The Bar News

Bar News Sections

Legislation

  • May 22, 2012 | Practice News
    Legal Services Corporation funding

    Earlier this month the House appropriations committee (and the full House of Representatives) passed a proposed budget that included $328 million for LSC funding, which already would be a $20 million cut from this year's already reduced level.

    During the floor debate about this budget, two LSC amendments were introduced, which, if they passed, would have further cut LSC funding. One amendment would have slashed LSC funding from $328 million to $200 million -- which would have been a further cut of $128 million to this year's LSC appropriation. This amendment was soundly defeated and by wider margins than similar amendments in previous years. Representatives Roskam, Hultgren, Manzullo, Schilling, Schock, and Walsh supported this amendment.

    Another amendment that was voted on that night that would have eliminated all funding for LSC. Representatives Manzullo, Schilling, Schock, and Walsh supported this amendment.

  • May 22, 2012 | Practice News
    Medicaid eligibility rules

    (Feigenholtz, D-Chicago; Steans, D-Chicago) is supposed to eliminate Illinois’ $2.7 billion Medicaid funding gap. Included in Senate Bill 2840 is a repeal of the compromise of the Medicaid eligibility rules negotiated last fall between the Department of Healthcare and Family Services and the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules.

    Some of these changes include the following: (1) A home transferred into a trust after the bill becomes law may not be considered homestead property. If the home was transferred into a trust before the bill becomes law, it prevents a person from being eligible for long-term care if the person’s equity interest in this homestead exceeds the minimum home equity as allowed under federal law. (2) People over the age of 65 can no longer participate in a federally created OBRA Pooled Trust unless the beneficiary is a ward of the county public guardian or the State guardian. (3) A healthy spouse still living at home will receive only the minimum resource allowance instead of the maximum allowance as previously approved by JCAR. (4) Abolishes spousal refusal entirely so that HFS is not limited to how much it can seek when pursing a support order against a community spouse.

    Senate Bill 2840 will be heard in House Executive Committee this afternoon. The bill has an immediate effective date and will therefore take effect when the Governor signs it. House Amendment No. 3 becomes the bill, and these provisions may be found starting on page 75.

  • May 18, 2012 | Practice News
    ISBA Statehouse Review for the week of May 17

    ISBA Director of Legislative Affairs Jim Covington reviews bills in Springfield of interest to ISBA members. This week he covers House Bill 5434 (Post-judgement collection of debts), House Bill 3972 (Cell phones and driving), House Bill 3636 (Mechanics' Lien Act), House Bill 5823 (Health Care Services Lien Act). More information on each bill is available below the video.

  • May 10, 2012 | Practice News
    ISBA Statehouse Review for the week of May 10

    ISBA Director of Legislative Affairs Jim Covington reviews bills in Springfield of interest to ISBA members. This week he covers Senate Bill 2894 (Probate fees), Senate Bill 2569 (Child support and dissipaation of assets), House Bill 4081 (One-party consent wiretapping), Senate Bill 3792 (Mechanics Lien Act) and Senate Bill 3823 (Sanctions for visitation violations). More information on each bill is available below the video.

  • May 8, 2012 | Practice News
    7th Circuit Instructs District Court to Issue a Preliminary Injunction on Illinois Eavesdropping Law in ACLU Case

    The 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Chicago has issued an order asking the district court to issue a preliminary injunction enjoining the Cook County State's Attorney from applying the Illinois eavesdropping statute against the ACLU and its employees or agents for openly recording law enforcement officers who are performing their official duties in public places. The court held that Illinois' eavesdropping law "likely violates" the First Amendment. The opinion is available here. The Illinois State Bar Association is opposed to the law and supports SB 1808 - which would allow a citizen to audio and video record police officers performing public duties in public places. More information on SB 1808 is below.

    The Facts on Illinois’ Eavesdropping Law: Support SB 1808 as amended by HA #1

    Q:  What is this bill trying to address?

    A:  Illinois eavesdropping law allows a citizen to video-record (film) a law enforcement officer doing public duty in a public place but makes it a Class 1 felony if the citizen audio-records the same public activity. Senate Bill 1808 strikes the right balance between the reasonable expectation of privacy and the First Amendment by allowing citizens to audio record law enforcement officers performing public duties in public places.

    Q:  What do Illinois’ courts have to say about the current eavesdropping law?

