♪ Yeah, I'm waking up.
♪ It's a good day.
- Welcome back to
Tim Mahoney joining
us this morning.
We have a new law to
talk about that's it's
in the process of maybe becoming
a law in Illinois, right?
- That's correct.
I think it's sitting
right now to be signed.
- Right now!
I mean, it is Easter Sunday.
He might not be
signing it today,
but Tim Mahoney, of course,
from Mahoney and Mahoney.
You're gonna tell
us all about this.
It is, there's a lot
going on with it.
- Right, so it's a
prejudgment interest bill
is what it is.
And so what it does is
it encourages
insurance companies
to make settlement offers,
reasonable settlement offers,
before trial.
In the event a
case goes to trial
and the person gets judgment,
you always get interest
after the date of judgment.
and wrongful death cases,
will allow you to
get interest back
to the date that you
actually filed the lawsuit.
So give me a real life situation
of how this would occur.
- Okay, so your parents
are in a tragic wreck.
Somebody crossed
the center line,
and they're both
killed in the wreck.
You file a lawsuit.
The insurance company
makes no offer
up 'til the time of trial.
And then at trial,
you get a verdict against them
for whatever amount of
money, against the defendant.
You could then get
interest from the amount
of that verdict back to the date
that you filed the lawsuit.
had made an offer of $250,000
to settle the lawsuit.
And ultimately, you got
a verdict of $350,000.
between what they offered
and the verdict that you got.
So it encourages
them to make offers.
- So you said that this
is a law elsewhere.
just or similar to this.
Illinois is kind of
late to the game,
which is kind of surprising
because usually
Illinois is considered
a pro-plaintiff state,
which just goes to show you
that in some ways, it's
not a pro-plaintiff state.
And we're late to the
party on this one.
But 46 other States
have laws regarding,
what we call
prejudgment interests.
- Do you know what
the other states are
that don't have one?
- I don't.
That's where my brain goes.
I'm like 46.
There's some other
ones that are missing.
I'll have to Google that later.
- This is a really good idea,
especially coming out of COVID,
because a lot of
insurance companies
have not been making offers
while the courts are shut down.
We have not been
able to set cases
for trial since
March 17th of 2020.
getting to the point
where some cases are starting
to get set for trial.
If you hear about trials,
it's usually criminal
cases and not civil cases.
Well, insurance companies,
if there's no trial date,
especially on a bigger case,
they don't have a
lot of incentive
in order to make offers
to try to settle cases.
This law will give
them incentive
enough to resolve the case,
which a lot of times,
frankly, it's going to be,
it still gives them incentive
because if there is a verdict,
they're not gonna pay
interest on the whole amount.
interest on part of it.
It's a really good law
and a really good idea.
- And it is like a
one-time payment,
like 9% of just the number.
- Well, but it ended
up not being 9%.
So 9%, I know this
is complicated.
- It's okay, I'm working on it.
- 9% is what you get
after a judgment is entered.
The original law that was passed
by the House and the Senate
Governor was also
for 9% preverdict, prejudgment
to the date of filing.
The Governor vetoed that bill
that that was too much interest.
So then, the one that's sitting
on his desk now is at 6%.
So after verdict,
after judgment,
you would get 9%.
Before you would get six
on the difference between
what's been offered
and what the
verdict actually is.
And again, most of the time,
these cases are settled.
People don't really
want to go to trial.
and they'd like them
resolved quickly and easily.
But a lot of times that's
just not how it works.
This'll give incentive to
try to make that happen.
- To make things move
- Yes, which after the shutdown
for the last year,
is desperately needed
because the backlog
is tremendous.
And you know,
there's been a period
of time for months
where insurance company,
you couldn't get a
phone call returned.
You couldn't get
an email returned.
There's a large number of cases
that are waiting
for trial right now.
- Sure, so we don't know,
maybe if he's really
gonna sign this today,
We expecting it to move up
quickly or what do you think?
- The information that I
have is that it's probably,
it's likely to get done at 6%
But again, it's
obviously, it's up to him.
He may decide that
that's too high
an interest rate.
But my understanding is
it's likely to become law.
- And it has a nickname
to the law, right?
- Preverdict interest.
Prejudgment interest.
- Oh, the bad face law
is something they
were doing before.
- That's a different law that
you and I also talked about.
or are we runnin' out of time?
- (laughs) Wait,
we don't want to.
It's a holiday!
I got one law per holiday.
- Fair enough.
We'll save that
for another time.
so much for explaining,
of course, you know
so much about law.
That's why we like
to talk to you.
And that's why somebody
might need you.
Maybe not today,
but maybe tomorrow
or the next day.
Where can we find you?
Where can we get
into contact with ya?
And then our number
is 815-656-4600.
- Awesome, well,
thank you so much
for spending some
time with us today.
- Thank you.
- Make sure your kids are ready.
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