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By Jim Covington
Director of Legislative Affairs
The General Assembly is focused on the budget and revenue in its attempt to adjourn on the scheduled date of May 21. The following is a snapshot of legislation still alive in the process of interest to Illinois lawyers and judges.
Uninsured motorist limits. Senate Bill 2238 (Emil Jones, D-Chicago; Molaro, D-Chicago) raises the minimum limits of financial responsibility for motorists from $20/$40/$15 to $30/$60/$25. It is currently on second reading in the House awaiting this amendment.
Forensic lab oversight board. Senate Bill 2201 (Cullerton, D-Chicago; Colvin, D-Chicago) creates a 15-member board called the Illinois Laboratory Advisory Committee to provide guidance to the forensic laboratories involved in the judicial system. Specifically, one of its missions is to make recommendations regarding improving policy and procedures to ensure counsel for the defense and prosecution are receiving all evidence, reports, and analytical documentation relevant to disclosure. It is on third reading in the House.
Discrimination and the Attorney General. Senate Bill 2878 (Sandoval, D-Chicago; Art Turner, D-Chicago) gives the Attorney General standing under the Illinois Human Rights Act to file an action in circuit court if it has reasonable cause to believe that any person or group of persons is engaged in a pattern and practice of discrimination. It authorizes the Attorney General to seek equitable relief, actual and punitive damages for the aggrieved party to the extent the aggrieved party is entitled to those damages under this Act, and civil monetary penalties. It is on third reading in the House.
Gestational Surrogacy Act. House Bill 4962 (Currie, D-Chicago; Hamos, D-Evanston; Cullerton, D-Chicago) creates the Gestational Surrogacy Act to provide guidelines for creating surrogacy contracts. It establishes eligibility requirements for becoming a surrogate and changes the Paternity Act concerning the establishment of the parent and child relationship to include the provisions outlined in the Gestational Surrogacy Act. It is on third reading in the Senate.
Hit and run. House Bill 4027 (Delgado, D-Chicago; Martinez, D-Chicago) amends the Illinois Vehicle Code to reduce from one hour to 30 minutes the time in which a person must report a motor vehicle accident that causes personal injury or death. For failure to immediately stop to give information and render aid, House Bill 4027 increases the penalty from a Class A misdemeanor to a Class 4 felony. If the driver does not comply with the requirement immediately after the accident, it increases the penalty for failing to do so within 30 minutes from Class 4 felony to a Class 3 felony if there is personal injury. It is on third reading in the Senate.
Hit and run on the water. Senate Bill 2164 (Althoff, R-Crystal Lake; Franks, D-Woodstock) creates for boaters involved in accidents the same duty as motorists to stop and give information and aid with a one-hour reporting period. It has passed both chambers.
DUI Cleanup. Senate Bill 2124 (Cullerton, D-Chicago; Rose, R-Mahomet) is a cleanup of the DUI statutes to make them more logically organized and readable. It has passed both chambers.
Juvenile expungement. House Bill 4566 (Lou Jones, D-Chicago; Collins, D-Chicago) provides that a minor who is eligible to have his or her juvenile records expunged at the time of sentencing or dismissal of the case to be informed by the judge of his or her right to expungement and shall be provided an expungement information packet by the clerk of the circuit court. Requires the court to provide for a notice of expungement form, an order of expungement form, and a notice of objection form. Prohibits expunged juvenile records from affecting employment matters. It is on second reading in the Senate.
It's been said. . .
The following are comments about the chamber of commerce ad campaign and ISBA's response to it from the ISBA on-line discussion group:
"The (ads) that were run in the St. Louis area, while primarily aimed at the plaintiff's bar, smeared all lawyers indiscriminately. We had to stop playing one station as our telephone hold music because we didn't want out clients hearing such overbroad lawyer bashing".
-Timothy A. Gutknecht, Columbia
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"I just hope they (ISBA ads) can convey the law as a worthy profession without having to resort to the 'knights in shining armor saving the poor defenseless little guy from the evil corporation' theme, which in my opinion is almost as nauseating as the 'lawyer as shark' theme."
Melissa Anne Maye, Yorkville
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"Regardless of whether an attorney is 'pro-plaintiff' or 'pro-defense,' I would think all attorneys have an interest in keeping our profession from being smeared."
Jim Foley, Chicago
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"As lawyers, many of us have an in-person, up-front view of the system with all its warts. Believe me, I know a lot more about how it works than any doctor or chamber of commerce does. Of course it's not perfect, but that is inherent because people are not perfect. If not the lawyers and the bar association, who then should address these issues? The doctors and insurance companies?"
By Stephen Anderson
Editor
E pluribus Jackson
Chief Justice Earl Warren gets ample credit, and well deserved, for herding a fractious Supreme Court into consensus in time for him to ad lib "unanimously" in his reading of the text of the preamble to the Brown v. Board of Education opinion on May 17, 1954.
Less celebrated, however, is the role of Justice Robert Jackson, a former prosecutor of renown who leaned toward judicial restraint from social issues that he thought were within the province of the executive and legislative branches.
ISBA past president Tim Eaton is fond of quoting Jackson's admonishment to the appellate advocate that "supplying the basis for decisional lawmaking calls for the vision of the prophet, as well as a profound appreciation of the continuity between the law of today and that of the past."
The attorney shares "the task of reworking decisional law by which every generation seeks to preserve its essential character and at the same time to adapt it to contemporary needs," Jackson continued, concluding that "At such a moment, a lawyer's case ceases to be an episode in the affairs of a client and becomes a stone in the edifice of the law."