  • May 7, 2012 | Practice News
    ISBA opposition helps stall flawed victims' rights amendment

    The Springfield State Journal-Register is reporting that opposition from the Illinois State Bar Association has stalled progress of HJRCA 29. The victims' rights amendment appeared headed for a place on the November ballot after clearing the Illinois Senate 55-1. Opposition from ISBA, Illinois state’s attorneys and Illinois public defenders associations gave legislators cause for concern.

    A good state’s attorney will keep crime victims abreast of developments during trial, said Jim Covington, the bar association’s director of legislative affairs. But the amendment would have given victims and their lawyers more input in the courtroom.

    Under the amendment, victims would have:

    * The right to be heard at any post-arraignment court proceeding;

    * Access to relevant documents relating to the defendant;

    * Be considered if and when bail for the offender is being contemplated; and

    * Have the ability to back up those rights in courts that have jurisdiction on the case.

    Covington said it would be impractical to allow victims the right to be heard at any post-arraignment court proceeding.

    “It would undermine the presumption of innocence if you add a third — someone besides the state and the defendant, a victim or his or her lawyer — involved in the case from that point forward,” Covington said.

    Click here to read the full article

    Read Rep. Jim Sacia's (R-Freeport) explanation of why he voted against HJRCA 29

  • May 2, 2012 | Practice News
    ISBA backed eavesdropping bill passes unanimously out of committee

    Senate Bill 1808, which would allow citizens to audio and video record police performing their public duties in public places, passed out of the House Judiciary Committee unanimously this morning on a vote of 10-0. This bill differs from a previous effort (HB 3944) in that it mandates that recordings alleging wrongdoing by police to be referred to the state’s attorney for possible prosecution if the recordings are intentionally altered to misrepresent an event. SB 1808 is sponsored in the House by Rep. Elaine Nekritz, D-Des Plaines, and is supported by the Illinois State Bar Association.

    SB 1808 now moves to the full House of Representatives. Josh Sharp, director of government relations for the Illinois Press Association, urges newspaper publishers to call their legislators now and ask them to vote ‘yes’ on SB 1808. This bill would allow journalists to film police without consent during protests and similar events or to use videos that have been submitted by citizen journalists.

    SB 1808 is also supported by the Illinois Press Association, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Chicago Headline Club and others.

  • April 26, 2012 | Practice News
    ISBA Statehouse Review for the week of April 24

    ISBA Director of Legislative Affairs Jim Covington reviews bills in Springfield of interest to ISBA members. This week he covers HJRCA 29 (victims' rights), Senate Bill 2894 (Public guardians), Senate Bill 3792 (Mechanics Lien Act) and Senate Bill 3823 (Sanctions for visitation violations). More information on each bill is available below the video.

     

  • April 26, 2012 | ISBA News | Practice News
    ISBA position paper on House Joint Resolution for Constitutional Amendment No. 29

    VOTE “NO” on HJRCA 29
    Well-Intentioned but Flawed

    HJRCA 29 is a constitutional amendment that creates standing for victims to participate in criminal proceedings as a party before the defendant’s guilt is established.

    The Illinois State’s Attorneys’ Association and the Illinois State Bar Association oppose HJRCA 29. In its current form this proposal is unwise, unworkable, and unnecessary. We are concerned about its unintended consequences, such as court delays, longer incarceration awaiting trials, and wrongful convictions. HJRCA 29’s practical effect is that it will delay justice for victims by pitting prosecutors against victims instead of allowing them to be advocates for victims. That result isn’t helpful for victims or the public.

    It is unwise. A criminal proceeding is a truth-seeking process that promotes public safety by adjudicating guilt and punishing the guilty. The awesome power to prosecute and imprison is vested with the government—not private parties. This means that victims and defendants are not contestants who require equal standing; the victim’s liberty and property are not at risk. But authorizing a victim to participate as a party with all of the standing of a prosecutor and defendant but none of their responsibilities, roles, and risks is a recipe for disaster. It is a return to the days of private, not public, justice.

    It is unworkable. Illinois circuit courts annually process a staggering number of cases:

    3 comments (Most recent May 8, 2012)
  • April 25, 2012 | Practice News
    Three bills would modernize the Trusts and Trustees Act

    Three bills drafted in large part by members of the ISBA Trusts and Estates Section Council would amend Illinois trust laws to make them more responsive to modern practices and easier to comply with for everyone involved in the estate-planning process. Among other changes, the legislation would make nonjudicial trust modifications easier and limit the risk of liability for fiduciaries who handle specific trust-related tasks. Find out more in the May Illinois Bar Journal.