Hon. Stuart E. Palmer (Ret.)

Hon. Stuart E. Palmer (Ret.) joins JAMS after a highly regarded 22 year career as a Justice of the Illinois Appellate Court and Judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois. Throughout his judicial career, Justice Palmer presided over the trials and settlement of many of the most complex matters that came before the courts, including thousands of civil and criminal matters at all stages of litigation. As a chancery judge and an appellate justice, Palmer received consistent high praise for his handling of a wide variety of complex commercial disputes.
 
Throughout his career on the bench, Justice Palmer has been a proponent of pretrial settlement as well as arbitration in order to avoid the expense, delay and uncertainty of protracted litigation.

His class action experience includes the following areas/matters:

Representative Matters

• Presided over numerous class actions including litigating discovery disputes, class certification, class decertification, appointment of class counsel and a steering committee
• Motions to dismiss and for summary judgment, as well as settlement discussions, approving class settlements, and resolving objections to class settlements by class members, including:
  • an action against a major auto manufacturer
  • an action against a major drug manufacturer (consolidated from several circuits in Illinois and brought before Justice Palmer)
  • an action against the city of Chicago
  • an action against the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA)
  • an action against Illinois Bell/SBC
  • an action against a local sanitary district
  • an action against a nationwide fitness facility company (consolidated from other circuits and the federal system for the purpose of mediation before Justice Palmer at counsel's request and with the consent of the other state and federal judges)
  • cases brought pursuant to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA)