Director of Legislative Affairs
The General Assembly is beginning to send bills to Gov. Ryan with the scheduled adjournment date of May 17 right around the corner. Legislation that is still alive includes the following.
Bankruptcy. H.R. 333 includes three provisions that require debtors' attorneys (but not creditors' attorneys) to do the following: (1) Certify the accuracy of factual allegations in the debtor's bankruptcy petition and schedules under penalty of mandatory sanctions. (2) Certify the ability of the debtor to make payments under a reaffirmation agreement. (3) Identify and advertise themselves as "debt relief agencies" subject to a host of new intrusive regulations.
The American Bar Association advises that the conference committee conferees to H.R. 333 are going to amend H.R. 333 to change the mandatory sanctions for inaccurate schedules to something similar to a discretionary Rule 9011 sanction. Although H.R. 333 is a major rewrite of the Bankruptcy Code, apparently the only thing preventing this bill from becoming law is the deadlock over the inability to discharge debts incurred as a result of violence targeted at abortion clinics. Senator Schumer (D-NY) is insisting that this language be in the final bill.
Forfeiture of vehicle. Senate Bill 1730 (Parker, R-Northbrook; Coulson, R-Glenview) authorizes the seizure and forfeiture of the vehicle of a person convicted of driving on a revoked or suspended license if the suspension or revocation was the result of (1) a DUI conviction, (2) conviction of leaving the scene of a personal injury accident, (3) conviction of reckless homicide, or (4) statutory summary related to use of alcohol, drugs, or intoxicating compounds. If the spouse of the owner makes a showing of hardship, and the vehicle is the family's only source of transportation, the vehicle may be forfeited to the spouse. Forfeiture to the spouse is allowed only once per vehicle. The Senate and House have sent Bill 1730 to Gov. Ryan.
Automatic transfer of juveniles. House Bill 4129 (McKeon, D-Chicago; Petka, R-Plainfield) creates a mechanism in which a juvenile who is being prosecuted as an adult in criminal court may petition to have a judge transfer the case back to juvenile court for adjudication and disposition. The intent of this bill is to reduce the racial disparity in present automatic transfers of juveniles. A national report issued last spring concluded that Illinois has the distinction of having the most racially biased drug-transfer laws of any state in the nation.
The most recent study finds that 99% of all juveniles automatically transferred for drug offenses in the last year were children of color, 37% of whom were never even prosecuted in adult court, 59% of whom had no prior juvenile history, and 74% of those transferred received probation in adult court.
House Bill 4129 is a scaled-back effort to reduce this racial disparity and to more effectively punish and rehabilitate juveniles. It applies only to juveniles charged with drug offenses within 1,000 feet of schools or public housing but does not apply to Class X delivery cases. Twenty-four other states have similar legislation.
Child support change. Senate Bill 1966 (Roskam, R-Glen Ellyn; Mathias, R-Buffalo Grove) amends the child support statutes to require that unless the child becomes emancipated, this obligation is extended to include a child under age 19 who is still attending high school.
Truth-in-sentencing. House Bill 5652 (Durkin, R-Westchester; Roskam, R-Glen Ellyn) allows a defendant convicted of cannabis trafficking or controlled substance trafficking to receive only a maximum of 4.5 days of good conduct credit for each month instead of the day-for-day good-time credit.
Editor
Wanton and wanting
Our state's constitutional conscience of checks and balances has languished into something one might more appropriately refer to as: No balance, no checks.
Seems like only last year that the legislature couldn't give money away fast enough. The bottomless pit even disgorged a half-million dollars for legal assistance under the auspices of the ISBA-inspired Equal Justice Foundation.
But times change. The spigot of revenues, which State Comptroller Dan Hynes warned was beginning to act sphincteral even before September 11, has dribbled to a trickle that will leave the budget short by more than a billion dollars "real money," as Everett Dirksen wryly noted.
