"Current Issues in Child Custody Law," the 14th annual Law Review Symposium of the Northern Illinois University College of Law, will be conducted Thursday, March 24, in the Holmes Student Center, DeKalb.
The fee of $50 includes materials, lunch and a concluding reception at the law school. To register, call (800) 345-9472 or accesslaw.niu.edu and click on An Important Message.
After remarks by Law Dean LeRoy Pernell at 9:15 a.m., the symposium will continue presentations on ALI Principles: Shared Parenting, and on Joint Custody.
Ethics Answers Online, Free to ISBA Members
Faced with a befuddling (and perhaps frightening) legal ethics question? You'll find helpful guidance in the archive of ISBA Advisory Opinions on Professional Conduct at isba.org.
The archive contains the full text of opinions back to 1982. If you've done your research and know the number of the opinion you need, you can find it quickly at <http://www.isba.org/EthicsOpinions/bythenumbers.html>.
If, however, you're a few steps back in the research process, never fear. You can use the subject index at <http://www.isba.org/Ethics Opinions/advisory_index.asp> to search for opinions under "appearance of impropriety," "letterhead," and hundreds of other categories. Initially prepared in 2002 by librarians at The John Marshall Law School library, the index has been updated by ISBA Webmaster and former law librarian Jean McKnight.
If you don't find what you're looking for in the index or simply want to follow another research path, you can do a full-text search of opinions from the main ethics-opinion page.
You'll also find links to the Rules of Professional Conduct and other online ethics resources. Access the ethics page directly at <http:// www.isba.org/EthicsOpinions/> or by clicking on "ISBA Ethics Opinions" under Other Practice Resources on isba.org's maroon navigation bar.
Director of Legislative Affairs
The 94th General Assembly is off and running with the introduction of and committee hearings on new legislation, some of which is as follows.
Six-person juries. House Bill 174 (Osmond, R-Antioch) amends the Code of Civil Procedure to authorize a six-person jury if the claim for damages is $50,000 or less. Current law authorizes a jury of six if the claim does not exceed $15,000. Either party still retains the option of demanding a jury of 12.
Rental payments. House Bill 328 (Madigan, D-Chicago) requires that lessors of residential real property accept rent payments at its business office during regularly scheduled office hours in certain situations. It applies to the housing that contains a hundred or more residential units in a single building or a complex of buildings that maintains a business office on the premise of the building or complex. It also prohibits lessor from imposing any penalty, fee, or charge for making timely rent payments in this manner.
Filing fee I. House Bill 3339 (Madigan, D-Chicago) authorizes county boards to assesses a fee up to $10 fee on each plaintiff and defendant in most civil actions for funding of jurors' reimbursement. It increases the amounts paid to jurors from $4 to $25, $5 to $30, and $10 to $40 for the three different classes of counties. Certain matters and parties, such as child custody and domestic violence actions and units of local government are exempted from the new fee.
Filing Fee II. House Bill 891 (Millner, R-Elmhurst) authorizes a county board to assess a $2 fee on all civil litigants and convicted defendants for the state's attorney to improve automation of the state's attorney's court records.
FOIA. House Bill 152 (Froehlich, R-Schaumburg) amends the Freedom of Information Act to provide for a petty offense fine for an officer or employee of a public body who purposely stalls the processing of a request under the Act in bad faith using one or more of the Act's reasons for legitimate delays. The offense is a petty offense subject to a $1,000 fine
Bail bond refund. House Bill 980 (Richard Bradley, D-Chicago) reduces from 90% to 85% the amount of defendant's money that may be returned to him or her or assigned to the defendant's attorney.
Power of attorney. House Bill 927 (Churchill, R-Lake Villa) amends the Illinois Power of Attorney Act to delete Sec. 2-8 that protects those who rely on those documents.
Judicial ethics I and II. Senate Bill 152 (Luechtefeld, R-Okawville) amends the Code of Civil Procedure to require that a judge disclose to all of the parties and their attorneys that one of the parties or their attorneys has made a campaign contribution to the judge.
Senate Bill 153 (Luechtefeld, R-Okawville) requires that a judicial candidate's political committee disclose a political contributor or a contributor's employer if the contributor or the contributor's employer appeared in an action before the judge as a party or the attorney of a party.
Counseling in family law cases. House Bill 360 (Rose, R-Mahomet) amends the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act to require the court to determine whether counseling is appropriate for a child who is involved in a custody proceeding. It also makes it explicit that the court can order counseling and apportion the cost between the parties.
