An Illinois circuit judge facing scrutiny from pro-business and pro-industry groups handed over his docket, asking that his county’s asbestos lawsuits be handled by another judge, according to a recent article in the Belleville News-Democrat.

Nicholas Byron ruled the Madison County Circuit Court that handles the country’s largest asbestos docket for about 10 years. In 2003 alone, he presided over 953 such cases. As a result, Madison County is notorious for its plaintiff-friendly reputation.

Such cases involving asbestos-related lung cancer often cumulate with multimillion-dollar awards, such as the $250 million judgment issued by a jury in Byron’s courtroom in 2003, the article says. And Byron himself awarded $10.1 billion to a class action suit against Philip Morris, the nation’s largest cigarette manufacturer.

Upon announcing his plans to hand over the docket, Byron — who is in his 70s — left for a vacation and was unavailable for comment. His associates declined to speak for him.

Although the recipients of the eye-popping awards surely appreciate Byron’s courtroom, tort-reform groups are less than pleased with his practices. In April, former U.S. Attorney Griffin Bell criticized the county responsible for 25 percent of the nation’s asbestos suits, says the Belleville article.

Gretchen Schaefer, a spokeswoman for the American Tort Reform Association, says: “Madison County is a magnet for asbestos litigation that has no connection to that jurisdiction. We hope to see fairness and balance in whoever takes over the asbestos docket by putting the citizens and taxpayers of Madison County first.”

Chief Judge Edward Ferguson says Byron will handle other types of lawsuits, with Circuit Judge Phillip Kardis taking over the swelling asbestos docket. Ferguson says handling the docket is “very, very time consuming because they’re all multiple-party cases with a lot of lawyers and litigants.”