The Joint Midyear Meeting hosted by the Illinois State Bar Association and Illinois Judges Association kicked off Thursday afternoon with the Opening Reception at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers. Highlights on Friday include the sold out luncheon featuring U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and the Supreme Court Dinner featuring Illinois Supreme Court Justice Robert Thomas.

View the full schedule at www.isba.org/jointmeeting

View pictures from the Opening Reception at iln.isba.org/gallery/834/midyear-meeting-2014-opening-reception

The Illinois Supreme Court recently expanded its electronic filing standards to include e-filing in criminal and traffic cases. Before the amendments, which took effect September 16 but have not yet been implemented by the county courts, electronic filing was only available in civil cases. Ideally, expanding e-filing to criminal matters will increase efficiency in the courts while lowering costs.

Three changes to the electronic filing standards are particularly noteworthy. First, amended paragraph 9(f) provides that documents filed by pro se litigants will be reviewed for acceptance by the court before being rejected by the clerk's office for failure to comply with formatting requirements. Paragraph 9(f) does not specifically limit this requirement to criminal filings, and thus could benefit pro se litigants in civil matters.

Also, multiple traffic (or other) citations can be filed in one transaction under the amended rules. This batch file can be sent directly from the law enforcement agency that issued the citations. Coupled with the provision that exempts partner agencies (state's attorney, public defender, attorney general, and law enforcement) from paying filing or vendor fees, this change could result in significant cost savings. It also allows paper citations not to be filed with the clerk's office.

Eighteen extraordinary Illinois judges and lawyers who have practiced law for at least 50 years will be honored by the Profession of Leadership Foundation at a dinner on Tuesday, January 13, 2015 from 6 to 9 p.m. at the President Abraham Lincoln Hotel & Conference Center, 701 E. Adams St., in Springfield.

The Assembly meeting agenda has been posted at www.isba.org/leadership/assembly/minutes. This page is password protected and available only to ISBA members. The Assembly will next meet at 9 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 13 during the Joint Midyear Meeting at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers.

Asked and Answered

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

Q. I am the managing partner in a eight attorney firm in Nashville, Tennessee. We are exclusively a family law practice and while we charge a few clients on a flat fee basis - most clients are time billed. We ask for a $5000 security retainer up front. After the retainer is used we invoice clients for additional time spent on a monthly basis. We are having problems getting paid and are having to write off a large amount of accounts receivable. I would appreciate your thoughts.