Our panel of leading appellate attorneys reviews the five Illinois Supreme Court opinions handed down Thursday, April 15.

Traditionally a safeguard exclusively available to journalists, shield laws in many jurisdictions have gradually broadened in scope and now protect material generated and relied upon by many professionals when conducting research for publication. But according to Daniel Schwartz in his April Illinois Bar Journal article, “Discovery Orders and the Peer-Review Privilege,” few cases in Illinois discuss the applicability of shield laws to medical research. Whether—and to what extent—medical research is discoverable therefore remains an unsettled issue, Schwartz argues. To bring coherency to Illinois law governing discovery requests for medical research, Schwartz examines discovery requests litigated under the Illinois Medical Studies Act and several state and federal discovery provisions. He also highlights the factual and doctrinal significance of the cases discussed and notes important considerations for legal practitioners seeking to issue or bar a request to produce medical research.

Historically, guilty-plea defendants in Illinois have been denied the opportunity to present actual-innocence claims based on newly discovered evidence because their convictions were founded on valid guilty pleas. However, the Illinois Supreme Court recently held in People v. Reed that these defendants can raise claims of actual innocence under the Post-Conviction Hearing Act. Although this is a momentous victory for guilty-plea defendants, the burden they must meet is significant. In her April 2021 Illinois Bar Journal article, “Guilty Plea, Innocent Defendant,” Ashley Kidd, a law clerk for the Third District of the Illinois Appellate Court, discusses the function of plea agreements in our criminal justice system, the Reed decision, and how these claims should be presented post-Reed.

Every client and trial are different. But successful trial lawyers know that winning a case requires deep preparation and attention to detail that begin long before jurors are seated and the trial starts. Recently, in an ISBA CLE titled The Eight Things Every Trial Lawyer Should Know, Illinois attorneys and judges shared characteristics all good trial attorneys have in common. The Illinois Bar Journal features their key takeaways in the April 2021issue.

Their tips and tricks cover eight aspects of trial law: presenting and arguing motions in limine, selecting a jury, making objections, establishing proofs through direct examination, controlling a witness on cross examination, handling the jury instructions conference, delivering a closing argument, and maintaining professionalism during an adversarial process.