Bail bond hearing. Senate Bill 2809 (Maloney, D-Chicago; Chapa LaVia, D-Chicago) provides that upon the filing of a written request demonstrating "reasonable cause," the state's attorney may request a source of bail hearing either before or after the posting of any funds. If the hearing is granted, before the posting of any bail, the accused must file a written notice requesting that the court conduct a source-of-bail hearing. It also establishes criteria that the court must consider at the hearing.
Illinois Anatomical Gift Act. Senate Bill 1412 (Obama, D-Chicago; Sacia, R-Pecatonica) rewrites and renames the Illinois Anatomical Gift Act. This is the work product of the Organ Donation Task Force as created by PA 92-349. Senate Bill 1412 attempts to consolidate and integrate the existing statutes governing organ and tissue donations into one comprehensive statute.
Trust legislation I. House Bill 1080 (Joseph Lyons, D-Chicago; Cullerton, D-Chicago) amends the Uniform TOD Security Registration Act to define "security account" to also include an investment management or custody account with a trust company or trust division of a bank with trust powers, including the securities in the account, a cash balance in the account, and cash, equivalents, interest, earnings, or dividends earned or declared on a security in the account, whether or not credited to the account before the owner's death.
It also makes technical changes for total return trusts to conform to recently issued final Treasury Regulations on the definition of trust income under Internal Revenue Code Section 643(b). Those changes include deleting restrictions from marital, generation-skipping and other trusts made unnecessary by the regulations; adds provisions required by the regulations stating that distributions from total return trusts and noncharitable unitrusts constitute a reasonable apportionment of total return; and confirms that charitable pooled income funds are not affected.
Trust legislation II. House Bill 4389 (Hultgren, R-Wheaton; Silverstein, D-Chicago) amends Section 4.20 of the Trust and Trustees Act to add to the events allowing a trustee to distribute income or principal to include a trust created before the distribution became payable for the sole benefit of the beneficiary and those dependent upon the beneficiary.
ADR in appellate courts. Senate Bill 2757 (Cullerton, D-Chicago; Madigan, D-Chicago) creates the Reviewing Court Alternative Dispute Resolution Act to allow a portion of appellate court filing fees to be used to support ADR for cases on appeal.
Law library fee. House Bill 4370 (Beaubien, R-Barrington Hills; Cullerton, D-Chicago) authorizes a county board to increase the county law library fee that is assessed against litigants in civil cases from a maximum of $10 to a maximum of $13.
Neutral custody site exchange fee. HB 4239 (Lindner, R-Aurora; Petka, R-Plainfield) authorizes any county (now, only a county with a population of more than 100,000 and less than 1,000,000) to establish a neutral site custody exchange fund by the passage of an ordinance by the county board. Under current law the fee is charged against litigants in civil cases and may range from $1 to $8.
"The significance is that it's not open season on judges."
Joseph A. Power Jr., Chicago, who represents Illinois Supreme Court Justice Robert Thomas in a libel suit against a suburban newspaper, after a Cook County judge allowed the case to proceed.
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"Up until now, we have been guests of the military, operating at their pleasure ... His case [would have been] over without this opinion."
Frank Dunham, attorney for accused enemy combatant Yaser Elam Hamdi, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld that U.S.-born terrorist suspects have access to counsel and the U.S. court system.
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"The Hamdi decision is a mixed bag. In one sense, [the court] recognized the authority of the president ... [But] they're not bringing things to complete closure. There is no doubt that these cases (Hamdi and Rumsfeld v. Padilla) will result in a significant increase in litigation and a new burden on the military."
Jay Alan Sekulow, chief counsel for the American Center for American Law and Justice, which had filed an amicus brief on behalf of the administration.
Editor
Keep a straight faith
It is a puzzlement sometimes to decide whether to laugh or cry about the subcircuit phenomenon. Was this noble experiment a fantasy, or has it become a farce? One wonders which Dionysian mask that of tragedy or of comedy to don when a straight face must belie gut feelings.
