ISBA Director of Legislative Affairs Jim Covington reviews bills in Springfield of interest to ISBA members. This week he covers HJRCA 29 (victims' rights), Senate Bill 2894 (Public guardians), Senate Bill 3792 (Mechanics Lien Act) and Senate Bill 3823 (Sanctions for visitation violations). More information on each bill is available below the video.
VOTE “NO” on HJRCA 29
Well-Intentioned but Flawed
HJRCA 29 is a constitutional amendment that creates standing for victims to participate in criminal proceedings as a party before the defendant’s guilt is established.
The Illinois State’s Attorneys’ Association and the Illinois State Bar Association oppose HJRCA 29. In its current form this proposal is unwise, unworkable, and unnecessary. We are concerned about its unintended consequences, such as court delays, longer incarceration awaiting trials, and wrongful convictions. HJRCA 29’s practical effect is that it will delay justice for victims by pitting prosecutors against victims instead of allowing them to be advocates for victims. That result isn’t helpful for victims or the public.
It is unwise. A criminal proceeding is a truth-seeking process that promotes public safety by adjudicating guilt and punishing the guilty. The awesome power to prosecute and imprison is vested with the government—not private parties. This means that victims and defendants are not contestants who require equal standing; the victim’s liberty and property are not at risk. But authorizing a victim to participate as a party with all of the standing of a prosecutor and defendant but none of their responsibilities, roles, and risks is a recipe for disaster. It is a return to the days of private, not public, justice.
It is unworkable. Illinois circuit courts annually process a staggering number of cases:
Three bills drafted in large part by members of the ISBA Trusts and Estates Section Council would amend Illinois trust laws to make them more responsive to modern practices and easier to comply with for everyone involved in the estate-planning process.
ISBA Assistant Director of Legislative Affairs Melinda Bentley reviews bills in Springfield of interest to ISBA members. This week she covers three of the 13 rights in the House Joint Resolution Constitutional Amendment 29 (Crime Victim’s Rights) and the House Bill 5434 (Debtors’ Rights Act of 2012). More information on each bill is available below the video.
House Joint Resolution Constitutional Amendment 29: Outlines 13 specific rights for crime victims. Three of them are highlighted here:
1. The right to refuse to disclose to the defendant information that is privileged or confidential by law, as determined by the court with jurisdiction over the matter;
2. The right to be heard at any post-arraignment court proceedings where a right of the victim is at issue, and any court proceeding involving a post-arraignment release decision, plea, or sentencing matter;
3. The right to have access to information in a report related to any aspect of the defendant’s sentence when that information is available to the defendant.
ISBA Director of Legislative Affairs Jim Covington reviews bills in Springfield of interest to ISBA members. This week he covers Senate Bill 3792 (Mechanics Lien Act), Senate Bill 3359 (Sex offenders), Senate Bill 2953 (Recording of title instruments), Senate Bill 2952 (Statute or repose for attorneys), Senate Bill 3823 (Sanctions for visitation violations) and Senate Bill 3234/House Bill 4695 (Debtors' Prisons). More information on each bill is available below the video.
ISBA Director of Legislative Affairs Jim Covington reviews bills in Springfield of interest to ISBA members. This week he covers House Bill 5544 (Attorney's fees representing children), House Bill 5823 (Heath Care Services Lien Act), Senate Bill 2569 (Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act), Senate Bill 3626 (Integrative Family Therapy), Senate Bill 3549 (Child-support enforcement) and Senate Bill 3552 (Personal-property exemptions). More information on each bill is available below the video.
ISBA Director of Legislative Affairs Jim Covington reviews bills in Springfield of interest to ISBA members. This week he covers Senate Bill 3349 (prosecutor consent for first offenders), House Bill 5544 (attorney's fees in Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act), House Bill 4994 (BAIID device), Senate Bill 2953 (provisions concerning the effect of recording deeds, mortgages, and other instruments) and Senate Bill 2952 (attorney malpractice). More information on each bill is available below the video.
