The 2018 Annual Meeting will be held at The Abbey Resort located in Fontana, Wisconsin from June 14–16, and you can now make your hotel reservations. To make reservations at The Abbey, please call 800.709.1323 then press #2 and reference the Illinois State Bar Association Annual Meeting. The deadline for making reservations for lodging is on or before May 11. Reservations received after this date will be subject to availability.
The Illinois Supreme Court Rules Committee is scheduled to hold a public hearing at 10:30 a.m. on Monday, March 26, 2018, at the Michael A. Bilandic Building, 160 N. LaSalle Street, in Chicago.
Illinois Supreme Court Rules proposals or proposed rule amendments are offered by the bench, bar, or public. They are then reviewed by the Rules Committee and placed on the agenda for public hearing if the proposal is determined to have merit. Public comments on the proposals are invited. Written comments and testimony scheduling requests should be submitted to the committee secretary by e-mail at jzekich@illinoiscourts.gov or mailed to Committee Secretary, Supreme Court Rules Committee, 222 N. LaSalle Street, 13th Floor, Chicago, IL 60601.
At the Jan. 26 Board of Governors meeting in Rockford, the Board adopted two ethics opinions.
Opinion 18-01 considers whether the use of undisclosed "tracking" software (e.g., "web bugs," web beacons," or "spymail") in electronic communications with other lawyers or clients is ethically permissible. The opinion concludes that a lawyer may not use such software in e-mails or other electronic communications with other lawyers or clients in the course or representing a client without first obtaining the informed consent of each recipient to the use of such software.
Update your knowledge on a number of important workers’ compensation issues with this full-day seminar in Chicago and O’Fallon on Feb. 19. Labor and employment attorneys and workers’ compensation practitioners attending this seminar will better understand how orthopedic injuries are diagnosed, evaluated, and treated in workers’ compensation claims; the 2017 appellate court decisions that have impacted workers’ compensation law; how to avoid ethical dilemmas in your practice; how to present effective oral arguments before the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission; integrating Medicare and workers’ compensation benefits; and how status as employee or independent contractor can affect employment benefits and liability.
Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance Foundation, Inc. (LOLLAF) seeks to hire a staff attorney at LOLLAF's Central (East St. Louis) and Western (Alton) regional offices. LOLLAF is a non-profit organization that provides free legal services to low-income individuals and groups in civil cases. The program has a strong history of high quality and innovative advocacy for our clients.
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 January 2018 there were over 1,000 referrals given.
Here are the results for January 2018:
Mark your calendars for Saturday, March 17! The ISBA Standing Committee on Marketing & Communications would like to invite you to represent ISBA by marching in the St. Patrick's Day Parade in Chicago. The parade begins at noon.
Details for a central meeting location for all interested participants will be available soon.
Contact Sara Anderson for additional information.
In Illinois – and across the country – the demand for legal services for low-income individuals and families far exceeds the supply. But individual attorneys, legal aid organizations, law firms, corporate law departments, and bar associations across the state are working to close the gap or mitigate its effects through pro bono and volunteer service.
Karen A. Enright, partner at Costello, McMahon, Burke & Murphy, discusses five tips to prepare for and take a defendant doctor's deposition.
The Illinois Supreme Court handed down an opinion today in People v. Chairez. At issue in this case was the constitutionality of a section of the unlawful use of a weapon statute that prohibits an individual from carrying or possessing a firearm within 1000 feet of a public park. Kerry Bryson of the Office of the State Appellate Defender reviews the court's ruling.
Over the past several years, constitutional challenges to various provisions of the unlawful use of weapons (UUW) statute have made their way through the courts. Chairez involves another such challenge, specifically with regard to the provision prohibiting an individual from carrying or possessing a firearm within 1000 feet of a public park [720 ILCS 5/24-1 (a)(4), (c)(1.5)].
In 2013, Julio Chairez pled guilty to possessing a firearm within 1000 feet of a park in Aurora. Subsequently, Chairez filed a post-conviction petition arguing that the statute violated the second amendment and seeking to vacate his conviction. The circuit court agreed, and the case proceeded directly to the Illinois Supreme Court.