Hearsay in juvenile cases. House Bill 4167 (Cross, R-Yorkville) expands the use of hearsay in adjudicatory hearings in abuse, neglect, and dependent cases prosecuted under the Juvenile Court Act of 1987. It allows the admissibility of a signed, recorded, or videotaped statement of an unavailable non-party declarant under certain conditions. House Bill 4167 is intended to introduce the statements of paramours who allegedly abuse the children of the natural parent. The statement must be (1) contrary to the declarant's pecuniary or proprietary interest; (2) subject the declarant to civil or criminal liability; or (3) render a claim by the declarant invalid. It is modeled after Federal Rule of Evidence 804. It is on second reading in the House.
Detention of juveniles. House Bill 4439 (Art Turner, D-Chicago) changes one word ("shall") to ("may") to give counties discretion over where to detain juveniles who turn 17 but who are tried as juveniles. Current law requires all counties to move every juvenile tried as a juvenile from the juvenile detention facility to the adult county jail when he or she turns 17. House Bill 4439, which is an initiative of the Juvenile Justice Initiative of Illinois, attempts to address the safety of juveniles imprisoned with adults. It is on second reading in the House.
Uniform Interstate Family Support Act. House Bill 5632 (Scully, D-Flossmoor) amends the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act. It makes numerous changes recommended by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws.
Editor
Mission implacable
As we have pointed out a few times, and Tim Eaton recounts in his "Happy anniversary" column on this page, the mission of the Illinois State Bar Association 125 years ago was to arm-twist the General Assembly into implementing the appellate system that was mandated in the 1870 Constitution.
Were that the only reason, however, the ISBA could have lasted less than a year. The main objective was achieved within six months. There was more to do, of course, in assimilating nuances of the new Constitution in terms of contemporary law practice.
And other pressures, both state and national, indicated a need for affinity associations to assume leadership roles in a growing society, and to protect the interests of members and enhance their abilities to provide services to the public.
It had been only a century since the Declaration of Independence stunned the overlords and signaled the impending birth of a nation of laws. It had been less than 65 years since the British failed to reclaim their purloined colonial territories. Fallout from the Civil War still smoldered.
Colorado had just been admitted as the 38th state, extending the federal union to the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains. Alexander Graham Bell had just invented the telephone, and a public phone system was in the works.
During the 1870s in Illinois, the Great Chicago Fire had devastated the city, but Chicago was being rebuilt. The Eads Bridge first spanned the Mississippi at St. Louis for railroad access to the plains, and rich veins of Illinois coal were opened by gritty miners.
In 1874, the General Assembly passed a law forbidding segregation in public schools, and a child labor law was enacted in 1877. Civic procrastination over implementing those initiatives opened opportunities for legal advocacy.
The first woman lawyer, Alta Hulett, was admitted in 1874, and she died in 1877. The first disbarred attorney, D. James Leary, took the fall in 1875 for filing a false affidavit in the Supreme Court. The three-year-old Chicago Bar Association officed at Clark and Madison, near the ISBA's present Loop location.
In short, this maturing state was hacking out its niche as a hub of commerce and communities, and a fertile bonanza where the westward-bound might tarry awhile or settle forever. The state's population grew 20 percent during the 1870s, surpassing three million, and would near five million by the turn of the century.
And all along the way, the state bar would be there, as its founders ordained, "to cultivate the science of jurisprudence, to promote reform in the law, to facilitate the administration of justice, to elevate the standard of integrity, honor and courtesy in the legal profession, to encourage a thorough and liberal legal education, and to cherish a spirit of brotherhood among the members."
No one has said it better in 125 years, nor has any other profession or craft done as much to keep the hierarchies of power focused on the needs of the common people.
So what's in it for you?
What does one get for joining an association? An easy answer is that you pretty much take out of it what you put into it. Other than the obvious material benefits publications, insurance, seminars, et al the real trappings of membership are intangible.
If you join the National Association of Realtors, of course, you can call yourself a Realtor, with a capital R. The NAR currently is embattled with a patent office appeals board to sanctify that exaltation.
But capitalizing yourself as a Lawyer or an Attorney by virtue of passing the bar exam, gaining admission and joining an association would be gilding a lilliputian notion that the cover of a book is more important than its contents.
The first step up the slope of understanding why the state bar association was created 125 years ago is realizing that the ISBA is You and the many thousands like you whose participation through the years solidifies the future.
The ISBA is not a president or 25 governors or a 201-member Assembly. It's neither a stone edifice across the street from the Capitol, nor an office in a Chicago high-rise.
The ISBA is a section or committee member who has edited a newsletter for a decade, or has testified for corrective legislation, or helped draft a rule proposal, or energized a special initiative, or served on a People's Law School faculty, or stood tall when a division of the Assembly was called.
It's that cohesive spirit and virtuous determination that crystallized the hopes and fears of a few dozen lawyers scattered about this tall state in 1877. The soul of the law and the heart of the true lawyer are inseparable and indomitable. Be proud.
Tuesday, March 12 125th anniversary commemoration: 1:15 p.m. special meeting of the Assembly and ceremony in the Old State Capitol, followed by 7 p.m. reception and dinner, with induction of Laureates of the Academy of Illinois Lawyers, at Crowne Plaza Hotel, Springfield.
Wednesday, March 13, 8 a.m. Board of Governors meeting; Crowne Plaza Hotel, Springfield.
Friday, April 5, 12 noon-5 p.m. Business Advice and Financial Planning Section luncheon and collegium; ISBA Chicago Regional Office.