"There's a lot of fear in southern Illinois that politicians upstate don't have the same respect for the 2nd Amendment that we do. Perhaps it's because they don't grow up in the same environment that we do in terms of firearm ownership being used in a responsible and productive manner. So it's really a cultural difference."
State Rep. John Bradley (D-Marion), a sponsor of National Rifle Association-backed bills aimed at overcoming gun prohibitions in Chicago
* * *
"I get tickled every time I look at the University of Illinois basketball team. They're tremendously good, but they look like an ad for a tattoo parlor. It's happening anyway."
State Rep. Jerry Mitchell (R-Rock Falls) on a bill he introduced to lower the legal age of consent for tattooing from 18 to 16
* * *
"That system is broken and it needs fixing. There are too many instances where consumers are getting very little or nothing from their settlements, while companies are not being forced to change the way they do business."
U.S. Sen. Tom Carper (D-Delaware) in support of a bipartisan bill curbing class-action lawsuits
Editor
Sub, as in sub rosa
In the words of Abraham Lincoln: "Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."
It was not subtle, the subdivision of the 16th and 17th Circuits into subcircuits that appear as substantial attempts to subjugate previous Republican sublimity. Although cloaked as opportunity for subsequent minority jurists, the subterfuge was flagrant.
The incursion of subcircuits into the 12th and 19th Circuits seemed less subversive, given that the bench and bar of those areas have had some time to assimilate the subsets. Moreover, the subdivisions of those courts have reasonably tolerable boundaries.
The sudden subordination of the linear river cities of eastern Kane County, however, is clear political subservience. Each of those suburbs - St. Charles, Geneva and Batavia - is dissected with subtractive precision. Segments of each are at the head of a doggish district that has its tail against Lee County and its feet perched atop Grundy County.
Each of the four subcircuits of the 17th Circuit contains a piece of Rockford, which is drawn and quartered by the squiggly spokes of a wayward wheel. A big chunk of the city is grafted onto Boone County, which in time, some fear, might not have a resident judge.
"This is an idea dropped on our area with no input from the people who live here," Rockford's daily newspaper editorialized. "This is an idea that increases the role of money and politics in the judiciary, a profession in which respect and authority stem from the perceived independence from money and politics."
And this from the Chicago Tribune: "In theory, this is a way to diversify the bench politically, ethnically and racially. In reality, it's a boon for the party controlling the legislature." Subcircuits "will reduce the potential field of candidates and give local party bosses more influence over the results."
At last report, the governor had not signed this bill, but he can't be faulted for that. In addition to a few paragraphs of substance, the 134-page text contains 120 tedious pages of descriptive census tracts, block groups and voting tabulation districts.
Any shrewd lawyer would hesitate to sign a document with so much fine print. This moment of power may be as much a matter of propriety as it is of character.
Seeking sense in sentencing
More wisdom from Lincoln: "In times like the present, men should utter nothing for which they would not willingly be responsible through time and in eternity."
Now what's to become of Matthew Hale, that alfalfa male in the herd of hate? One can almost despair for the orange-clad wretch who has languished in federal custody since he was nabbed at the Dirksen Courthouse in January 2003. But then, a body at rest cannot harm itself.
Hale betrayed himself by fomenting violence against "mud races," as he terms all non-white citizens, and by encouraging a treacherous FBI mole to do away with a federal judge. He was found guilty last April and was slated to be sentenced in November.
The judge postponed sentencing on the grounds that the guidelines were in flux. The Supreme Court was mulling U.S. v. Booker and U.S. v. Fanfan with the intent of clarifying Blakely v. Washington. Booker and Fanfan were decided Jan. 12, but more confusion resulted.
In essence, the court said in separate opinions that judges should not be forced to follow sentencing guidelines, but they should be allowed to apply the guidelines as advisory in nature. How will this affect sentencing decisions in thousands of pending cases, such as Hale's?
The Chicago Tribune saw "the striking incoherence of the court's two-part decision" adding to the uncertainty of "how judges will use the new discretion that they have been given" to increase sentences in aggravating circumstances. The editorial offered this paradox:
"If a judge is required to increase a sentence to reflect certain factors, then the defendant has been deprived of his right to a jury trial. But if a judge is merely allowed to increase a sentence to reflect certain factors, the defendant has not been deprived of that right."
Adding to or subtracting from the puzzlement, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Chicago ruled Feb. 2 that the Booker decision does not benefit any defendant whose conviction was final before the Supreme Court opinion last month. Booker does not apply retroactively, the appeals court held.