Practice News

Cook County Circuit Clerk Dorothy Brown will host an Expungement Summit will be held on Saturday, June 8 at the New Faith Baptist Church International, 25 S. Central, Matteson. This is a full service expungement summit serving both adults and juveniles.

Registration begins at 8:30 a.m. and doors close at 6 p.m. Call (312) 603-5200 for additional information or visit www.cookcountyclerkofcourt.org.

Volunteer attorneys will be on site to help with expungement and sealing applications. Attorneys interested in volunteering must attend an MCLE training course on May 15 or May 22 from 3-5:30 p.m. at the County Building, 69 W. Washingon, 17th floor. RSVP for the training to mrnoel@cookcountycourt.com

Volunteer attorneys will receive 2.5 General MCLE credits.

The Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission (ARDC), the administrative agency that regulates licensed Illinois lawyers, has filed its year 2012 Annual Report with the Supreme Court of Illinois. The report was released to the public this morning when a copy was posted on the ARDC website: www.iardc.org.

A summary of the annual report entitled Highlights from the Annual Report is available below. Click here for the full report.

CIVIL

Palm v. 2800 Lake Shore Drive Condominium Association

By Michael T. Reagan, Law Offices of Michael T. Reagan, Ottawa

Palm v. 2800 Lake Shore, while nominally about the circumstances in which a condominium unit owner can obtain the records of the condominium association, is fundamentally about whether the section of the Chicago Municipal Code dealing with that subject is a valid exercise of the City’s home rule power. The court also decided that the prevailing plaintiff unit owner, entitled to attorneys fees pursuant to the ordinance allowing recovery of "his reasonable attorney fees," is not limited to the fees actually charged by his attorney, but could recover greater fees at the reasonable market rate established by the evidence. The circuit and appellate courts were affirmed.

The association defendants asserted that the Chicago ordinance conflicted with the Condominium Property Act and the General Not For Profit Corporation Act. The statutes require unit owners to state a proper purpose for obtaining association financial books, limit requests to ten years of records, and allow the association 30 days in which to gather the records. The ordinance does not require statement of a purpose, does not restrict the age of the documents, and requires production with three business days. The parties and the court all agreed that the ordinance conflicted with the statutes.

ISBA Director of Legislative Affairs Jim Covington reviews bills in Springfield of interest to ISBA members. In this episode he covers UM coverage (Senate Bill 1898), Claim for money damages (Senate Bill 1912), FOIA and attorney’s fees (Senate Bill 1514), Visitation (House Bill 2992) and Fraudulent real estate transactions (House Bill 2832). More information on each bill is available below the video.

UM coverage. Senate Bill 1898 (Biss, D-Skokie) increases the required minimum liability insurance policies for drivers as follows: bodily injury or death to any person from $20,000 to $30,000; bodily injury or death to two or more persons from $40,000 to $60,000; and property damage from $15,000 to $20,000. It is on third reading in the Senate.