ISBA Director of Legislative Affairs Jim Covington reviews bills in Springfield of interest to ISBA members. This week he covers House Bill 4676 (consumer contracts), House Bill 4665 (radon and home construction), Senate Bill 3757 (admissibility of photographs), House Bill 5198 (contractual litigation) and Senate Bill 2953 (conveyances act). More information on each bill is available below the video.
ISBA Director of Legislative Affairs Jim Covington reviews bills in Springfield of interest to ISBA members. This week he covers HJRCA 29 (Victims' Rights Constitutional Amendment) and House Bill 3944 (Eavesdropping). More information on each bill is available below the video.
Victims’ Rights Constitutional Amendment. HJRCA 29 (Lang, D-Chicago) gives crime victims a constitutional right to enforce the current constitutional protections already granted to them under Section 8.1. It essentially gives them standing as a party to in criminal prosecutions to participate in all proceedings. Passed the House 116-2 and sent to the Senate.
Eavesdropping. House Bill 3944 (Nekritz, D-Des Plaines) creates an exemption from prosecution for eavesdropping to allow a citizen to record a law enforcement officer performing public duties in a public place. To do so now is a Class 1 felony. Passed out of House Judiciary Committee I on a 9-2 vote. The “No” votes were Rep. Michael Zalewski (D-Chicago) and Michael Connelly (R-Lisle).
House Bill 3944, which was drafted by the Illinois State Bar Association (ISBA), advanced out of a House committee on Wednesday by a vote of 9-2. The bill would allow citizens to record audio of police officers in public places. Video recording is already allowed in Illinois.
State law currently requires the consent of all parties before a conversation can be legally recorded. Violators face a Class 1 felony and up to a 15-year prison sentence.
ISBA members Bob Loeb of Chicago and John Rekowski of Edwardsville and ISBA first assistant counsel Melinda Bentley testified before the committee in favor of the bill.
The bill is being sponsored by Rep. Elaine Nekritz (D-Northbrook).
ISBA Director of Legislative Affairs Jim Covington reviews bills in Springfield of interest to ISBA members. This week he covers House Bill 3944 (eavesdropping), House bill 1205 (residential burglary), House Bill 2886 (statute of limitations and sex offenses), House Bill 281 (judgement debtors) and House Bills 4460 and 4461 (domestic violence orders). More information on each bill is available below the video:
ISBA Director of Legislative Affairs Jim Covington reviews bills in Springfield of interest to ISBA members. This week he covers: House bill 4077 (New crime), House Bill 4129 (Administrative support orders), House Bill 3943 (Eavesdropping) and House Bill 4098 (Judicial campaigns and disqualification). More information on each bill is available below the video.
ISBA Director of Legislative Affairs Jim Covington reviews bills in Springfield of interest to ISBA members. This week he covers: Senate Bill 397, which changes the State tax credit of the Illinois Estate and Generation-Skipping Transfer Tax Act; No. 97-20, which creates a new statute to allow first-offender probation for certain felonies and No. 97-28, which creates two exemptions from prosecution for eavesdropping. More information on each bill is available below the video.
Correction to video: The proposed eavesdropping legislation came from the Intellectiual Property Section Council - not the Criminal Justice Section Council.
A new statute limits copy charges for patient records.
The Legislative Reference Bureau has put on its website the Criminal Code Rewrite Statute Conversion Tables for PA 96-1551 & PA 97-597 into numerically ordered tables for both Public Acts and all Articles. LRB has placed a PDF of the combined tables on the LRB website as well.
ISBA Director of Legislative Affairs Jim Covington reviews bills in Springfield of interest to ISBA members. This week he covers: medical records of deceased family members (Public Act 97-623), mortgage foreclosure and abandoned residential property (Senate Bill 2534) and public administrator records (Senate 2536). Information on each bill is available below the video.
ADA plaintiffs must be accommodating.
One of the more celebrated accomplishments of the Illinois General Assembly in 1998 was passage of ethics legislation imposing limits on gifts and contributions to state office holders and candidates for those offices.
A review of important changes wrought by this sweeping new law.
The author argues that there is a better way for courts to limit legislators' power to combine diverse subjects into a single bill and offers an alternative.