Illinois State Bar Association President Mark D. Hassakis and Chicago Bar Association President Terri L. Mascherin have co-authored a letter urging U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk and two other members of the Illinois delegation to support keeping funding for the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) at level funding for the 2011 fiscal year.
The U.S. House of Representatives passed a $70 million cut in LSC funding on Feb. 19. An earlier vote to cut all LSC funding failed.
Click here to read the letter.
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Senate Bill 1746 (Trotter, D-Chicago) repeals the Registered (Torrens) Title Act on Jan. 1, 2014. It may be found at this link.
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Retired Cook County Judge Sheila M. Murphy has written a letter to the editor published by the Chicago Tribune urging Gov. Quinn to sign the death penalty ban. Read it here.
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HJRCA 5 (Madigan, D-Chicago) any governmental entity that seeks to increase a pension benefit to receive a 3/5 super-majority vote of its legislative branch for that benefit to become effective. If the chief executive vetoes an increase in a pension benefit, then the body's legislative branch must have 2/3 votes to override that veto. Speaker Madigan's fact sheet in support of this amendment may be found here. A copy of the proposed amendment may be found here. This applies to the General Assembly, school boards, and any other unit of local government.
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Senate Bill 39 (Garrett, D-Lake Forest) amends the Freedom of Information Act to require a public body to disclose communications and materials between it and its attorney-lobbyist concerning either lobbying to be performed on behalf of the public body or
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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.