Saturday, Aug. 27, 2:30 p.m. - Chicago Labor History Rediscovered, a presentation by historian Bill Adelman.
Sunday Aug. 28, 2 p.m. - Remembering Emmett Till: The Murder that Changed America, a panel discussion including Till's cousin, Wheeler Parker, and an appearance by artist Franklin McMahon, whose drawings illustrated the Till trial.
Law Bulletin is online with jury verdicts
Law Bulletin Information Network, a division of Law Bulletin Publishing Co., recently announced the release of Access Plus Jury Verdict, a new online version of AccessPlus.
The Web-based service provides comprehensive searching of 55,000 civil jury verdicts and negotiated settlements, with advanced e-mail and print functions to ease distribution of the information.
Lawyers may search a comprehensive library of verdicts and settlements from any location with an Internet connection, using a personal computer, laptop, Blackberry, Palm or other wireless device.
Verdicts and settlements can be located quickly from the Cook County, Illinois and Wisconsin Jury Verdict Reporters that have a bearing on the outcome of a client's case. Guided searches assist researchers by setting up complex queries to locate hard-to-find cases.
Boolean-text searching can be combined with sophisticated Jury Verdict indexing to locate precise case, verdict and settlement results. Lawyers and law firm staff members may distribute research findings electronically to interested parties by using the e-mail, save and print functions.
Initiated in 1986, AccessPlus provides direct access to legal and court information that may be otherwise difficult to obtain. Included are court dockets, lawsuits, liens, judgments, court schedules and the Municipal Code of Chicago.
Later this month, Cook County Associate Judge Gloria G. Coco will venture back into the limelight of stage performance - this time in a real theater before a paying audience.
She'll perform her monologue, "Finding Uncle Freddie," during week six of the ongoing Fillet of Solo Festival at the Live Bait Theater, 3914 N. Clark St., Chicago. Dates and times are 7:15 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 25; 9 p.m. Friday, Aug. 26, and 7:15 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 27.
"Finding Uncle Freddie" relates Coco's search for the grave of a dead uncle, who died at age 4 in 1921 on Ellis Island after arriving from Sicily. Almost four decades later, she was able to locate his final resting place.
Coco's theatrical debut took place in May 2004, when she performed "The Passages of Grace" at Northwestern University. Another story about Italian ancestors, it was her "final exam" for obtaining a bachelor's degree from the Department of Theatre.
To obtain tickets for the August performances, call (773) 871-1212. For more information about the theater or the current festival, access www.live baittheater.org.
Lawyer Finder Service adds toll-free line for referrals
The ISBA Lawyer Finder Service has added a toll-free number to complement existing service. People seeking representation can access the LFS via the Internet, at www.illinoislawyerfinder.com, or the new number, (800) 922-8757.
"We have had numerous requests from the public for toll-free access, and we are happy that the Board of Governors has authorized this expenditure," said first assistant counsel Melinda Bentley, who oversees the service. "We expect to increase referrals from our average of 40 a day."
Richard Hess of Chicago, chair of the Committee on Delivery of Legal Services, calls this a major improvement to the LFS. "While lawyers in the service could see increases in referrals with this added feature," he said, "most importantly, the public will gain greater access to reaching lawyers to meet their needs."
Illinois Lawyer Finder panel attorneys are referred to clients on a rotating basis in the geographic areas they serve.
For any telephone referrals received, a Lawyer Finder member agrees to:
1. Grant an initial 30-minute consultation to any referred client for a fee not to exceed $15. After this consultation, the lawyer is not obligated to take the case and the client is not obligated to retain.
2. Reach a fair agreement with the client on charges for any further legal services.
3. Grant all clients referred by phone an appointment as soon as possible after the request is made.
4. Refrain from initiating contact with clients referred by the phone service.
In addition to the $50 annual membership, each premium member must submit an administrative remittance to the ISBA of 10 percent of any fee of $500 or more that he or she receives from referred matters.
This requirement applies to telephone referrals only, not to the Web listing. Members remain responsible for telephone referral remittances as defined for matters referred prior to receipt of notice of withdrawal.
Web access to the LFS provides information about Illinois law and other consumer-friendly features. Basic listing on the site is free of charge to ISBA members with valid Illinois licenses who agree to carry professional liability insurance and authorize ISBA to determine ARDC status.
For more information on joining the Lawyer Finder Service, visit www.illinoislawyerfinder.com or call (800) 252-8908.
Get timely, quick-read practice info via Practice Updates
In this age of infoglut, you're often more grateful for what doesn't come into your e-mail in-box than what does. To be truly valuable these days, information must be both easy to digest and narrowly tailored to your practice.
ISBA's weekly e-mail Practice Updates are assembled according to this "less is more" philosophy. Each update contains links to ISBA newsletter articles, law-related Web sites, and online legal and other publications. And each is tailored to one of six practice groupings: trial practice, real estate/probate, business law, family law, criminal/traffic, and general practice. They're plain text no fancy graphics to bog down your computer and most can be read in five to 10 minutes.
Updates are tied to section membership. For example, only members of the Tort Law Section can sign up for the trial practice updates. They're free to members of associated sections, many of whom say that the updates alone justify the price of section membership. They fill the gap between issues of your quarterly section newsletters, making your $20 ISBA section membership an even more remarkable value.
To sign up, visit isba.org and click on the "Practice Updates" link under E-Mail Services on the maroon left-hand navigation bar. Or, go straight to <http://www.isba.org/updates.asp>.
Director of Legislative Affairs
Governor Blagojevich has signed the following bills into law.
