On Thursday, Jan. 31, the Illinois Supreme Court amended its order on criminal and juvenile e-filling through eFileIL. The amendment reiterates the court’s approval for permissive e-filing of criminal case types (CF, CM, DT) and juvenile case types (J, JA, JD) through eFileIL, but now also provides for the initial case initiation to be e-filed through eFileIL at such a time as each court chooses. The previous order only provided for subsequent e-filing of criminal and juvenile cases through eFileIL after the case had been initiated and been assigned a case number.

The Public Interest Law Initiative (PILI) has announced the names of eight law student interns who will work at public interest law agencies in Chicago during the spring semester.

Interns work 200 hours part-time during the semester, with PILI providing a living stipend, as well as ensuring quality supervision by experienced attorneys and providing extra educational, networking, and advising opportunities.  

Asked and Answered 

By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC

Q. I am the administrator with a firm in Buffalo, New York. We have 14 attorneys – seven partners and seven associates. We are an eat-what-you-kill law firm. All the partners have to weigh in and agree on any and all management decisions. Our management team consists of “all partners.” While I have been hired as the administrator for management the firm, I have very little authority to do anything. The partners all have the freedom to do as they please, and there is very little accountability to each other. Recently we have been discussing the pros and cons of why we might want to change our governance and overall structure. I would be interested in your thoughts.

The Illinois Supreme Court announced the filing of lawyer disciplinary orders on January 29, 2019. Sanctions were imposed because the lawyers engaged in professional misconduct by violating state ethics law.

The ISBA's Springfield and Chicago offices will be closed Wednesday, Jan. 30 due to inclement weather. The State and Local Tax CLE event will start at 9 a.m. as previously scheduled on Thursday, Jan. 31. All other ISBA services will resume at 10 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 31.

The deadline to submit nominating petitions for the ISBA election is Thursday, Jan. 31, at 4:30 p.m. at either the Illinois Bar Center, 424 S. 2nd St., Springfield, or the Chicago Regional Office at 20 S. Clark St., Suite 900, Chicago.

Members of the ISBA will elect a third vice president, 11 seats on the Board of Governors, 45 seats on the Assembly in Cook County, and 88 seats on the Assembly outside Cook County.

One board seat is open in each of the following Areas: Area 2 (Circuits 17, 19 and 22), Area 4 (circuits 10, 14, and 15), Area 5 (Circuits 5, 6 and 11), Area 7 (Circuits 1, 2 and 4), Under Age 37 in Cook County, and Under Age 37 outside Cook County. Additionally, five seats are open in Cook County.

Civil litigators, trial attorneys, young lawyers, and tort lawyers with all levels of practice experience who attend this online seminar on Feb. 26 will better understand: the do’s and don’ts of trial technology; how technology can enhance your client’s story; the best ways to incorporate technology into your trial presentation; how technology can be used during the jury selection process; and how our speakers prepare their trial presentations.

Due to inclement weather, the following Illinois courts will be closed this week:

February’s Illinois Bar Journal includes the winning article of 2019’s Lincoln Award Legal Writing Contest. The article, “General and Boilerplate Objections: Curbing Routine Abuse of the Discovery Process” by Gregory R. Jones, an associate at Goldenberg Heller & Antognoli, P.C., in Edwardsville, examines distasteful discovery tactics that can directly conflict with the spirit of discovery and the concept of “full disclosure.”

The Illinois Supreme Court handed down eight opinions on Friday, Jan. 25. In People v. Witherspoon, the court considered whether a person who enters another person’s home in violation of a court order thereby enters “without authority” under the home invasion statute. In People v. Johnson, the supreme court concluded that the appellate court erred in considering the merits of a man’s sentencing challenge because he could not challenge it other than through withdrawal of his plea. The court ruled that a defendant was required to offer some affirmative evidence that the parking lot where he was arrested for DUI was not a public highway in People v. Relwani. In Rosenbach v. Six Flags Entertainment Corp., the court ruled that consumers do not have to demonstrate “injury or adverse effect” to sue companies under the state’s biometric privacy law. The supreme court upheld a trial court’s ruling granting a father who had joint custody of his children to relocate in In re Marriage of Fatkin and clarified the rules governing the admission of photographs in motor vehicle cases in Peach v. McGovern. In In re Appointment of Special Prosecutor, the court rejected arguments by the Better Government Association to release documents in a FOIA request. In Smith v. The Vanguard Group, the court determined that a man did not violate an injunction when he changed the beneficiary designation from his wife to his sons.