Illinois Judge Rules Hellhole Campaign Part of PR Strategy to Damage Courts, Aid Defendant
On April 20, 2011, Illinois Circuit Judge William Mudge issued an order which disclosed that Syngetna Crop Protection, Inc. a defendant in a pending case, and its Chicago public relations firm developed a prejudicial campaign to attack the Madison County, Illinois courts.
The judge found that the proposal prepared for Syngenta “outlines a plan to tie the defense of this action into a negative public relations campaign that castigates the Madison County judicial system as a ‘judicial hellhole’ and a source of ‘jackpot justice,’ and, in part, to undertake efforts to enhance the public’s perception of Syngenta and the herbicide it manufactures at the expense of the Madison County judicial system.”
Like West Virginia, the Madison County court system has found itself the victim of a corporate-financed and underserved and unrelenting campaign by the U. S. Chamber of Commerce and its front groups, the Institute for Legal Reform and the American Tort Reform Association. Madison County is always included on ATRA’s list of “judicial hellholes”—just like West Virginia. The Madison/St. Clair Record was the first of the U. S. Chamber funded newspapers; the West Virginia Record was second.
WVAJ AFFINITY PARTNERS
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