The House Special Committee on Workers' Compensation Reform is scheduled to meet tomorrow in Bloomington-Normal at 1:00 p.m. and in Mt. Vernon on Thursday at 11:00 a.m. The postings for these hearings may be found here.
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The Senate Special Committee on Workers' Compensation Reform held a hearing in Chicago Wednesday. The written testimony submitted may be found here.
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The Senate and House have created special committees to review and recommend changes in Illinois' Workers' Compensation system before the 96th General Assembly adjourns on Jan. 12, 2011. The next hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, Dec. 8, at the Thompson Center in Chicago at 10:00 in Room 16-503. The Senate has posted some of the written testimony received by some of the groups that have appeared, which may be found here. The business community's recommendations include the following: (1) Require causation that the accident was the prevailing factor in causing the medical condition or disability. (2) Change the rules on wage-loss differential awards. (3) Change the medical fee schedule. (4) Allow employers to choose the treating physician. (5) Require use of the AMA guidelines for ratings of disability.
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Senate Bill 1716 recognizes civil unions in Illinois and just passed both chambers of the General Assembly. It will be sent to Governor Quinn, who has indicated that he will sign it into law.
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The Senate and House have created two special committees to study changes in the workers' compensation laws hoping to have legislation prepared in early January before the 96th General Assembly adjourns.
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Senate Bill 3322 (Harmon, D-Oak Park; Lang, D-Chicago) creates the Non-Recourse Civil Litigation Funding Act to regulate entities that loan money to consumers in exchange for an assignment of an amount of the potenti
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If you do any estate planning or have older family members, you may want to read this post. Your world may be dramatically changed if the proposed rules implementing the federal Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 are approved. These rules are being proposed by the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services (HFS) and drastically change Medicaid eligibility. HFS characterizes them simply as an effort to "close loopholes." Read on; you be the judge. Our Elder Law Section Council thinks that these proposed rules are unfair and unjust to seniors, people with disabilities, and their families. The Section presented testimony in opposition to these proposed rules at the hearing conducted by HFS this morning. To summarize, the Section believes that HFS' proposed rules are more restrictive and punitive than what is required by federal law. An example is the part that makes these changes retroactive -- changing the rules late in a senior's life. HFS stated that they were interested in hearing from people to better evaluate their proposed rules and plans to hold another hearing in Springfield on Sept. 28. HFS does have the legal authority to amend these rules before final submission to the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules. The 12 legislators appointed to serve on JCAR have the final say on proposed rules.
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The State of Illinois is proposing rules to implement the federal Deficit Reduction Act. If you do any estate planning at all, you need to click on the August 13, 2010 Flinn Report here and review the Department of Health and Family Services proposed rules.
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SJRCA 120 (Harmon, D-Oak Park) requires minimum periods as a licensed attorney before he or she is eligible to serve as a circuit, appellate, or supreme court judge. Associate judges are not included in this amendment. As introduced, it required 10 years for a circuit, 12 years for an appellate, and 15 years for a supreme court judge.
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The Illinois Coalition Against the Death Penalty is having a lobby day in Springfield on Thursday, March 11. They are inviting supporters to register and participate at the State House to lobby individual legislators. More information may be found here. House Bill 5687 (Yarbrough, D-Maywood) and Senate Bill 3569 (Delgado, D-Chicago) have been filed to do this.
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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.
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Public Act 96-835 was signed into law yesterday and took effect the same day. It restores a tax deduction that had been repealed in this spring’s budget bill. The repeal changed tax policy effective for tax years after Dec. 31, 2009 by limiting partnerships’ deduction to “guaranteed payments” instead of “reasonable compensation” for the Personal Property Replacement Tax. That change generally limits the deduction to income partners because equity partners’ income is based on their share of the distributable income of the partnership. It may be found at this link.
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Today the Supreme Court of Illinois amended Rule 1.15 and 3.9 of the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct. Both changes are effective Jan. 1, 2010. Rule 1.15 is amended to change the definition of "safe harbor," which is a yield that if paid by the financial institution on IOLTA accounts is deemed as a comparable return in compliance with this Rule. It now provides that the yield may be calculated as 70% of the Federal Funds Target Rate on the first business day of the calendar month "or 1%, whichever is higher." (New text in quotation marks.) The second change deletes the recent incorporation of Rule 3.5 (ex parte prohibitions) into Rule 3.9, which regulates advocates in nonadjudicative proceedings. It clarifies that Rule 3.9 applies only when a lawyer represents a client in an official hearing or meeting of a governmental agency or legislative body to which the lawyer or the lawyer's client is presenting evidence or argument. It does not apply to representation of a client in otherwise permitted lobbying activities.
