How Many Arbitrators Is Too Many, Some Wonder

When Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker last month named six new people to handle workers' compensation claims disputes, it meant that the state had a full cadre of arbitrators for the first time in more than a year. Most of the appointments, including some well-known claimants' attorneys, three women, a Cuban-born immigrant, and two African-American lawyers, won praise from plaintiffs' and defense attorneys around the state. But with claims and disputes declining every year in Illinois, there's now talk that perhaps the state does not need all 34 arbitrators. Arbitrators, the firs...