Workers' Compensation. Public Act 94-277 is an overhaul of the workers' compensation law. Among its many changes is a prohibition against a medical provider from billing an injured worker for the balance of charges not paid by insurance company while the comp claim is pending. It raises benefits and creates a medical fee schedule indexed to the CPI, and enhances penalties for the unreasonable delay of payment of comp benefits. Effective July 20, 2005.
Change of name publication. Public Act 94-147 amends the notice of publication statute for a change of name petition. Notice must be inserted for three consecutive weeks after filing of the petition with the first publication to be at least six weeks before the return day upon which the petition is to be heard (instead of filed). Effective Jan. 1, 2006.
Medical records. Public Act 94-155 expands those who can request medical records to include "any person, entity, or organization presenting a valid authorization for the release of records signed by the patient or the patient's legally authorized representative." It also permits those listed to examine the records as well. Effective Jan. 1, 2006.
Prohibits waiver of counsel by of juveniles. Public Act 94-345 prohibits a person less than 17 years of age from waiving the right to the assistance of counsel in his or her defense in any judicial proceeding. This Section does not apply to offenses punishable by fine only or violations of the Illinois Vehicle Code except for violations of Sections 11-401, 11-402, 11-501, and 11-503. Effective July 26, 2005.
DUI enhancement. Public Act 94-329 amends the DUI statute to upgrade the offense of a first time offender to a Class 4 felony from a Class A misdemeanor if the driver did not have a valid driver's license or the vehicle was not covered by a liability insurance policy. Authorizes seizure and forfeiture of the vehicle as well. Effective Jan. 1, 2006.
Limitation of supervision. Public Act 94-330 prohibits a trial court from awarding supervision for an infraction of the Vehicle Code if the defendant had been awarded supervision on two previous occasions for Vehicle Code violations within one year from the date of arrest. Effective Jan. 1, 2006.
Personal exemptions. Public Act 94-293 doubles the homestead and personal property exemptions for Illinois debtors in bankruptcy and in the enforcement of judgments. Effective Jan. 1, 2006.
Predatory lending. Public Act 94-280 amends the Residential Real Property Disclosure Act to create a predatory lending database. The pilot project in Cook County requires loan brokers and originators to report detailed information about loans in these areas before transactions and title insurance companies to file similar information afterwards. Effective Jan. 1, 2006.
Six person juries. Public Act 94-206 authorizes a six-person jury if the claim for damages is $50,000 or less (now, if the claim does not exceed $15,000.) Either party still retains the option of demanding a jury of 12. Effective Jan. 1, 2006.
Jury exemption. Public Act 94-391 amends the Jury Act to excuse from jury service any mother nursing her child if she so requests. Effective Jan. 1, 2006.
Family law. Public Act 94-377 amends the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act to do three things: (1) Prohibits a court from ordering joint mediation if there is a danger to the health or safety of a partner. (2) Amends the §602 best interest standards to include the occurrence of ongoing or repeated abuse whether directed against the child or another person. (3) Authorizes the chief circuit judge or designated presiding judge to approve three hours of training for persons appointed by the courts in custody cases, such as guardian ad litems, evaluators, and investigators. The training must include a component on the dynamics of domestic violence and its effect on parents and children. Effective july 29, 2005.
"The legislature enjoys a wide latitude in economic regulation. But when the legislature shifts the economic burden of medical malpractice from insurance companies and negligent health care providers to a small group of vulnerable, injured patients, the legislative action does not appear rational."
Wisconsin Chief Justice Shirley Abrahams on in an opinion striking down Wisconsin's $350,000 cap on noneconomic damages in medical malpractice cases
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"The breadth of this holding is staggering. It means that, contrary to the majority's narrow statement of the issue, it will be very difficult for Wisconsin's legislators to re-enact a cap on non-economic damages in the future."
Dissenting Justice David Prosser, who oversaw the passage of the caps law in 1995 when he was Wisconsin State Assembly Speaker
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"This is huge."
Medical malpractice plaintiffs lawyer Thomas Demetrio of Chicago reacting to the Wisconsin decision as cap legislation awaited the signature of Governor Blagojevich
Editor
What don't we know?
To the adage that "what we don't know won't hurt us," one might suggest corollarily that "what we do know might hurt us."
On his President's Page in the August Bar Journal, Bob Downs speaks of "our collective neglect" of unaddressed issues such as "poverty, access to health care, disappearing jobs, a dysfunctional education system" with emphasis on poverty that threaten the future of lawyers as gatekeepers.
"If lawyers do not step up to the plate and do everything they can to work toward achieving access to justice, who will?" he asks, with rhetorical exhortation.
Well, what are lawyers doing? The American Bar Association has tried to quantify the voluntary contributions of the profession with a survey and summary, "Supporting Justice: A Report on the Pro Bono Work of America's Lawyers," that was released this month.
And the Illinois Supreme Court seems poised to conduct a similar survey, much more comprehensively, via two questions on the annual registration form that every lawyer must submit in order to practice law in this state.
The ABA survey is based on answers in telephone conversations with 1,100 randomly selected lawyers "throughout the country in private practice, corporate counsel, government and academic settings."
This sampling, conducted during the 12 months ending last November, indicates that 66 percent of the bar performs "some level of free pro bono services to people of limited means and/or to organizations serving the poor."
On average, each of these two-thirds of the bar does about 39 hours of free pro bono per year to individuals or through legal aid organizations, plus 38 hours of advocacy "to secure or protect civil rights" or "to improve the legal system."
If the Supreme Court adopts its pro bono reporting proposal, incorporating alternatives recommended hopefully by the ISBA, we may have a clearer view of the extent of voluntary legal work done more or less routinely by Illinois practitioners (the hearing is Friday, Sept. 16, in Chicago; ).
If the statistical findings of the ABA survey compare to any compilation to be made by the ARDC, the extrapolation might go something like this.