Our panel of leading appellate attorneys reviews the three civil and six criminal opinions handed down Thursday, March 21, 2024, by the Illinois Supreme Court. 

Illinois’ new Parenting Coordinator Statute (Ill. Sup. Ct. Rule 909(b)) was designed to help uncooperative parents make parenting decisions, communicate effectively, comply with parenting agreements, and protect the children from parental conflicts; however, the rule has resulted in many counties adding their own local rules regarding coordination, which has been established and practiced in Cook County.

The Illinois Supreme Court announced the filing of lawyer disciplinary orders on March 19, 2024. Sanctions were imposed because the lawyers engaged in professional misconduct by violating state ethics law.

The Illinois Municipal League (IML) has been a continued advocate for responsible reforms of public safety pension systems. IML played a key role in the development of the Tier 2 pension system, which was implemented by Public Act (P.A.) 96-0889 in 2011 to curb rising costs for public pension systems in Illinois. IML was also central to the development of public safety pension investment fund consolidation (P.A. 101-0610) and has assisted with the implementation of the law since it was enacted in December 2019.

Chief Justice Mary Jane Theis and the Illinois Supreme Court announced today the extension of an order to help the court system continue to implement the pretrial release provisions of the SAFE-T Act, which went into effect in September 2023.

The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency is accepting applications for two openings for: Technical Advisor II. Both positions are located in Springfield.

 Secondary or vicarious trauma can and does exist in our profession and can result from hearing clients talk about what they experienced and seeing their physical reaction to the experiences, writes Karen Munoz in her March Illinois Bar Journal article, “Vicarious Trauma in the Legal Profession.”

WHAT: Oral arguments for two cases, People v. Flournoy and Andrew W. Levenfeld & Assoc. v. O’Brien, will be held before the Illinois Supreme Court.

WHEN: 10:00 a.m., Thursday, March 21, 2024 (All attendees must be seated by 9:30 a.m.)

The Illinois Supreme Court has received and approved the report and recommendations from the Pretrial Release Appeals Task Force (Task Force). The Task Force was convened to thoroughly review pretrial release appeals and their impact on the caseloads in each of the five Appellate Court districts. The report notes the staggering increase in caseloads the appellate courts have faced since the implementation of the Pretrial Fairness Act (PFA) began on Sept. 18, 2023, going from an average of 17 annual bond appeals to a projected 4,557 appeals under the PFA – a 268-fold increase.