Ready cash in the general fund for 2002, which accounts for 45 percent of the budget, was pegged at $25 billion, and forthwith allocated here and there for benevolences in the districts. Now it appears the inflow from income and sales taxes, etc., will be more like $23.4 billion at best.
Now come the unkind cuts. As a perplexed Lord Chancellor Thomas More mused during a similar predicament in 1530, five years before King Henry offed his head, the state had "A little wanton money, which burned out the bottom of his purse."
Our judicial branch is one of the little guys in the struggle. With an entire budget request of $335 million yes, that's seven-tenths of one percent of the divined $51.8 billion total the Supreme Court is being nickel-and-dimed by the bean cutters.
By act of the legislature, 26 new associate judgeships were authorized in line with population shifts recorded in the census. The statute provides for one associate judge per 29,000 residents of Cook County, and one per 35,000 downstaters.
But the legislators appear unwilling to give the court system the $4.2 million it would need to fill those positions. After all, that amounts to about two-tenths of one percent of the total deficit.
By act of the legislature, judges were assured that their compensation includes a perpetual cost-of-living adjustment so they won't have to beg regularly for increases to keep pace with inflation.
Constitutionally or not, the legislators have reneged on the expected 3.8 percent COLA that is due July 1. Some point out that employees in other government branches may be asked to work one day without pay. For judges, denial of the COLA is equivalent to making them work about nine days for free.
The Supreme Court also asked for security measures totaling about $300,000. The legislators turned thumbs down on that request, which, after all, would amount to almost two-hundredths of one percent of the deficit.
Other cuts in the court's mere maintenance budget likely portend layoffs for about a third of the system's non-judicial employees, plus more slashes in court reporter and probation services.
Every bean counts, they say on principle, except perhaps some of those conserved for pet projects in the districts. Humorist Abe Martin, the poor man's Will Rogers, said it best: "When a fellow says it hain't the money, but the principle o' the thing, it's the money."
Judging by the way our chief justice was dissed by nitpicking Senate and House committees, it's more obvious than ever that a detrimental communications gap exists. Judges and lawyers at the Future of the Courts Conference proposed a solution that won't cost anything.
A recommendation that a joint Judicial Advisory Council be created to strengthen relations between the legislature and judiciary was supported by fully 99 percent of the plenary. Such a conciliatory liaison could well be the gatekeeper for many other conference recommendations.
We've said before that the doctrine of "separation of powers" should be reconstituted as a creed of "sharing the responsibilities" where the public good is at risk. Let the consensus building begin.
Meanwhile, back in the branches
The DuPage County Board last month voted to raise, by an average 30 percent, the fees for filing cases, appearances and jury trial requests.
DuPage is now on par with Cook County, where court user costs reportedly are the highest in the nation comparable, as Tim Eaton suggests, to funding the fire department by taxing only those whose homes are burning.
Why did the board impose such a new burden on public access to justice, particularly among those who can afford legal services the least? Because the legislature said it could, in a bill fervently opposed by the ISBA, the DuPage County Bar and other associations.
Our hat is off to DuPage County board member Roger Kotecki, a Glen Ellyn lawyer who courageously cast the only negative vote. Seems like they need a Judicial Advisory Council out there, too.
Thursday, May 16, 5:30-7 p.m. Board of Governors reception in memory of former Supreme Court Justice Joseph Goldenhersh; Fischer's Restaurant, Belleville.
Friday, May 17, 9 a.m. Board of Governors meeting; Ramada Inn, Fairview Heights.
Friday, May 17 Women Everywhere: Partners in Service Projects, co-sponsored by the Committee on Women and the Law and the Committee on Minority and Women Participation.
Friday, May 31-Saturday, June 1 Bar Leadership Conference; Swissotel, Chicago.
Monday, June 3, 9 a.m.-4:45 p.m. Committee on Legal Technology advanced computer training in Microsoft Word and Excel; College of DuPage, Glen Ellyn.
