EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. – Madison County taxpayers might be forced to expend more than a quarter of a million dollars following more than a dozen failed lawsuits filed by only two former county employees.
According to a news release from the Madison County State’s Attorney’s Office, the county’s legal fees over litigation brought by former county administrator Doug Hulme and former information technology director Robert Dorman stood at roughly $272,000.
“It’s a sadly typical case of frivolous lawsuits driving up costs for taxpayers,” said Madison County State’s Attorney Tom Haine. “I hope it stops soon, so local taxpayers don’t continue to suffer this waste of resources merely to ward off meritless lawsuits by just two individuals.”
After an investigation into acts of malfeasance, Hulme and Dorman were terminated from their county jobs in 2020.
Since then, Dorman, Hulme or both are plaintiffs in 18 separate cases in which the defendant is
Madison County or a county office. Some cases have involved more than 30 defendants.
At the same time that they are pursuing dozens of lawsuits against the county and various county officials, these individuals have filed hundreds of wide-ranging requests under the Freedom of Information Act against multiple county offices, each of which has to be reviewed and in some cases processed by a staff attorney,” Haine said. “The State’s Attorney’s Office has had to devote hundreds of hours to reviewing and processing those requests.”
