Practice News

Employers don't usually think about being prosecuted for violations of the Occupational Safety and Health Act, Mike Lied observes in the latest issue of ISBA's Labor and Employment Law newsletter. "However, Section 17(e) of the Act [criminally] punishes any employer convicted of willfully violating any standard, rule, order or regulation prescribed pursuant to the Act, if that violation caused an employee’s death," he writes. He goes on to describe an Illinois-based case in which the "employer escaped, for the time being, liability for a willful violation, based on faulty jury instructions." Read more.

Can lawyers really go straight from law school into solo practice? Helen Gunnarsson's cover story for the September IBJ contains a wealth of cautionary, inspirational, no-holds-barred advice from ISBA members for would-be solos. Take this quote from veteran Champaign solo Tom Bruno, who hung out his shingle before the ink dried on his diploma. "Take anything that walks in the door. You'll figure it out. "You won't get hired on anything overly important, and the kinds of folks who hire someone like you have usually got problems that you can handle," he continued. "I don't think you'll have to worry too much about categories of cases you won't take. They won't find you." Fascinating stuff, and there's lots more where that came from.

Chief Justice Thomas R. Fitzgerald of the Illinois Supreme Court has released the contents of a letter he wrote to Gov. Pat Quinn urging him to restore severe budget cuts to probation services, saying the current level of state funding is “dangerously inadequate.” The Chief Justice wrote the letter on September 1 to “respectfully request your restoration of funding to a level that allows probation to do its critical work for Illinois’ citizens and communities.” In the budget approved by the Governor, funds appropriated to the Supreme Court for community-based probation programs in 2010 totaled $36,485,500 – a 44 percent reduction from the 2009 allocation. The reduced 2010 allocation follows a 2005 budget cut of 13 percent for probation services, which despite repeated requests by the Supreme Court, has never been restored. “The practical effect of diminishing appropriations is that probation officers must be laid off, criminal offenders sentenced to probation receive inadequate or no supervision, and the public safety is thereby  severely compromised,” the Chief Justice wrote. The Chief Justice said he is aware that the state’s economic difficulties are more serious than any he has known in his 30 years of public service and is sensitive to the heavy burden the Governor bears in distributing limited fiscal resources. “I make this request only after careful deliberation and out of the most grave concerns for the public safety of Illinois’ citizens,” the Chief Justice wrote.

Employers and insurers beware: effective November 21, a new federal statute with the acronym "GINA" forbids discrimination based on genetic information. Read Helen Gunnarsson's LawPulse item from the September IBJ, which describes the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act  and links to EEOC rules interpreting it.