In the Brown case, in fact, the skeptical justice drafted a 23-page memo in March 1954 that deplored "a recasting of society by judicial fiat," when it was clear to him that abolishing segregation was a matter for Congress to consider.
The issues had been argued in December 1952, when Fred Vinson was chief, and again in December 1953, three months after Vinson's death, when Warren convened the court well in advance of his March 1 confirmation by the Senate.
The buzz among the court's law clerks was that Plessy v. Ferguson would be overturned, but there would be dissents. Stanley Reed was a known holdout. Jackson apparently needed convincing, but he was hospitalized March 30 after a heart attack.
Warren finished his final draft at the end of April and took it to Jackson's hospital bed. The chief justice turned down some suggestions from his ailing colleague, but Jackson concurred nonetheless. That gave Warren the pleasure of convincing Reed not to be cast as the lone dissenter.
On May 17, Robert Jackson appeared unexpectedly to take his seat on the high bench a gesture of deference to Earl Warren and a visible avowal of concordance among all nine justices in the historic ruling.
During his 13 years on the Supreme Court, Jackson and some of his colleagues were not happy campers. He had filled the vacancy created when Harlan Stone was elected to chief justice, and it was known that Jackson expected to be named chief when Stone died in 1946.
But his absence from the court during 1945 and 1946 as chief U.S. prosecutor at the Nuremberg war crimes trials had annoyed other justices. Two of them threatened to resign if Jackson became chief justice. He, in turn, wrote to President Truman to criticize one of the brethren.
No doubt, Jackson was somewhat of a pariah during his tenure. One can only hope his valiant change of heart and presence in court against doctors' orders accrued some collegial reverence during the five months between the Brown opinion and his death in October 1954.
Brown v. Board of Education certainly became "a stone in the edifice of the law" that Jackson could appreciate.
Around the bar world, and back
According to the New York Times style manual, an odyssey is a journey that begins and ends in the same place. Not all wordsmiths agree; some would refer to any protracted wandering as an odyssey.
But if the tribulations experienced by Odysseus during his 10-year pilgrimage from Troy back home to Ithaca may be deemed evidentiary, our friend Marlene Kurilla has indeed concluded an odyssey temporarily, we hope.
A bar junkie of the highest order, Marlene has long been a stalwart of the ISBA. In recent years, she has chaired the Tort Law Section Council and Committee on Continuing Legal Education, served on the Assembly, the Insurance Law Section Council and Committee on Supreme Court Rules, and been a mainstay of the Committee on Judicial Evaluations.
She has been similarly dedicated to the Women's Bar Association, which was about to install her as its president after years of grunt work and significant service. But ill health has forced her to step down, and to take leave from her law practice.
Marlene richly deserved the opportunity to share her unique brand of leadership during this, the 90th year in the venerable history of the WBAI. She earned the accolades that would have been showered on her next month.
She's a fighter, though, and we are certain she's destined for future odysseys in service to the legal profession. Godspeed, and to your health!
Neil F. Hartigan will resign with reluctance from the Illinois Appellate Court, 1st District, on June 1 to spend more time with his cancer-stricken daughter, Bridget Hartigan Routh. His wife, Marge, died last year from lung cancer.
Hartigan had requested an unpaid leave from the bench, but was refused because by statute that option is not available to elected government officials.
A former Illinois lieutenant governor and attorney general, he was elected to the Appellate Court in November 2002. He had been a partner in McDermott, Will & Emery before the election.
Retirement, appointment
Associate Judge Thomas F. Baker of the 19th Circuit in McHenry County, retired at the end of April and plans to move to Arizona. An associate judge in the 1970s, he was reappointed in December 1996.
Baker was McHenry County state's attorney from 1986 to 1992 and executive director of the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority from 1994 to 1996.
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Beverly Susler Parkhurst of Chicago, a member of the ISBA Committee on Professional Conduct, has been appointed a federal administrative law judge. A former Cook County Circuit Court judge, she was of counsel to Hedlund & Hanley until her April 26 appointment.
Magistrate vacancies
Applications will be accepted through Monday, June 14, from candidates for two magistrate judge positions in U.S. District Court for the Northern District. Call (312) 435-5359 for application forms and information.
One candidate will succeed Magistrate Judge Edward A. Bobrick, who will retire June 14 after 14 years on the federal bench and 11 years as an administrative law judge.
The other opening was created after a study of growing workloads by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. It will be filled after Oct. 1 if funding is available and would bring the total of magistrate judges in the district to 11.
Applicants must be less than 70 years old, have five years of active law practice, be admitted to the bar, and not be related to a district court judge. The term of office is eight years.
Election is conceded
Sheryl Anne Pethers, one of four Democrat candidates in the primary election for the 8th Subcircuit of the Cook County Circuit Court, gained the seat when Jon F. Erickson conceded last month.
Pethers held a 53-vote margin 11,956 to 11,903 when results of the March 16 primary were certified by the State Board of Elections.
Meanwhile, Democrat Paula M. Daleo petitioned for a recount after certified primary election results showed her losing by 36 votes in the 11th Subcircuit. Lawrence Andolino was the apparent winner by a margin of 19,200 to 19,164.
Ole Bly Pace tells details of New Zealand travel plan
ISBA President-elect Ole Bly Pace III of Sterling has announced details of his presidential travel program in New Zealand next March.
Participants will be able to arrange their own transportation, using personal frequent air travel credits or other reward programs. Accommodations and itinerary in New Zealand are being coordinated by Neal Kraemer at Carrousel Travel, (800) 800-6508.