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Hosting a business dinner is a great way to make a good impression and build rapport with clients. Thinking through the details in advance will go a long way toward a good evening and a good impression of the host – you. In September’s Illinois Bar Journal, Karen Erger, vice president at Lockton Companies, breaks down do’s and don’ts of hosting a business dinner.
A boy was injured in November 2008 after joy riding on top of an apartment elevator in Chicago. His mother sued for negligence on his behalf and also sought to recover medical expenses resulting from the injury. In September’s Illinois Bar Journal, Cook County Circuit Court Judge Janet Adams Brosnahan examines the case, which made it all the way to the Illinois Supreme Court, and explores the recovery of a minor’s injuries and the Illinois Health Care Services Lien Act. For example, does a health care services lien attach to a minor’s recovery in a personal injury action? Before the Illinois Supreme Court issued its opinion in the elevator case, the direction from the lower courts was anything but straightforward.
Globalization, ease of travel, emerging markets, and greater mobility make it easier for people to work, live, marry, and establish homes in different parts of the world. When a marriage dissolves between spouses from different countries or when a couple resides in a foreign country, competing foreign jurisdictions can add complexity to an already messy situation, especially in child custody matters. The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of Child Abduction, a multilateral treaty currently ratified by 93 countries as of March 2016, provides an expeditious protocol for the return of a child unilaterally removed by a parent from one member country to another.
There are few things litigators and judges dread more than a protracted discovery dispute. Given the angst discovery misconduct provokes, siccing the Illinois Supreme Court Rules on a culprit is understandable. But a measured response may be more prudent. Penalizing bad behavior with a default judgment is rarely necessary, even as a response to perjury or defiance of court orders.
In September’s Illinois Bar Journal, appellate litigator Christopher Keleher examines discovery sanctions available for plaintiffs and defendants under Illinois Supreme Court Rule 219(c). There are good reasons the courts use default judgments against defendants and dismissals with prejudice against plaintiffs sparingly.
You've just renewed your ISBA membership for the new bar year—or are about to. Either way, it’s time to consider all the benefits that come with ISBA membership, especially since the association has launched several new and improved benefits during the past few years and as recently as this summer.
For ISBA members, this means access to an ever-increasing number of resources that pay for themselves several times over. Among benefits that recently have been enhanced: robust online peer-discussion communities; checklists and best practices that will help you manage your firm; in-person, online, and on-demand continuing legal education; federal and state caselaw research guided by artificial intelligence; a fully automated document assembly system tailored to Illinois law; a robust fee-sharing lawyer referral directory; and a marketplace full of professional discounts.
Because most solos and small firms may not need a full-time bookkeeper, they often end up either trying to do the work themselves or having a spouse or partner come in “a few days a week” to do the work. With this approach, no one is consistently and directly responsible for ensuring that the finances are in order, regardless of how “simple” the firm thinks they are.
The August Illinois Bar Journal Practice HQ column summarizes all the financial areas a proper bookkeeping routine covers and discusses the benefits of outsourcing this role. Whether outsourcing is a viable option, consider at least a quick audit of your own bookkeeping routine and the time you devote to it. A thorough, orderly bookkeeping process may help minimize expenses, increase your efficiency, and maximize your bottom line.
Flawed witness testimony is as old as the notion of justice itself. A witness may have unquestionable integrity, but his memories and perspectives may be incomplete or incorrect. In his August Illinois Bar Journal column, retired circuit court judge Ron Spears examines Abraham Lincoln’s famous almanac trial for the lessons it reveals about flawed witnesses. Spears also discusses how discoveries in neuroscience are adding to our understanding of human memory and eyewitness identification.
Attorneys defending a village against a sidewalk slip-and-fall case are caught off guard when the plaintiff produces images from Google Map’s Street View allegedly showing the sidewalk had been in poor condition for years prior to the plaintiff’s fall. If the court accepts the images, the plaintiff has a much stronger case that the village had constructive notice and plenty of time to make the repairs before the plaintiff fell. But do the images actually prove anything at all?
Did you know that in the early days of Illinois statehood, African Americans who wanted to reside in Illinois had to pay the local county clerk $1,000 just for the possibility that they may not be able to support themselves? African Americans also had to carry paperwork proving they were not runaway slaves. Even though technically “free,” they could be manipulated into indentured servitude for life. Illinois became a main thoroughfare of the Underground Railroad anyway and, after the Civil War, African Americans flocked to the new state, where many of its harshest anti-African American laws were sporadically enforced.
The Illinois Supreme Court interprets its supervisory authority broadly and holds that it is “unlimited in extent and hampered by no specific rules or means for its exercise.” Yet, historically, the court has used its supervisory powers only regarding issues brought to the court’s attention in petitions for leave to appeal (“PLAs”) where the court can order relief without full briefing, oral argument, or issuance of an opinion.
But recently, the court has been willing to exercise its supervisory power outside of the traditional context of PLAs. Examples include removing a judge for alleged judicial bias and misconduct, reinstating a summary judgment order vacated by the trial court on an improper basis, and ordering the appellate court to vacate an injunction.