Albeit a well-meaning venture in racial and gender diversity, there are reasons to doubt whether subcircuit elections have sufficiently enhanced either the quality or the independence of the Cook County judiciary.
And that represents diminished opportunity to attain diversity at its best. ABA President Dennis Archer got it right when he referred to "the inherent value in diversity" as something genuine and tangible that provides "the opportunity for learning, growth and heightened achievement, simply from mingling as part of society's stew."
With so many names on the primary election ballot for judges, however, and so little opportunity for discernment of the candidates' character and experience by those voters who wade through it, negative results are painfully anecdotal.
True, there are a good many positives. The 2004 retention ballot will contain the names of enough judicial icons who were elected or appointed in subcircuits, beginning with Chief Judge Timothy Evans.
But the entire concept of representative election of judges, so they appear beholden to constituencies, rubs against the grain of the federalist principles that spawned the U.S. Constitution. Last month's Illinois Supreme Court decision on judicial compensation spelled some of them out.
The popular election of geographically subservient jurists seems to be the operative theory of subcircuitry. It is poised to encroach into collar-county circuits, where the majority party in the legislature hopes to carve out a few jurisdictional sinecures.
Now comes the meticulous Abdon Pallasch, revealing in his Chicago Sun-Times article June 14 that there may be a flaw in the law. In a cruel twist of interpretation, a judge elected from a subcircuit may not have to remain domiciled there after retention on a presumptive countywide ballot.
Here's where Thespis of Attica would be perplexed in choosing the proper mask. Tragedy or comedy? On the one hand, those judges would no longer be obligated to the constituents who elected them. That's probably a good thing.
On the other hand, the tableau of a subcircuit judge slinking away from the proletariat, to luxuriate in a more prestigious neighborhood after only six years on the bench, does precious little for the tenuous image of the judiciary.
According to Pallasch, several such examples already exist. Some judges continue to maintain subcircuit addresses but actually sleep elsewhere. The Judicial Inquiry Board reportedly has asked the attorney general for an advisory opinion.
The issue is equally ripe for explication during bar evaluation interviews with retention judges who were elected or appointed to the bench through the subcircuit process. Please check your masks at the door.
A Golden Rule for lawyers
"Right now the legal profession is under attack from many as to its role and its performance. Certainly the bar must respond... As an individual lawyer you should speak out when the occasion permits."
Would you be surprised to learn that those words were not spoken by a bar president at a recent installation ceremony, but were published 26 years ago in the Illinois Bar Journal? They are from Lloyd Tyler's President's Page in the July 1978 issue.
"Whether you are talking to lawyers or laymen, in casual conversation or in a more formal setting, there is opportunity to spend a few seconds stating your views as to the present attacks on our profession," he said.
Tyler told of an ISBA institutional advertising campaign that would be a $100,000 item in that year's budget. There is no allocation for such a campaign in the current ISBA budget, but the Assembly has adopted a resolution that calls for development of an effective program to enhance the image of the profession in Illinois.
The issue will be revisited in the December meeting. The institutional approach has merit, for sure, but to be truly effective it requires in tandem the dedication of each lawyer to earn appropriate respect in his or her community.
As Tyler urged a generation ago, "We are not going to stop the attacks ... but we should, all of us, get moving on improving the public image of our profession."
DuPage names Brenda Carroll Lawyer of Year
ISBA Assembly member Brenda M. Carroll of Wheaton was named the DuPage County Bar Association's Lawyer of the Year during the annual dinner June 3. She has been director of the DuPage Bar Legal Aid Service since 1988.
Retiring DCBA President Kevin H. Millon said the award to Carroll was one he had been planning to present since he was elected third vice president.
"Her countless hours of expert legal assistance on behalf of hundreds of the county's neediest citizens has been the driving force behind the growth and reputation of the Legal Aid Service," he said.