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There is federal legislation pending affecting disclosing information about state business entities such as LLCs and partnerships. S. 569 (Levin, D-MI) is entitled the "Incorporation Transparency and Law Enforcement Assistance Act of 2009." This Act is supposed to combat money laundering, tax evasion, and terrorist financing. It requires states to maintain beneficial ownership information and make it available to law enforcement. Other requirements include making lawyers "formation agents" if they are involved in forming a corporation, limited liability company, partnership, trust or other legal entity. This bill is in the Senate Homeland Security Committee where it has had two hearings. If it passes out of this Committee, it will still have to be sent to the Senate Banking Committee. Thanks to the American Bar Association Government Affairs Office for alerting us to this bill.
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This spring's budget bill, Public Act 96-45, changed tax policy effective for tax years ending Dec. 31, 2009 by limiting partnerships’ deduction to “guaranteed payments” instead of “reasonable compensation” for the Personal Property Replacement Tax. That change generally limits the deduction to income partners because equity partners’ income is based on their share of the distributable income of the partnership. House Bill 2239 (Currie, D-Chicago; Harmon, D-Oak Park) restores this deduction. It has passed both chambers today and will be sent to the Governor within 30 days for his signature, amendatory veto, or veto.
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Recently enacted Public Act 96-555 increased the fees to petition Illinois government for registered lobbyists and their clients to a $1,000 per year. The fees had been $150 for Sec. 501(c)(3) corporations and $350 for everybody else. This applies to any person or group that falls under the definitions of the Lobbyist Registration Act. Part of the revenue currently generated goes to enforcement of the Act and part goes to the General Revenue Fund. The dedicated part of the enforcement fund now has a $400,000 balance. There is an effort underway to persuade the General Assembly to reduce these fees back to $150 and $350 this week in veto session using Senate Bill 2109 as a vehicle.
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Yesterday in Washington the House of Representatives sent the Senate HR 3763 that repeals the Red Flag Rule for small businesses in which lawyers and others would be treated as creditors for identity theft. Under a rule effective August 1, 2009, the Federal Trade Commission requires lawyers, including solo practitioners, to have in place written protocols to detect and address the "red flags" of identity theft. Bar associations, including the ABA and ISBA, are registering objections. Helen Gunnarsson's August 2009 piece in the Illinois Bar Journal goes into more detail on the Red Flag Rule.
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Last week in veto session the Senate repealed a part of a the budget bill enacted into law in June. The budget bill, Public Act 96-45, changed tax policy effective for tax years ending Dec. 31, 2009 by limiting partnerships’ deduction to “guaranteed payments” instead of “reasonable compensation” for the Personal Property Replacement Tax. That change generally limits the deduction to income partners because equity partners’ income is based on their share of the distributable income of the partnership. Last week the Senate passed 57-0-0 a repeal of this part of PA 96-45 in House Bill 2239. The House will consider the bill the week of Oct. 26th.
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There is an effort underway during October's veto session in Springfield to repeal part of a recently enacted budget bill (Public Act 96-45). Currently, the Federal Government and most states do not tax income of partnerships, “S” corporations, and limited liability companies (LLCs) that elect to be treated as partnerships. Instead, the income is taxed after it flows through to individual partners or shareholders. Illinois has followed this practice for regular income tax purposes but does tax these entities with the PPRT. (Personal-Property Replacement-Income Tax.) This tax was meant to be a replacement for the property tax revenue lost by municipalities when the tax on personal property was repealed in the 1980s. The municipalities receive the revenue generated by the PPRT. Illinois has allowed “S” and “C” corporations to deduct compensation paid to owners, but partnerships were not allowed to do so. To treat partnerships in the same way as S and C corporations, Illinois has allowed partnerships to deduct a portion of their distributable income that represented reasonable compensation. In calculating the tax base for the PPRT, partnerships that generate their income through the personal services of its partners and employees (like law firms) are allowed a deduction for the profits of the partnership distributed to the partners (both equity and stipend) so that their PPRT tax base is essentially zero. This deduction was meant to parallel the compensation deduction allowed to C and S corporations in arriving at the PPRT tax base. Public Act 96-45 changes this tax policy effective for tax years ending Dec. 31, 2009 for the PPRT.
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Public Act 96-555 increases the fee for any entity or lobbyist that wishes to lobby in Springfield from $350 to $1,000. Not-for-profits that are Sec. 501(c)(3) corporations were increased from $150 to $1,000. Quite a hit for State Farm, the Red Cross and the United Way, ISBA, or anyone else before being allowed to petition our own government.