This June, we're celebrating you during Member Appreciation Month! As a result of programmatic savings due to the COVID-19 pandemic during the 2020-21 bar year, the ISBA will be providing all current, regular dues-paying members with a 15% dues credit for the 2021-22 bar year. We also have a full calendar of prizes, discounts, and giveaways, so stay tuned to ISBA communications for detailed announcements with instructions for how you can get in on the fun. You can look forward to a bookstore sale, a free live CLE webcast, member renewal incentives, social media contests, and more!

On April 15, 2021, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit issued notice that it proposed modifications to Circuit Rule 46(b). No comments were received. The court hereby provides notice of the adoption of the modifications to Circuit Rule 46(b). The adoption of the modifications shall be effective immediately.

Getting to the Illinois Supreme Court is a long shot. In any given year, the Supreme Court receives more than a thousand petitions for leave to appeal under Illinois Supreme Court Rule 315, notes Charles Insler in his May 2021 Illinois Bar Journal article, “Rule 317, Appeal as a Matter of Right.” From those thousand-plus petitions, the Court will allow leave to appeal in roughly 50 or 60 cases—about half of which are criminal and the other half civil. During the past five years, the odds of making it to the Supreme Court have ranged from one in 20 to one in 25. But what about Rule 317? The first part Rule 317 is clear and provides for automatic review in the Supreme Court when an appellate court has invalidated a state or federal statute. The second part of Rule 317, however, is less clear; but it provides an intriguing source for an appeal, as of right, to the Supreme Court, Insler explains.

The Illinois Supreme Court Rules Committee will hear comments July 21, 2021, at a public hearing in Chicago on four proposals. All the proposals, which must be approved by the Illinois Supreme Court before they could take effect, will be aired at a hearing before the Rules Committee at 10:30 a.m., Wednesday, July 21, 2021, in Room C-500 of the Michael A. Bilandic Building, 160 N. LaSalle St. in Chicago.