Being a manufacturer in Illinois is becoming increasingly difficult. Antagonism from the court systems in Cook County has caused many companies in Chicago to flee. This is not mere opinion; I was personally subjected to the Cook County judicial system, as were other businessmen. The system seems to believe that manufacturing plant owners are wealthy, so much so that I was even called ‘Mr. Money Bags’ in the courtroom.

After a two-year marriage, I fell victim to this ruthless court system. Every last dime was taken from me, personally, but luckily the family business was left unscathed; though that was not through lack of the judicial system’s efforts to try and destroy it, financially. The Cook County Courts attempted to take everything from me; all that I had worked for. Not all businesses are cash businesses. Many, like ours, are invoice-based. Business owners are paid weekly, as are their/our employees. The court system believed that all of the company’s money was used for my own personal use, even though they knew that I had partners, who were family. The opposing counsel fervently attempted to use the family business as a tool to make me surrender. They tried to manipulate me to fund their endeavors, by having the business go through a grueling appraisal process, at my expense. This, in turn, involved the rest of the family, who had nothing to do with the intricacies of my divorce case.

Unfortunately, when I had tried to bring this to the proper governing agencies (the JIB and the ARDC), I was told that there was nothing they could do. These judges and lawyers are not being held accountable and the governing system is letting this happen. These agencies that are supposed to police such malicious behavior are a part of the corruption. Throughout my divorce, my family and I wrote to both agencies more than once, as I obtained more evidence to support my claims. In the end, I never received any justice or answers, because the complaints filed were closed, without being thoroughly investigated.

Be careful if you find yourself in the Cook County Court System. They will break the laws they were sworn to defend. There is no concern for your circumstances, only for their desire to line their own pockets; even to the extent of being exposed. They have no fear. No one: the press, TV nor radio investigative reporters will take this story on to try and expose these ingrates, because who wants to deal with this deep seeded corruption? Because it was in a domestic court, cases like this are known to continually fly under the radar. If you report them to the proper authorities, to uphold the justice they found so easy to maneuver in their favor, those who police them look the other way; they will not eat their own. In my case, while my attorney was saying under his breath, in the judge’s chambers, “I cannot believe this is happening”, the opposing attorney leaned over and said to him, “That’s because you are not a part of the same tribe”. You can call it what you want to, but I believe that I was discriminated against by the two opposing attorneys, the discovery judge and the trial judge, collectively. Why? Because we fell victim, by not being connected to those who were.

Despite their attempts to use the family business for their own gain, the business remains resilient and unfaltering. We here at Midwest Screw Products, Inc. do business right. We will continue to strive for excellence and will always improve our equipment based on customers’ needs, quality control and shipping. Resulting from this divorce, I was forced out of retirement, and our clients were elated to have me back, not as President, because I gave that up when I retired, but as CEO, to continue our strong relationships. Being that I will turn 70 this month, I never thought that Cook County would want to destroy a family based business, which employs nearly 50 people and has contributed to the city and county tax base for over 69 years.

Always fight to maintain your businesses. It is definitely not only the economy that can take you and your business’s breath away. It is those who are allowed to unjustly manipulate the system in their favor, not caring who they are destroying in their wake. They do what they want to and can destroy you personally. When the opposing attorneys know they will be the winner no matter what, then you can never prevail. When a victim is chosen, the judge contributes to this injustice.

Don’t let the politicians fool you when they say they want your business to stay in Illinois, or that they want you to move your business back into the city. They just need more victims to prey on. If I had not met other businessmen who lost their businesses and/or eventually had to sell them, I would not be so convinced that this was just fun and games for the judges and the attorneys. They work through their connections within the system, to use businessmen as their means of making a living. If it wasn’t for researching those involved and finding other blogs like mine that had similar situations as I went through, I would have believed that I was the only one that this scandalous experience happened to. It was also very interesting to find that it was my discovery judge that had also done the same injustice to others in my situation.

At this point in time, this late in life, my personal financial losses needed to be recaptured by returning to work. However, when injustice is so rampant and one can be so easily destroyed, it is easy to believe that this can only happen if there are collaborative efforts by the judges and attorneys to ruin businessmen in the courtroom. No one would believe what goes on behind the scenes. Notwithstanding, I have the proof, that in the hands of the right people who are willing help get this information out on why businesses fail or leave Illinois, will have all the evidence needed to break the machine in this county and state.

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