A 1986 graduate of the Chicago-Kent College of Law, Carroll is past president of the DuPage Association of Women Lawyers, an officer of the Child Friendly Courts Foundation and a Fellow of the Illinois Bar Foundation.
She has received an Outstanding Service Award from the Lawyers Trust Fund of Illinois and an Outstanding Woman Leader Award from the YWCA.
11th Race Judicata at new site Aug. 12
For 10 years, the Chicago Volunteer Legal Services Foundation has conducted Race Judicata, its annual benefit 5K run, along Monroe Harbor from Columbia Yacht Club to the Adler Planetarium and back.
This year, participants will traverse a different course on Thursday, Aug. 12, beginning at Upper Hutchinson Field in Grant Park, near Columbus and Balbo Drives. Supreme Court Justice Charles E. Freeman will be the official starter.
Refreshments, snacks and award presentations will follow the event. Individuals and teams may obtain registration details by calling (312) 332-3319.
Events slated
The Chicago Bar Foundation will present Pro Bono and Public Service Awards during its sixth annual luncheon Thursday, July 22, in the Renaissance Hotel. Call (312) 554-1204 for reservations or information about sponsorship opportunities.
Co-chairs are Stephen R. Patton of Kirkland & Ellis and D. Cameron Findlay of the Aon Corp.
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A Run for the Kids and a Poker Run on Sunday, July 18, will raise funds for CASA of Will County. Registration begins at 10 a.m. at Just Judy's in Joliet, with breakfast available next door at Home Plate.
The first bike will head out at 11 a.m., and the last bike should return by 5 p.m. Call (815) 730-7072 or (815) 726-3556 to sign up.
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The West Suburban Bar Association Scholarship Fund is the beneficiary of a Night at the Races event that will begin at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, July 29, at Hawthorne Race Course in Stickney. Call (708) 366-1122 for details.
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The Chicago Lawyers Committee for Better Housing will hold its annual reception and award ceremony from 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 14. David Wilhelm will be the keynote speaker. Call (312) 347-7600.
Bar associations support court's referral program
Support by regional and ethnic bar associations has enabled Chief Judge Timothy C. Evans of the Cook County Circuit Court to expand the In-Court Lawyer Referral Program in two suburban courthouses.
The Northwest Suburban Bar Association has joined the project for the 3rd Municipal District in Rolling Meadows to represent defendants who appear without attorneys for traffic offenses, misdemeanors and preliminary felony hearings.
At the 4th Municipal District in Maywood, the number and diversity of attorneys has been increased by the participation of the West Suburban Bar Association, the Hispanic Lawyers Association and the Puerto Rican Bar Association.
The purpose of the referral program is to provide legal representation at reasonable cost, or pro bono, to individuals who do not qualify for help from public defenders.
Chief judge elected
Christopher C. Starck, presiding judge of the Felony Division in Lake County, was elected to a one-year term as chief judge of the 19th Circuit on June 10. He will succeed Margaret J. Mullen on Dec. 1.
A 1979 graduate of the Loyola University School of Law, Starck was appointed as an associate judge in 1989 and a circuit judge in 2000. He was elected in 2002.
Magistrate appointed
Donald G. Wilkerson Sr. will begin serving as a magistrate judge of U.S. District Court for the Southern District in January. He will replace Magistrate Judge Gerald B. Cohn, who plans to retire at the end of the year.
A graduate of the St. Louis University School of Law, Wilkerson is an assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Missouri.
Prosecutor installed
Dale Grasher of Cypress was installed as Union County state's attorney on June 8. He replaced John Bigler, who resigned effective June 7 and became director of operations for an electronics firm in Anna.
Grasher, who was an assistant Massac County state's attorney, had been Johnson County state's attorney from 1993 to 1996 and a public defender in Cairo. He said he would leave office Dec. 1 after a new Union County prosecutor is elected.