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Legislation

  • August 8, 2013 | Practice News
    ISBA Statehouse Review for the week of Aug. 8: Rewrite of Illinois' Marriage Act

    ISBA Director of Legislative Affairs Jim Covington reviews legislation in Springfield of interest to ISBA members. In this episode he provides an in-depth overview of House Bill 1452, the complete rewrite of Illinois' Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act. Much more information is available below the video.

    Rewrite of Illinois’ Marriage Act

    House Bill 1452 (Kelly Burke, D-Evergreen Park) is a complete rewrite of the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act that may be acted on in the fall veto session. This article is a summary of that bill.

    You may want to download a copy of this 186-page bill to review it. It may be found at the General Assembly’s website at www.ilga.gov/ . I find that the PDF version is easier to read and usually select that option for that reason.

    Terminology. Courts will no longer award custody or visitation under this bill. Rather, courts will allocate parental responsibilities to include parenting time. A parent may ask the court for permission to relocate with a minor child instead of removing the child. Interestingly, it continues to use the lawyerism dissolution of marriage. Have any of you ever heard this process referred to as anything other than a divorce?

    6 comments (Most recent August 27, 2015)
  • July 25, 2013 | Practice News
    ISBA Statehouse Review for the week of July 25

    ISBA Director of Legislative Affairs Jim Covington reviews legislation in Springfield of interest to ISBA members. In this episode he covers Fraudulent real estate documents (Public Act 98-99), Income withholding notice (Public Act 99-81) and Complete rewrite of the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act (House Bill 1452). More information on each bill is available below the video.

    Fraudulent real estate documents. Public Act 98-99 (Lang, D-Chicago; Silverstein, D-Chicago) allows a recorder of deeds to establish and use a “Fraud Referral and Review Process” for deeds and instruments that the recorder reasonably believes are fraudulent, unlawfully altered, or intended to unlawfully cloud or transfer the title of any real property. If the recorder reasonably believes the document is fraudulent, the recorder may refer the instrument to a county administrative law judge for review. If the ALJ finds by clear and convincing evidence that the document is fraudulent, the ALJ must issue a judgment to that effect with a notation that the fraudulent document may not affect the chain of title of the property in any way. Effective July 19, 2013.

    Income withholding notice. Public Act 99-81 (McGuire, D-Joliet; Mell; D-Chicago) deletes the current requirement that these notices must contain the date that withholding for current support terminates. Effective July 15, 2013.

  • July 11, 2013 | Practice News
    ISBA Statehouse Review for the week of July 11

    ISBA Director of Legislative Affairs Jim Covington reviews legislation in Springfield of interest to ISBA members. In this episode he covers Juvenile Court Act (Public Act 98-62), Raising the age of juvenile court (Public Act 98-61), Concealed carry (Public Act 98-63) and Real estate documents and thumbprints (Public Act 98-0029). More information on each bill is available below the video.

    Juvenile Court Act. Public Act 98-62 (Tracy, R-Quincy; Clayborne, D- E. St. Louis) amends the “continuance under supervision” section (Section 615) to track the procedure followed in adult criminal court. It does the following: (1) Leaves current law so that a case may be continued under supervision before a finding of delinquency with the approval of the state’s attorney. (2) Amends § 615 to allow the court to continue case under supervision after a finding of delinquency. It adds the same criteria from the supervision statute in the Criminal Code that the judge must consider before ordering supervision. Regardless of when this happens, current law is retained that prohibits a case from being continued under supervision for any forcible felony, a Class X felony, and first-degree murder. Effective January 1, 2014.

  • June 19, 2013
    ISBA Statehouse Review for the week of June 17

    ISBA Director of Legislative Affairs Jim Covington reviews bills in Springfield of interest to ISBA members. In this episode he covers Juvenile Court Act (House Bill 3172), Raising the age of juvenile court (House Bill 2404), Business records (Senate Bill 1968), E-insurance card (Senate Bill 1775), Recorded interrogations (Senate Bill 1006), Concealed carry (House Bill 183), No more felony prostitution (Senate Bill 1872), Reporting of sex crimes (House Bill 804) and Drone surveillance (Senate Bill 1587). More information on each bill is available below the video.

