CARPLS Legal Aid is looking for volunteer attorneys to counsel clients on Cook County's legal aid telephone hotline. You must preregister for this training via email to lwallin@carpls.org. Walk-ins will not be accepted.
CARPLS is an innovative legal aid service that offers an immediate response to the every-day legal problems confronting low-income families in Cook County. CARPLS' legal aid hotline and court-based advice desks give low-income clients direct access to experienced attorneys who are trained to quickly assess and respond to a wide range of civil legal problems. CARPLS attorneys resolve over 85% of all cases in-house by providing information, advice and brief services including the preparation and review of legal documents. Clients with more complex needs are referred by CARPLS to a network of specialized legal and social service providers. CARPLS' unique "legal triage" system serves as a model for legal aid communities across the country and has increased access to justice by dramatically reducing the cost of legal aid services to the poor.
Our volunteers give advice in the limited practice areas of family, consumer debt and landlord/tenant matters. Volunteers provide legal advice, draft and distribute self-help materials, and make referrals to legal service providers for representation.
CARPLS volunteers, once trained, can participate in our Nightline program (evening volunteering Wednesday evenings from 6:00 - 8:00); or CARPLS Works (daytime volunteering Monday through Friday from 9:00 - 1:00 or 1:00 - 5:00). All volunteers go through a common training program and are qualified to work in any program.
IF YOU ARE INTERESTED: If you would like to answer the call to help Cook County's low income residents, please send an e-mail and resume to lwallin@carpls.org, or call Leslie Wallin at (312) 421-4427.
Practice News
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January 15, 2010 |
Practice News
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January 14, 2010 |
Practice News
It's common practice to accommodate Medicare liens in personal injury liability claims. But must litigants also protect Medicare from future medical expenses -- i.e., those that might be incurred by the plaintiff after settlement or judgment? Heyl Royster's Brad Peterson brings us up to date in the January Illinois Bar Journal.
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January 14, 2010 |
Practice News
Senate Bill 2514 (Silverstein, D-Chicago) requires an attorney who withdraws from representing a representative to file a petition for fees and costs within 30 days after the withdrawal is approved by the court. Senate Bill 2514 was introduced Jan. 12. Senate Bill 2514 may be found at this link
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January 13, 2010 |
Practice News
Legal ethicists and practice-management advisors have long preached the value of engagement letters, where you spell out for clients the scope of your representation, how you'll determine fees, and the like. Engagement letters avoid confusion and -- let's be honest -- provide valuable CYA. But if they were important before, they're even more important now that the new Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct have taken effect. For example, the new rules require that expenses, not just fees, be "reasonable." And there are new requirements that information about fees be reduced to writing. In an article in the latest ISBA Trusts and Estates newsletter, Darrell E. Dies describes the relevant rule changes and persuasively makes the case that the day of handshake agreements with clients are over. Or certainly should be. Lots of good info and advice here from Darrell, whatever your practice setting.
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January 13, 2010 |
Practice News
Asked and Answered By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC Q. At a recent partner meeting we discussed the current economy and what changes we need to be thinking about both now and when we come out of the recession. What are your thoughts? A. As law firms emerge from the current recession many will face many new business realities and be forced to consider whether existing business models are still appropriate for the future. Legal process outsourcing (LPO), off-shoring, virtual offices, alternative billing, etc. We believe that the recession may accelerate the pace by which firms reevaluate existing processes and consider new business models. Ten years ago (1999) the ABA hosted the "Seize the Future" conference in Phoenix, Arizona. Click here for my coverage of the event. The conference predicted massive change fueled by the Internet. Many of these changes we have already witnessed and experienced - others are yet to come - possibly in the near future. Richard Susskind's popular book The End of Lawyers: Rethinking the Nature of Legal Services paints an interesting future. As we emerge from the recession pressures will exist that may accelerate some of the other changes that have been predicted. Here are some changes that some firms are already implementing:
- Outsourcing back-office support functions such as accounts receivable management and collections, leased employees (PEO), billing and accounting, IT support, payroll, facilities management, copying and duplicating, etc.