Thursday-Friday, June 6-7 37th annual Illinois Traffic Court Conference; Bradley University, Peoria.
Thursday, June 20-Sunday, June 23 126th Annual Meeting; Grand Geneva Resort, Lake Geneva.
Thursday, July 18, 12 noon Senior Counsellors recognition luncheon; Standard Club, Chicago.
Friday, July 19, 9 a.m. Board of Governors meeting; Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Chicago; followed by annual board alumni dinner.
Friday, Oct. 4 Illinois Bar Foundation Gala and presentation of Distinguished Service Award to Mary Dempsey; Four Seasons Hotel, Chicago.
Friday, Oct. 11, 9 a.m. Board of Governors meeting; Crowne Plaza Hotel, Elgin.
Friday, Nov. 1 Lawyers' Assistance Program annual dinner; Palmer House Hilton, Chicago.
Friday, Nov. 8, 9 a.m. Board of Governors meeting; Peninsula Hotel, Chicago.
Thursday, Dec. 12-Saturday, Dec. 14 Midyear Meeting; Sheraton Hotel and Towers, Chicago.
The current term of Magistrate Judge David G. Bernthal of U.S. District Court for the Central District, Urbana, will expire April 30, 2003. The court has established a panel to consider his reappointment to a new eight-year term.
Comments are invited from the bar and public as to whether the incumbent should be recommended for reappointment. Write to Chief Judge Joe B. McDade, 122 Federal Building, 100 NE Monroe, Peoria, Ill. 61602, before June 30.
Duties of the magistrate judge include conduct of most preliminary proceedings in criminal cases, trial and disposition of misdemeanor cases, conduct of pretrial matters and evidentiary proceedings on delegation from a district judge, and trial and disposition of civil cases on consent of the litigants.
Chief Judge Timothy C. Evans of the Cook County Circuit Court will receive the Earl Burrus Dickerson Award from the Chicago Bar Association during a luncheon Thursday, June 6, at the Standard Club, Chicago. For reservations, call Kathy McEnroe, (312) 554-2057.
A judge since 1992, Evans was named presiding judge of the Domestic Relations Division in 1997 and of the Law Division in 1991, and was elected chief judge in 2001. A member of the ISBA Family Law Section Council, he is a former Chicago alderman.
The award honors the memory of Earl Dickerson, one of the first African-American members of the CBA, by recognizing minority lawyers and judges who emulate his courage and dedication to justice.
Previous recipients include Ann Claire Williams, Charles E. Freeman, William Cousins Jr., George N. Leighton, James D. Montgomery, Earl E. Strayhorn and Earl L. Neal.
Celia Gamrath earns CBA Alliance honor
ISBA Assembly member Celia G. Gamrath of Chicago, a partner in Schiller, DuCanto & Fleck, will be honored Tuesday, May 21, by the Chicago Bar Association during a luncheon at the Standard Club.
Gamrath will receive the Alta May Hulett Award from the CBA Alliance for Women. The Founder's Award will be presented to Martha A. Mills, chief legal counsel for the Cook County treasurer.
In addition to her tenure on the Assembly, Celia Gamrath is secretary of the ISBA Committee on Women in the Law and a member of the Bench and Bar Section Council and Young Lawyers Division Council. She has won three awards in the annual Lincoln Legal Writing Contest.
Gamrath also is treasurer of the Justinian Society and a vice president of The John Marshall Law School Alumni Association, and has been a co-chair of the Alliance for Women.
The award is named for the first woman to gain admission to the Illinois Bar. Alta Hulett of Rockford passed the bar exam in 1873 with the highest score and was admitted to practice on her 19th birthday. She died in 1877 at age 23 of pulmonary consumption.
Martha Mills also has been honored by the ISBA as a Laureate of the Academy of Illinois Lawyers. She serves on the board of the Lawyers' Assistance Program.
For reservations to the awards luncheon May 21, call Aylssa Mogul at (312) 640-0500.