Hon. Rita M. Novak, president of the Illinois Judges Association (IJA), will present the organization’s Distinguished Service Award to Judge Carole Kamin Bellows for her dedicated leadership to the bench, bar and local community on Thursday, March 28, at 3 p.m., at the Richard J. Daley Center, 50 W. Washington, Courtroom 1905, in Chicago.

The Distinguished Service Award is intended to recognize judges who have demonstrated exemplary service to citizens, bench, and bar as shown by devotion to the law, efforts to improve the legal and judicial communities, reputation for honor, integrity, legal knowledge and diligent service, and otherwise distinguishing him or herself as an Illinois judicial officer.

The Lake County Board of Review (BOR) approved a change in its rules regarding taxpayer representation during the appeal process to allow homeowners to continue to represent themselves, or be represented by an Illinois licensed attorney. The rule change was supported by the Illinois State Bar Association.

Thomas Cooprider, CIAO, Board of Review Chairman said, "The Board has reviewed this issue for many months, deliberated it in public meetings on multiple occasions, and heard testimony from all parties. The BOR changed its rules clarifying that individual taxpayers may represent themselves, or retain a licensed attorney to represent them before the Board."

Several members of the Illinois State Bar Association and students from The John Marshall Law School donned stovepipe hats and marched in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade along Columbus Drive near downtown Chicago on March 16. The group marched alongside the ISBA's mobile billboard, which features a photo of Lincoln the lawyer with a message that reads: “Illinois has a history of some pretty good lawyers. We’re out to keep it that way.”

The Supreme Court of Illinois has announced the filing of lawyer disciplinary orders entered on March 15, 2013 during the January Term of Court. Sanctions were imposed because the lawyers engaged in professional misconduct by violating state ethics law.

The attached list contains the name of each disciplined lawyer, the address at which the lawyer last practiced, and a brief summary of the misconduct that led to the sanction. The announcement of the orders may be reviewed at the Supreme Court of Illinois website: www.state.il.us/court. Unless otherwise noted, the mandate of discipline issued immediately.

Experienced attorneys working in the juvenile court arena can tell you that the terminology is different and the atmosphere unique – and that representing a delinquent minor or parent accused of abuse or neglect requires a learning curve, to say the least. Don’t miss this introductory program in Rockford on April 12th that more experienced practitioners wish had been available to them when they began practicing in juvenile court!

Dorothy Brown, Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County, announced Thursday a new mobile app designed to put a wealth of court-related information at the user’s fingertips. Called Court Clerk Mobile Connect, it offers a variety of features that users can access including options to search the court’s electronic docket for civil and traffic cases, search the court call roster, get updated fee schedules and locate and contact Cook County Court facilities.

The Court Clerk Mobile Connect app offers three types of case searches: electronic docket, traffic ticket and court call searches. The new app makes information available more quickly and easily, and gives the general public the ability to search cases by name or case number: from each individual faculty screen there is a Google map showing a location of that facility; it also list all court fee schedules. 

In addition, users will have the ability to save electronic docket searches to make it easier for future access. The mobile app is free and can be downloaded for use on an Android or iPhone, iPad I, II and II, and iPod touch.

Find out more at www.cookcountyclerkofcourt.org/?section=MobileApp

ISBA Director of Legislative Affairs Jim Covington reviews bills in Springfield of interest to ISBA members. In this episode he covers Visitation and babysitting (House Bill 2992), TODI tweaks (House Bill 169), Raising the age of juveniles (House Bill 2404), Illinois Anatomical Gift Act (House Bill 2339) and SOS administrative hearings (Senate Bill 924). More information on the bill is available below the video.

Late last year, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled in Karbin v. Karbin that a guardian can initiate a divorce case on behalf of a ward, overturning 26-year-old precedent in the process. "It was absurd that a guardian had standing to petition the court to withdraw life support from a ward but could not seek to dissolve a marriage because that decision was too personal to the incompetent ward," Margaret Benson wrote in the latest ISBA Elder Law newsletter. Benson, who is executive director of Chicago Volunteer Legal Services Foundation, discusses the case and its significance. Read her analysis.

ISBA President John E. Thies announces that the Lawyers Feeding Illinois campaign has surpassed its goal of raising 1 million meals for hungry Illinois families. President Thies would also like to thank the generous sponsors and everyone who donated campaign.

Asked and Answered

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

Q. I am a solo practitioner in Chicago. I've been offered by another solo to join him as a partner, and was wondering if you could suggest any articles or books I could look at to think about how to structure the partnership. We bill about the same number of hours, but his rate is 50% higher than mine ($300 vs. $200) and he has 20 years on me in age and experience.