  • June 13, 2013 | Practice News
    ISBA Statehouse Review for the week of June 12

    ISBA Director of Legislative Affairs Jim Covington reviews bills in Springfield of interest to ISBA members. In this episode he covers Privacy and the workplace (Senate Bill 2306), Revised Uniform Anatomical Gift Act (House Bill 2339), E-insurance card (Senate Bill 1775), Recorded interrogations (Senate Bill 1006) and Mortgage Foreclosure Article (Senate Bill 56). More information on each bill is available below the video

  • June 1, 2013 | Practice News
    Top 10 list of legal legislation sent to the governor

    By Jim Covington, ISBA Director of Legislative Affairs

    This is a quick and dirty summary of 10 bills that have been passed by both chambers that may be of interest to ISBA members. The General Assembly has 30 days from passage to transmit it to the Governor, and he then has 60 days to take action on them. Enjoy!

    (1) Tort cases and settlement problems.Senate Bill 1912 (Raoul, D-Chicago; Sims, D-Chicago) amends the Code of Civil Procedure to create an enforcement mechanism for cases in which the parties agree to settle, but the defendant won’t comply with the agreement. It is limited to cases seeking money damages involving personal injury, wrongful death, or tort action. It requires a settling defendant pay all sums due to the plaintiff within 30 days of tender of all applicable documents required under this new Section.

    It requires a “settling defendant” to tender a release to the plaintiff within 14 days of written confirmation of the settlement. If the law requires court approval of a settlement, the plaintiff must tender to the defendant a copy of the court order approving the settlement. If there is a known third-party right of recovery or subrogation interest, the plaintiff may protect the third-party’s right of recovery or subrogation interest by tendering to the defendant:

    2 comments (Most recent June 6, 2013)
  • May 29, 2013 | Practice News
    ISBA Statehouse Review for the week of May 29

    ISBA Director of Legislative Affairs Jim Covington reviews bills in Springfield of interest to ISBA members. In this episode he covers Common-Interest Community Association Act (House Bill 1773), Short-term guardians (Senate Bill 1565), Short-term guardians (Senate Bill 1565), Body attachments and child support (House Bill 2473), Supreme Court Special Purposes Fund (Senate Bill 1768), The Recreational Use of Land and Water Areas Act (Senate Bill 1042), Driving and cell phones (House Bill 1247) and UM coverage (Senate Bill 1898). More information on each bill is available below the video.

  • May 21, 2013 | Practice News
    ISBA Statehouse Review for the week of May 21

    ISBA Director of Legislative Affairs Jim Covington reviews bills in Springfield of interest to ISBA members. In this episode he covers Tort cases and settlement problems (Senate Bill 1912), Filing fee increase (House Bill 2327), Visitation (House Bill 2992), Fraudulent real estate documents (House Bill 2832), Access to Justice Act (House Bill 3111), Collection procedures (Senate Bill 1044), UM coverage (Senate Bill 1898) and FOIA (House Bill 2747). More information on each bill is available below the video.

    Tort cases and settlement problems. Senate Bill 1912 (Raoul, D-Chicago; Sims, D-Chicago) amends the Code of Civil Procedure to create an enforcement mechanism for cases that settle but the defendant won’t comply with the settlement. It is limited to cases seeking money damages involving personal injury, wrongful death, or tort action. It requires a settling defendant pay all sums due to the plaintiff within 21 days of tender of all applicable documents required under this new Section.

  • May 14, 2013 | Practice News
    ISBA Statehouse Review for the week of May 14

    ISBA Director of Legislative Affairs Jim Covington reviews bills in Springfield of interest to ISBA members. In this episode he covers Body attachments and child support (House Bill 2473), Juvenile Court Act (House Bill 3172), Right to Privacy in the Workplace Act (Senate Bill 2306), Medical cannabis (House Bill 1), Juvenile court jurisdiction (House Bill 2404) and Real estate documents and thumbprints (House Bill 2269). More information on each bill is available below the video.

  • April 30, 2013 | Practice News
    ISBA Statehouse Review for the week of April 29

    ISBA Director of Legislative Affairs Jim Covington reviews bills in Springfield of interest to ISBA members. In this episode he covers Collaborative law for family law cases (Senate Bill 31), Collection changes (Senate Bill 1044), Access to Justice Act (House Bill 3111), Supreme Court Special Purposes Fund (Senate Bill 1768) and Sentencing hearings (Senate Bill 1528). More information on each bill is available below the video.

    Collaborative law for family law cases. Senate Bill 31 (Noland, D-Elgin) codifies by statute the Uniform Law Commission’s proposed alternative dispute resolution for family law cases that is now being done by private agreement between litigants. It includes a variety of process requirements such as treatment of settlement communications as confidential, establishment of an evidentiary privilege for settlement discussions, lawyer disqualification if the process fails, and informal discovery procedures. Held in Senate Judiciary Committee.