Despite the Thomas Osteen lawsuit pending in federal court, NIU has one of the best litigation records in the nation among major universities.

“Northern has a way of settling things internally,” said George Shur, NIU legal counsel.

He said NIU has a very small number of legal disputes that go into litigation compared to schools around the country.

Shur attributed this to NIU’s location within the state of Illinois.

NIU is not located in a city that cuts down on labor disputes, he said.

“The people we deal with in the DeKalb area would rather settle a problem with us than taking it to litigation,” Shur said.

NIU only holds $200,000 in reserve to handle litigation, and after that funds come from insurance, Shur said. Some universities, such as Boston University, hold up to $2 million in reserve to cover litigation costs inflicted by medical schools and city union problems.

“NIU made a decision to handle what it could and hand off the rest to our insurance agent Giffen, Winning, Cohen and Bodewes,” Shur said.

The law firm also assists Illinois state schools such as ISU and Sagnamon State, he said.

Shur said he didn’t want to give off the impression that NIU was “lily-white.”

NIU does undergo a few routine cases dealing with “slip and fall” incidents that go through the court of claims, he said.

Shur said he attributes NIU’s success in litigation to the administration’s understanding of preventable law.

“The administration is very wary of things that can draw NIU into litigation. If we find we’re wrong, we’ll fix it, but when we’re determined we’re right we go through with cases,” Shur said.

NIU’s main legal concerns are to protect academic freedom and to uphold the judicial code, he said.

“Litigation is like watching paint dry. It’s a very slow process, under 10 percent of cases ever go to trial. It’s just too expensive,” Shur said.