7/30/2019 page 1 Dec '12

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/page-1-dec-12 1/1

   P   R   S   R   T   S   T   D

   U .   S .   P   o  s  t  a  g  e

     P      A   I      D

   P  e  r    m i  t   N   o .  5  5  8  4   S  t .   L   o  u i  s ,    M   O

Vol. 13, No. 3 • December 2012 www.ibjonline.com (618)659-1997

See Inside For Special Section on 

Women in Law, pgs. 11-17 

 Southwestern Illinois Law

n S RefoRm, pag 22

Lawsuit lending is on the rise in the

U.S., and the trend is raising eyebrows of 

tort reform organizations and plantiffs’

 bars alike.

What is lawsuit lending? Also known

as third-party litigation funding, it’s

a fairly new business model allowing

companies to grant non-recourse loans to

 plaintiffs in need of cash to cover their 

expenses as they await the outcome of 

their case.

It’s not the amount of the dollars

at stake in lawsuit lending that are

sending up red ags for tort reformists

and attorneys, says Darren McKinney,

director of communications at the

American Tort Reform Association -

rather, it’s the notion that for the rst

time in U.S. history, a third party is being

allowed into legal negotiations.

“Lawsuit lending, or third-party

litigation funding, is a fairly new

 phenomenon,” said McKinney. “For 

centuries in Western law and certainly

during American history and American

 jurisprudence, the notion of third parties

having an interest in the outcome of 

cases was unthinkable. There have been

laws against this since Greek and Roman

times.”

The industry, which now lends

 plaintiffs more than $100 million a year,

remains unregulated in most states, says

McKinney.

According to lawyers and scholars

Lawrence S. Schander and Thomas

G. Appleman who co-authored the

Sept. 2012 white paper, Third-Party

 Litigation Funding in the United States,

lawsuit lending is essentially funding,

 by an outside party, of all or part of a

 plaintiff’s litigation costs in exchange for 

In an ongoing effort to bridge the

skills gap in manufacturing, the Obama

Administration recently announced

$500 million in grants to community

colleges across the country to expand job

training through partnerships with local

employers.

In Illinois, a consortium of 20

community colleges, including

Southwestern Illinois College, received a

grant of nearly $13 million to implement

what it is calling the Earn and Learn

Advanced Manufacturing Career Lattice

Program. This program targets Trade

Adjustment Assistance workers, veteransand others seeking additional training to

secure and/or maintain employment by

earning stackable, portable certicates

and degrees leading to highly paid jobs

within advanced manufacturing while

simultaneously working in the industry.

Participants enter the program at multiple

 points based on assessment results that

match skills and education needs.

The skills gap - the difference between

the skills needed for the job and the skills

displayed by the available workforce - is

a big problem for employers. According

to a survey by the National Association

of Manufacturers, four out of ve

manufacturers report severe problems

with nding skilled workers.

“It’s been going on for a little while as

industry further automates and increases

its reliance on computers and robotics and

things like that,” said Jim Nelson, vice

 president of the Illinois Manufacturers’

Association. “We recognize now that

virtually anybody coming into work,almost any job in manufacturing -

 perhaps with the exception of janitorial -

needs some postsecondary education.”

Where once a student could graduate

from high school - or even drop out - and

go get a good-paying job in a factory,

that’s no longer the case, according to

Manuacturers, educators team up in eort to close skills gapBy ALAN J. ORTBALS

A consortium of 18 taxing bodies is seeking to

negotiate a settlement with WRB Refning LLC, owner 

of the (Phillips 66 and Cenovus Energy) Wood River 

Refnery, regarding the property tax assessment on its

 plant in Roxana following completion of its CORE

(Coker and Refnery Expansion) project.

At this point, however, the parties are far apart; and

when - or if - an agreement can be reached is still

unknown. According to Madison County Board of Review Chairman Kerry Miller, these conicts can be

drawn out for years.

“That’s the problem we had with Olin,” he said.

“The 2003 and 2004 assessments got dragged out to

last year when the taxing districts ultimately lost. They

took it all the way to the Illinois Supreme Court, but

they ultimately lost. So now they’re trying to fgure

out how to unravel that whole mess. We’re hoping to

avoid that with the refnery.”

The CORE project was a $3.8 billion expansion of 

the refnery, enabling it to process up to 55,000 barrels

of heavy sour crude oil that is piped in from the tar 

sands area of Alberta, Canada via the Keystone I

Pipeline. The addition brought the refnery’s capacity

up to 356,000 barrels per day, making it the sixth-

largest refnery in the United States. The project was

completed in late 2011.

According to Illinois Pollution Control Board

records, WRB submitted 26 applications to the IPCB

to have various parts of the project declared “pollution

control facilities,” thus making them exempt from

local property taxation. The designation involves

approximately $3 billion of the $3.8 billion project.

Before reaching a decision on the applications,the IPCB sought the recommendation of the Illinois

Environmental Protect ion Agency. On Nov. 28, 2011,

the IEPA recommended that the board certify the

various facilities as pollution control facilities as

defned in the Illinois Property Tax Code.

On Dec. 9, 2011, however, the Roxana Community

Unit School District 1 fled a petition with the IPCB,

seeking to intervene and block those tax certifcations,

claiming that the board had violated the Illinois Open

Meetings Act. In its petition, the school district further 

claimed that the pollution control designation would

 potentially cost the district nearly $9 million per year 

in lost property tax revenue.

$3.8 billion refnery CORE project brings big taxbill, ongoing fght with 18 area taxing districtsBy ALAN J. ORTBALS

n S SkILLS, pag 4

Illinois tort reorm group standing guard against bill allowing loans by third party to plaintisBy KERRY L. SMITH

n S RefINeRY, pag 4

 photo courtesy of The Associated Press

Four out of ve manufacturers report severe problems with nding enough skilled workers,

according to a survey by the National Association of Manufacturers.

 photo courtesy of The Associated Press

Since the $3.8 billion expansion of the Phillips 66 and

Cenovus Energy renery in Roxana was completed in

November 2011, owner WRB Rening LLC and local taxing

districts have been at odds over its property tax assessment.