Practice News

Chief Justice Thomas L. Kilbride and the Illinois Supreme Court announced Thursday another step to provide better public access to legal information and to improve the efficiency of lawyers practicing in Illinois.

Effective immediately, Illinois Pattern Jury Instructions, for both civil and criminal cases, will be available on the website of the Supreme Court.

• Pattern jury instructions in civil cases
• Pattern jury instructions in criminal cases

Previously, the complete instructions were available only in bulky, bound volumes and supplemental inserts through a paid subscription or through a law library.

A new letter of agreement, between the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts and Thomson Reuters, who publishes the volumes under the West Group name, made the change possible. Thomson Reuters retains an exclusive license for publication for commercial purposes.

"This is a very welcome step forward as we move in Illinois to integrate our court systems and processes with the latest technology," said Chief Justice Kilbride. "This was made possible by the renegotiation of our publishing contract with Thomson Reuters, and the continued efforts of the Supreme Court's E-Business Committee to make the practice of law more efficient for lawyers, more cost-effective for clients and court information more accessible to everyone—lawyer and non-lawyer.

"I also wish to thank those members of the Committee on Pattern Jury Instructions, both civil and criminal."

Effective January 1, Illinois at long last brings its Medicaid rules for long-term care into compliance with federal requirements. Indeed, only California has yet to do so. The new rules make it harder for Illinois long-term care recipients to protect their assets while preserving Medicaid eligibility.

"The new rules are compliant with the DRA but also go beyond just DRA rules," write Diana Law and Kerry Peck in the latest ISBA's Elder Law newsletter. (Law coauthored an article on the new rules that will appear in the January Illinois Bar Journal.) "The new regulations are harsher than current rules and require the practitioner to be aware of how this impacts your clients and the future of your elder law practice." Read their summary of the changes.

Asked and Answered

By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC

Q. Our firm is a 18 attorney insurance defense firm located in Chicago. We are in our second generation and none of the original founders are still working in the firm. The majority of our insurance company clients have been with the firm for decades and were inherited. Our current crop of partners are primarily "worker bees" and have not developed "rainmaking" skills. We have not added a new client to our client roster in years. In the past two years we have lost several clients due to mergers, consolidations, and partner defections. This concerns us. Currently partners are rewarded and compensated totally on "working attorney" fee collections. We are considering changing our compensation system to including a credit for origination of new business. What are your thoughts regarding client origination credit?

The Illinois Supreme Court announced today that the Eighteenth Judicial Circuit judges voted to select Alex F. McGimpsey, III as an associate judge of the Eighteenth Judicial Circuit.

Mr. McGimpsey received his undergraduate degree in 1985 from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and his Juris Doctor in 1989 from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Mr. McGimpsey is currently affiliated with the DuPage County State's Attorney's Office in Wheaton.