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The Illinois Supreme Court’s Volunteer Pro Bono Program for Criminal Appeals currently has cases available in all five appellate districts that have complete records available and are ready to be briefed.
Attorneys who meet eligibility criteria can submit a volunteer application to the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts.
After the U.S. Supreme Court ordered that Miller be applied retroactively regarding de facto life sentences for juveniles, the Illinois Supreme Court in People v. Buffer created a bright-line rule: Any sentence of incarceration greater than 40 years is a de facto life sentence and must comply with Miller and its progeny. This caused a stir in Illinois trial courts, as myriad postconviction petitions were filed by juvenile offenders who were serving terms longer than 40 years and seeking a resentencing under the new rules stemming from Miller. In Joseph T. Moran’s March 2021 Illinois Bar Journal article, “Juvenile Life Sentences After Miller,” Moran notes that practitioners can draw from a substantial amount of caselaw to effectively identify when resentencings are required to address a juvenile offender’s youth and attendant circumstances during a sentencing or Miller resentencing hearing.
Our panel of leading appellate attorneys reviews the two Illinois Supreme Court opinions handed down Thursday, March 18. In People v. Burge, the Supreme Court denied a defendant’s motion to withdraw her guilty plea after she asserted that it was involuntary because she was unaware she would lose her job if she pled guilty. In Ciolino v. Simon, a defamation case that arose from a documentary about an exoneration scandal, the Supreme Court considered whether the one-year window when the suit could be filed opened when the movie premiered at a publicized film festival.
The Illinois Supreme Court announced the filing of lawyer disciplinary orders on March 16, 2021. Sanctions were imposed because the lawyers engaged in professional misconduct by violating state ethics law.
In his March 2021 Illinois Bar Journal article, “A Promise of Clear Title,” Philip J. Vacco asks whether the term “warranty deed” must be interpreted as imposing upon the seller an obligation to provide a general warranty deed. In the author’s opinion, the answer is “no.” If we give the language used in these contracts its plain meaning, Vacco writes, the seller is obligated to provide a warranty deed but, without further specification, the seller is left to his own accord as to what type of warranty deed he will deliver to meet this obligation. Given these options, Vacco asks why anyone would allow their client to provide a general warranty deed when the use of a special warranty deed meets the seller’s contract obligations.
The Illinois Supreme Court issued one opinion on Thursday, March 11. In Jones v. Municipal Officers Electoral Board, the court examined the decision of the Municipal Officers Electoral Board for the City of Calumet City that disqualified the plaintiff as a candidate for mayor of Calumet City because he filed his nomination papers 13 days after a referendum passed that disqualified him.
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois is seeking an experienced attorney to serve in the civil division. The applicant selected will represent the U.S. government as an AUSA in a wide range of defensive and affirmative civil litigation on behalf of the United States, its agencies, and its employees.
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois is seeking an assistant U.S. attorney in its criminal division.
AUSAs assigned to the criminal division handle a wide variety of cases, including drug trafficking and money-laundering crimes, terrorism-related offenses, firearms, and other violent crime offenses, cyber-crimes, environmental crimes, and a variety of fraud, public corruption, and white-collar offenses.
by Judith Miller, Esq.
Americans are fairly comfortable with wealth inequality. At least, that is one conclusion that can be drawn from the 2011 research findings of Dr. Michael Norton, Harvard Business School.1
The Illinois Supreme Court announced today two amendments to Order M.R. 30370 regarding remote proceedings in adult criminal cases. The Illinois Judicial Conference’s Court Operations During COVID-19 Task Force (Task Force) recommended these amendments to avoid any ambiguity and to simplify logistical issues regarding the waivers.