinoize.
