The ISBA offices will be closed for the holidays from Thursday, December 24 to Sunday, January 3. The offices will reopen on Monday, January 4. During this time, members can expect the following:

• E-Clips will not be delivered for the duration of this period.
• Illinois Lawyer Now will not be delivered on Thursday, December 24.
• The Bar News will not be delivered on Thursday, December 31.

All business and e-newsletter distribution will resume as usual on January 4, 2021.

The Illinois Supreme Court has appointed Scott J. Szala of Chicago to serve as a member of the Attorney Registration & Disciplinary Commission (A.R.D.C.) Review Board effective on January 1, 2021, and expiring on December 31, 2023. The A.R.D.C. is the Supreme Court agency that investigates allegations of lawyer wrongdoing in Illinois.  

The Illinois Supreme Court has appointed Drinda L. OConnor of Springfield to serve as a Commissioner of the Attorney Registration & Disciplinary Commission (A.R.D.C.) effective on January 1, 2021, and expiring on December 31, 2023. The A.R.D.C. is the Supreme Court agency that investigates allegations of lawyer wrongdoing in Illinois.  

The Illinois State Bar Association’s Lawyer Finder Service provides referrals to local lawyers Mondays through Fridays. The Service makes referrals in a number of areas of law. For the month of November 2020 there were more than 400 referrals given.

Here are the results for November 2020:

COVID-19 has brought new issues and questions to light when it comes to employment law. Do employers have a duty to protect their employees from viral diseases such as COVID-19? When it comes to employment law, one typically can recover under workers’ compensation. But the Workers’ Compensation Act limits the amount of damages employees can recover from employers—even when these damages are often not enough. In their December 2020 Illinois Bar Journal article, “Workers’ Comp, Negligence, and COVID-19,” past ISBA President Hon. Russell W. Hartigan (ret.) and Sarah Norkus examine how Illinois courts have held that employers must provide employees with a reasonably safe place in which to work and use reasonable care to provide for their employees’ safety. However, relying upon the Act to collect COVID-19-related damages will not be easy. And other routes may be worth pursuing when seeking negligence-related injuries on the job before moving ahead with a workers’ compensation claim.

In an effort to address the ongoing shortage of attorneys practicing in rural Illinois, the ISBA has launched the Rural Practice Fellowship Program.

The aim of the program is to connect rural and small-town law firms looking to hire law clerks and associates with law students and newer attorneys interested in practicing law in rural areas of Illinois.

The Illinois Supreme Court’s Volunteer Pro Bono Program for Criminal Appeals recently expanded statewide to include cases in all five appellate districts. 

The Illinois Supreme Court has amended Rules 529, 530, and 531, by adding the following language to each Rule: “Per the Act, only one scheduled assessment shall be applied regardless of the number of citations issued and prosecuted together.”

Chief Justice Anne M. Burke and the Illinois Supreme Court announced today the approval of new Rule 14, which will facilitate the expansion of text messaging in Illinois courts by authorizing any Illinois court or county clerk to implement a text message notification program. New Rule 14 is effective immediately. 

The Illinois Supreme Court Rules can be found online.