Practice News

"Have you found yourself wishing you could easily pull up a statute or case on your iPhone or iPad?" asks IBJ legal research columnist Tom Gaylord in his forthcoming (September) column. Good news -- ISBA partner Fastcase has a "free-to-download application that provides free case law and statutory research via Apple’s mobile devices." As a special treat for Illinois Lawyer Now readers, here's Tom's column a month ahead of schedule.

Under the Federal False Claims Act, private individuals can sue over federal contractors' false claims for payment. The law encourages these fraud-combatting qui tam cases by giving whistleblowers a shot at recovering up to three times the government’s damages, not to mention civil penalties. "[B]y labor and employment law standards, the [whistleblowers’s] fee and statutory attorneys’ fees are usually at the upper-end of recoveries," writes Ronald B. Schwartz in the latest ISBA Labor and Employment Law newsletter. Thus, "[l]abor and employment law lawyers who represent employees should have sufficient knowledge of the Act to be able to spot" qui tam cases. Read his quick look at qui tam basics.

The Rules Committee of the Illinois Supreme Court will hear comments at a public hearing on Wednesday, July 28 on three proposals dealing with discovery issues in civil cases. The hearing is scheduled to be held at 10 a.m., 160N. LaSalle Street, Room C-500 in Chicago. One of the proposals would allow a party's discovery deposition to be used as evidence at trial in "extremely limited" circumstances at the discretion of the trial judge. The proposal would amend Rule 212 to allow as evidence a party's discovery deposition if the party deponent is unable to testify at trial because of death or infirmity and the judge finds" such evidence will do substantial justice."

Many in the legal community do not and this is a chance to make a life or death difference. By Dawn Geras At an event that I recently attended there were hundreds of lawyers and dozens of judges in attendance. I had the opportunity to ask if they knew about the Illinois “Safe Haven law”. Does it surprise you to learn that many did not? Let me ask: DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THE LAW? The Abandoned Newborn Infant Protection Act became effective on August 17, 2001. The Act, often referred to as the Safe Haven law, allows a parent to anonymously relinquish an unharmed newborn up to 30 days old to a staff member at a designated safe haven. Safe havens in Illinois are hospitals, emergency medical facilities, fire houses, police stations and county sheriff stations that have staff present. All designated safe havens are required to have a safe haven sign posted in a conspicuous place on the exterior of the building. Maybe you have seen this sign and wondered what it was about. The law is intended to save the lives of the youngest, most vulnerable among us: newborn babies. It provides parents who might otherwise abandon a newborn in a dumpster or other unsafe place with a responsible, legal and anonymous option. The law is simple and it works. 60 babies have been safely and legally relinquished under the law since it was enacted nearly nine years ago. Tragically, 61 other babies were unsafely and illegally abandoned. So unsafely abandoned, that 30 of them did not survive. Why isn’t the law working for more babies? How many more innocent lives will be lost? Again, ask yourself, did YOU know about the law? The problem is that most people still don’t. If an intelligent person like you didn’t know, how can we expect those who need this information to know that this option exists? Who needs to know about the law? Everyone. Babies are illegally and unsafely discarded by parents of all ages, races and socioeconomic backgrounds.