$135 Million Spent to Settle City Suits Last Year

Your wallet feeling a little light, Chicago?

Verdicts against the city, or cases that were settled before making it to trial, have cost Chicago taxpayers nearly $180 million over the last two years.

That's the bad news.

The "good" news? Only $41.4 million of that was for settlements through Sept. 30 of this year, the Chicago Sun-Times' Fran Spielman reports.

Last year was a whopper, an "anomaly," according to the city's top lawyer, Mara Georges. Over $136 million was spent to settle several "very large cases" in 2008.

One case alone settled last year, the Oct. 17. 2003 high-rise fire in the Loop, cost taxpayers $50 million.

The lower amount this year can be attributed, Georges says, to city lawyers being more aggressive in their cases and outsourcing smaller-change cases to lawyers who charge a flat fee. 

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