Thursday, April 11-Saturday, April 13 Future of the Courts Conference; Oakbrook Hills Conference Center, Oak Brook.
Friday, April 19, 9 a.m. Board of Governors meeting; Park Hyatt Hotel, Chicago.
Saturday, April 27 - Ask a Lawyer Day telephone call-ins at the Illinois Bar Center in Springfield and other locations.
Saturday, May 4, 9 a.m.-2:30 p.m. The Lawyer's Workshop, sponsored by the Committee on Minority and Women Participation; John Marshall Law School, Chicago.
Friday, May 10 Deadline for ISBA election ballots to be returned.
Friday, May 17, 9 a.m. Board of Governors meeting; Ramada Inn, Fairview Heights.
Kickoff set for 'Women Everywhere'
Participating organizations in the third annual "Women Everywhere: Partners in Service Project" will conduct an explanatory kickoff event at 12 noon Tuesday, March 12, in room 1905 of the Richard J. Daley Center, Chicago.
Chief Judge Timothy C. Evans of the Cook County Circuit Court will welcome participants, and refreshments will be available. Interested lawyers may obtain information and sign up to devote time and talent to one of about 30 agencies on Friday, May 17.
Sponsors of the kickoff event include the ISBA Committee on Women and the Law and the Committee on Minority and Women Participation. Others are the Women's Bar, the Black Women Lawyers, the CBA Alliance for Women, the CBA Young Lawyers Committee on Women in the Law, and the Hadassah Attorneys' Council.
For details, call Ilene Bloom at (312) 558-6125 or Michelle Balog at (773) 375-2300, ext. 227.
CARPLS to be honored
The Coordinated Advice and Referral Project for Legal Services will receive the Gary S. Wild Memorial Award from the North Suburban Bar Association during a dinner at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Martch 12, in the DoubleTree Hotel Atrium, Skokie.
Chicago Sun-Times writer Mark Brown will be keynote speaker for the presentation, which recognizes achievements by pro bono agencies that provide legal representation for the indigent and disadvantaged. CARPLS operates a Cook County legal aid hotline network.
A reception will be followed by a gourmet dinner. Call dinner chair Patrice Ball-Reed at (312) 603-3469 for reservations.
Scholarships available
The DuPage County chapter of the Justinian Society is seeking applicants for law student scholarships that will be awarded during a dinner in May. The deadline is April 30. For details, call Marsha H. Cellucci, (630) 961-0225.
Employment lawyers slate series of noon seminars
A series of free Tuesday noon seminars in Chicago has been scheduled by the Illinois chapter of the National Employment Lawyers' Association. They will be held at the MALDEF offices, suite 618, 188 W. Randolph.
For complete information and registration details, call chapter President L. Steven Platt at Arnold & Kadjan, (312) 236-0415. The schedule follows.
March 12 - Settlement Drafting Issues and Tax Implications When Settling Employment Law Cases, with L. Steven Platt, Uche O. Asonye and David L. Lee.
April 9 Defamation and Other State Common Law Actions, with Michael J. Leech and Ronald B. Schwartz.
May 14 Northern District of Illinois Judges and Magistrates, with Elizabeth L. Hubbard. Attendance is restricted to NELA members.
June 11 IDHR, IHRC and EEOC Issues, with Randall D. Schmidt, clinical professor at the University of Chicago Law School, and Roma Barksdale Larson of Springfield, chief administrative law judge for the Illinois Human Rights Commission.
Defense Trial Counsel
The annual spring seminar of the Illinois Association of Defense Trial Counsel will take place from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Saturday, March 2, on Navy Pier in Chicago. Call (800) 2320169.
Topics will include reverse Petrillo issues, evaluation of the chronic pain patient, jury selection, costeffective demonstrative evidence and an analysis of Rule 213 tactics.
John Marshall Law
The John Marshall Law School Center for Intellectual Property Law will conduct a two-day seminar on Basic Patent Cooperation Treaty for Patent Administrators on Monday and Tuesday, March 4-5. Call Kevin Farrell, (3112) 987-1420.
A Patent Bar Review Course will be offered at John Marshall March 13 to 15 by the Center for Intellectual Property Law and the Practicing Law Institute. Call Michelle Bridges, (312) 427-2737, ext. 581.
The Intellectual Property Law Center also will hold a Master Class on Advanced Topics in Patent Law on March 21-22. The speaker will be Prof. Paul Janicke.
CLE Institute
Upcoming seminars of the Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education include a Health Law Conference on Tuesday and Wednesday, March 5-6, in the Hyatt Regency Hotel, downtown Chicago.
Faculty members include Gerald G. Goldberg of Chicago and Lisa A. LaConte of Peoria, members of the ISBA Health Care Section Council, amd Jill P. O'Brien of Chicago, secretary of the Labor and Employment Law Section Council.
Call (800) 252-8062 for registration and a schedule of future programs. Among them are:
Basic Enforcement of Judgments Wednesday, March 13, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Springfield; Friday, March 15, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Chicago.
Estate Planning Short Course Thursday and Friday, April 18-19, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Chicago; Thursday and Friday, May 2-3, at the Holiday Inn, Urbana.
Decalogue Society
Upcoming programs in the continuing legal education series of the Decalogue Society, held at 12:30 p.m. Wednesdays on the third floor at 39 S. LaSalle St., include the following. Call (312) 263-6493 for a full schedule.
March 6 Secrets of Winning the Nursing Home Case, with Steven Levin; March 20 Recent Developments in Illinois Law on Evidence, with Law Prof. Ralph Ruebner.