Practice News

[caption id="attachment_14606" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Justice Thomas L. Kilbride"][/caption] The Illinois Supreme Court announced Thursday it has unanimously elected Justice Thomas L. Kilbride as Chief Justice, effective October 26, 2010, to succeed Chief Justice Thomas R. Fitzgerald, who has announced his retirement for health reasons. Justice Kilbride’s tenure as Chief will run through October 25, 2013. “I am exceedingly honored and humbled by my colleagues’ selection of me as Chief Justice,” Justice Kilbride said. “I regret deeply that my friend Chief Justice Fitzgerald will not be able to complete his term as Chief, but I have learned much from his example of dignity, grace and leadership. I will miss his continued guidance and friendship.” “Fortunately, I can continue to draw on the example that my colleagues Charles Freeman and Bob Thomas have set before me as Chief, and I welcome and deeply appreciate the confidence they and each member of the Court has placed in me by this honor.” Chief Justice Fitzgerald announced earlier this week that he was retiring, effective October 25, for health reasons. Justice Kilbride, 57, was elected to the Supreme Court from the Third Judicial District in 2000, the same year Chief Justice Fitzgerald and Justice Thomas were elected to the Supreme Court. Justice Kilbride is known as a common man in an uncommon position who took an unusual path to reach the top of his profession. As the only member of the seven justices who had not served as a judge before, he brings a rare perspective to the Court. He had been a practitioner for nearly 20 years, first as a legal services attorney for the poor, then for a mid-sized law firm and as a solo practitioner in a storefront office. Throughout all of those years, he was continuously involved in volunteer service in the Rock Island area. “Justice Kilbride is a good and decent man, and will make a wonderful Chief Justice,” said retiring Chief Justice Fitzgerald. “He’s hard-working, thoughtful and highly capable.” In another Order filed on Thursday, the Supreme Court named Justice Rita B. Garman as a member of the Illinois Courts Commission to replace Justice Kilbride when he becomes Chief. Justice Kilbride grew up in Kankakee, received his B.A. degree magna cum laude from Saint Mary’s College in 1978; and his law degree from Antioch School of Law in Washington D.C. in 1981. While in law school, Justice Kilbride completed judicial internships for the administrative assistant to the Chief Justice (Warren Burger) of the United States Supreme Court and for U.S. District Court Judge Joyce Hens Green. As a member of the Court, he was the moving voice behind the formation of a special committee to study and make recommendations on how to encourage every practicing attorney in the state to give some form of free legal work to those who cannot afford it.

There's a great article on the Forbes website about the dangers of DIY will books and software (see The Case Against Do-It-Yourself Wills). Here's hoping all of your clients read it. It's all the more interesting because it includes an irresistible  "fubar homespun will" anecdote from Dennis Riley, an ISBA member from Oregon, Ill. Quoting the article here: "[Riley] recalls a situation several years ago where a father was estranged from one of his children and wanted to disinherit him. Dad bought DIY will software from a big-box store and, following the prompts, listed his assets, but omitted some important ones: small numbers of shares of various phone company stocks that he had bought many years earlier. Those shares, which probably once seemed like tiddlywinks, had burgeoned in value because of mergers and stock splits and were worth more than $1.5 million, comprising most of Dad's estate, by the time he died." Wow. Sounds like it came from a law school final, but it really happened. This, folks, is why people need lawyers. Spread the word. (Hat tip to Michele Miller, who posted the link on the ISBACafe discussion group.)

Effective January 1, 2011, the Illinois Supreme Court is letting unpublished Rule 23 orders be posted on its website, making them much more readily available to the public and the legal community. The orders still may not be cited as precedent (except, as under the earlier version of the rule, "to support contentions of double jeopardy, res judicata, collateral estoppel or law of the case" -- see more in a LawPulse item from the June IBJ). That will disappoint some folks. But at least Rules 23 orders will be easy to access. Lawyers should enthusiastically cheer this rule change. But there's something else in the revised rule that may be just as important. Maybe more important, because it affects published opinions as well as unpublished orders. It provides that "the clerks of the appellate court shall transmit an electronic copy of each opinion or order filed in his or her district to the webmaster of the Illinois Supreme and Appellate Courts' Web site on the day of filing." If I'm reading it right, that could remove the sometimes lengthy lag between the filing of an opinion and its posting on the Web. If that's the case, it's reason to cheer even louder.

Incumbent Timothy C. Evans was elected to his fourth three-year term as Cook County chief judge this afternoon in a vote of the Circuit Court judges. The final vote count was 174-82. Evans faced his first challenge as chief judge from Law Division Presiding Judge William D. Maddux.