We again seek nominations for the Illinois Arbitrator of the Year for 2009.
Editor’s comment: A few weeks ago we sent a Freedom of Information Act request to the IWCC requesting production of their Arbitrator performance statistics for the last couple of years. We are happy to confirm they answered the request in a timely and professional fashion. While it might seem trivial to a casual reader, we assure our readers this may be the first time in Illinois history such information has been widely and openly published. We applaud the current administration for opening up their inner operations to review by the taxpayers and larger public.
The resulting statistics were was quite interesting. Some time in the last couple of months, some of the opinions we printed about the job requirements of Arbitration staff at the IWCC were felt by some to be a bit controversial. Please accept the following as a brief summary of what those statistics showed.
We will not provide individual Arbitrator statistics, just the highs, lows and averages in some of the more enlightening categories. Several categories of information we received will not be reprinted.
2007 All Illinois Arbitrators
Category Highest Amount Lowest Amount Average
Number of Settlements 2,589 1,146 1,573
# of Awards 240 38 110
# of Dismissals 278 89 205
# of days to issue an award 163 15 49
% of late awards 88% 0% 28%
% of cases appealed 70% 25% 49%
% of appeals affirmed 100% 29% 68%
% of appeals reversed 16% 0% 7%
% of appeals modified up 30% 0% 14%
% of appeals modified down 43% 0% 10%
2008 Chicago Arbitrators only
Category Highest Amount Lowest Amount Average
Number of Settlements 1586 1074 1267
# of Awards 107 68 89
# of days to issue an award 72 13 46
% of late awards 78% 0% 27%
% of cases appealed 62% 39% 49%
% of appeals affirmed 82% 48% 62%
% of appeals reversed 19% 0% 7%
% of appeals modified up 26% 4% 17%
% of appeals modified down 26% 0% 13%
2008 Downstate Arbitrators only
Category Highest Amount Lowest Amount Average
# of Settlements 2,272 988 1,715
# of Awards 268 52 128
# of days to issue an award 93 16 39
% of late awards 77% 0% 18%
% of cases appealed 66% 28% 50%
% of appeals affirmed 90% 41% 67%
% of appeals reversed 20% 0% 8%
% of appeals modified up 24% 0% 11%
% of appeals modified down 25% 3% 14%
Extrapolating this information, we get some interesting thoughts. For one, the category of “dismissals” is not present in the 2008 statistics, nor are they counted amongst the “total actions” category. We have no idea why they would cease to be counted, as numerous cases are DWP’d every year, with an average of 205 per Arbitrator in 2007.
In 2007 and again in 2008, the Arbitrator that issued the most decisions issued well over twice as much as the average, while the Arbitrator issuing the least decisions had less than 40% of the average. The Arbitrator with the highest number of decisions was hearing and issuing more than 20 rulings each month; the Arbitrator issuing the least number of rulings was barely averaging 3 hearings each month! We also note in both years there were a significant amount of Arbitrators who were timely issuing their awards, within one to two months, with only a couple higher numbers in each year bringing up the average time to issue an award.
We note the change in breaking apart the statistics in 2008 into Chicago and Downstate indicated our Downstate Arbitrators appear to have their hands full in comparison to their Chicago counterparts, averaging 30 more trials and 450 more settlements per year.
In each year, an average of half of the cases tried were appealed. From a defense perspective, probably the most interesting fact this information presents is that it is more worthwhile you might have suspected to appeal awards. Over the course of the last two years, almost a fifth of all awards appealed were reversed or modified down.
As we have done in years past, we are seeking your vote for the three best and most effective Arbitrators in the state. We truly feel there are a number of truly devoted, hard-working and underpaid Arbitrators and they deserve kudos for their efforts. Please send us your nominees with as much specificity as possible.
If you have any thoughts or comments, we look forward to hearing them. Feel free to respond to ekeefe@keefe-law.com or post them later today on the blog at www.keefe-law.com/blog.