- Outsourcing legal services to contract attorneys and paralegals and on-shore and off-shore legal process outsourcing (LPO) providers
- Unbundled legal services by clients with segments of work assigned to in-house counsel, outside counsel, and on-shore and off-shore legal process vendors
- Partnering by U.S. law firms with on-shore and off-shore legal process vendors
- Internet service delivery models
- Flat fee billing arrangements by large law firms with large major corporate clients
- Success fees and risk sharing with clients
- Virtual employees
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January 12, 2010 |
Practice News
Winding up your solo practice? Moving to a new firm? A career change might be the last thing you want. Or it could be just what you need. Or both. In any event, you don't want to make a costly legal-ethics blunder in the bargain. And that's not hard to do, given the continuing obligations you owe your former clients and law firm and the other details you need to manage. If you think your career might take a new direction, you should consult the Selling, Winding Up or Leaving a Law Firm section of ISBA's Practice Resource Center. We've pulled information on the topic from various places and put it under one roof. There's even guidance from the ISBA legal department on that ultimate transition: what to do when a lawyer dies.
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January 12, 2010 |
ISBA News | Practice News
Since Illinois voters have the responsibility to elect judges, the Illinois State Bar Association feels it has an obligation to share with the public information about qualifications of judicial candidates. The lawyers who practice alongside candidates for judicial office are in a unique position to assess the professional qualities that are necessary for good judges. Here are the ISBA's ratings and poll results on judicial candidates: Download the ISBA Voters Guide for Cook County Judicial Candidates Download the ISBA Voters Guide for Judicial Candidates for all counties outside of Cook Methods ISBA uses to rate candidates For most judicial offices, ISBA will provide either an evaluation or a poll rating; in the case of Supreme and Appellate court candidates outside of Cook County, ISBA will provide both an evaluation rating and poll results. NOTE: Evaluation ratings, which are the result of an in-depth review of candidates, are the opinion of the Illinois State Bar Association; the Judicial Advisory Poll ratings do not reflect the opinion of ISBA, but rather the opinion of those attorneys who participated in the poll. Find out more about how it works
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January 12, 2010 |
Practice News
After you have run a keyword search, use Fastcase to find the case cited most often in other cases containing your search terms. Follow these steps to speed up your research: 1. Go to the "Advanced Caselaw Search" page. Enter your search terms. For example: search and car 2. Next, move to the bottom of the Advanced Caselaw Search page. Under "Authority Check," check the box next to "Show Number of Citations in Search Results." 3. Click "Search." 4. On the Results page, under "Authority Check," click on "These Results." This will resort your search results according to how often each case has been cited in other cases containing your search terms. 5. Now, the first case in the list is the case most frequently cited in other cases discussing your issue. Questions? Call us at 1-866-773-2782 (7AM-7PM Central Mon-Fri) or e-mail support@fastcase.com.
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January 11, 2010 |
Practice News
Not surprisingly, our friends in the Fourth Estate have a keen interest in the newly effective changes to Illinois' FOIA law and related statutes, as their writing about the topic shows. Here are just a few of the articles I've seen in the last week or so, all of which do a good job of hitting the highlights. New Illinois FOIA charged with stressing 'transparency,' Peoria Journal Star County gears up to answer information act requests, Springfield State Journal-Register FOIA changes make requests easier, denials harder, Champaign News-Gazette Some officials leery of FOIA alterations, Champaign News-Gazette
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January 11, 2010 |
Practice News
The DuPage County Bar Association has issued recommendations on the candidates in the February 2, 2010 Primary Election for Judge in the 18th Judicial Circuit, which encompasses DuPage County, and for Judge in the 2nd Appellate District, which encompasses northern Illinois with the exception of Cook County. The names and ratings of each candidate for Circuit Judge are as follows:
- Dorothy F. French -- Highly Recommended
- Daniel P. Guerin -- Highly Recommended
- Brian R. McKillip -- Highly Recommended
- Ronald D. Sutter -- Highly Recommended
- Ann B. Jorgensen -- Highly Recommended
- Donna Kathryn Kelly -- Insufficient information to make recommendation
- Kenneth Moy -- Not presently recommended
- Mary S. Schostok -- Highly Recommended