It seems that every attorney appends boilerplate disclaimers — sometimes lengthy ones — at the bottom of emails. For many, it may be a standard footer the entire firm uses. For others, it might be something borrowed from another lawyer. Whatever the value of these disclaimers in general, many still contain some language that is not only unnecessary but inaccurate in its most familiar form — the IRS Circular 230 disclaimer.
Illinois Bar Journal
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March 8, 2018 |
Practice News
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March 1, 2018 |
Practice News
Late last year, President Trump signed the GOP's tax bill into law. While it has been lauded in some circles as a welcome tax break for American workers and businesses, changes to the tax code will make getting divorced more expensive for maintenance payors by removing a deduction in place since 1942.
Beginning on January 1, 2019, former spouses that pay maintenance will not be able to deduct the payments from their taxes. This change only applies to orders or settlements signed after January 1, 2019.
Under the new tax law, not only will maintenance payors be unable to deduct the payments from their taxes, payees will not have to report the money as income. This will change the calculations under Illinois's new maintenance statute, which are based on the gross incomes of both spouses.
2 comments (Most recent March 18, 2018) -
February 21, 2018 |
ISBA News
Chicagoan Jake Crabbs, a law clerk for the Circuit Court of Cook County, is winner of first place and $2,000 in the ISBA’s 2018 Lincoln Award Legal Writing Contest. His article, “Who Can Receive Service for a Corporate Defendant?,” appears in the February issue of the Illinois Bar Journal.
Second place winner is Daniel Ritter of Swanson, Martin & Bell, LLP in St. Louis, who wrote “Limiting Personal Jurisdiction: The Impact of Tyrrell, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Aspen American,” which also appears in the February IBJ. Daniel won $1,000.
Third place and $500 goes to John Zimmerman, Springfield, for “People v. Kent: The New Standard for Authenticating Social Media Evidence.
Thirty manuscripts were submitted in the 2018 contest, which was sponsored by the ISBA Young Lawyers Division and open to YLD members. Judges were Justice David K. Overstreet of the Illinois Appellate Court, Fifth District; Judge Diane M. Shelley of Circuit Court of Cook County; Isaac Colunga, a partner in Ice Miller LLP’s business litigation group in Chicago; Barbara Bell, who practices employment law and estate planning in Arlington Heights; and Kathy Sons of Kavanagh Grumley & Gorbold in Joliet.
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January 25, 2018 |
Practice News
Financial institutions, healthcare entities, and government agencies might top the list of targets for those who wish to hack into computer systems and steal money, personal data, or other information. But everyone - including those in the legal world - is vulnerable and should implement, and continuously upgrade, cybersecurity defenses.
"Security is no longer somebody else's problem. It's affecting pretty much everybody, regardless of industry," says Adrian Vargas, manager, security & privacy risk consulting at Crowe Horwath in Chicago, who appeared at a CLE program on the subject presented by the ISBA's Insurance Law Section.
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January 17, 2018 |
Practice News
As the January Illinois Bar Journal cover story makes clear, good referrals serve the interests of lawyers and clients alike. In her column in the January issue, ISBA assistant counsel Bailey Felts enumerates the key ethics rules you'll need to consult before heading down the referral road.
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January 10, 2018 |
Practice News
When people think about the jobs of public defenders, they may think about the immense workloads that some PDs take on. They may think about the risks of defending a dangerous individual - and losing.
One workplace hazard that most of us probably don't realize is that some inmates in Cook County Jail have been exposing themselves to, and sometimes masturbating in front of, female public defenders and correctional officers. The problem has led to six female public defenders filing an equal protection lawsuit late last year in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Female correctional officers filed a similar lawsuit.
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January 3, 2018 |
Practice News
Practicing law can be an exhausting profession. Long workdays make it difficult to maintain a good work-life balance. The daily stress of practicing can be tiring, too. Sometimes it's almost impossible to keep your eyes open in court.
When an attorney dozes off, it can be a problem. But what about the rare occasions when a judge falls asleep on the bench? The third district recently handled an appeal brought by convicted spree-killer Nicholas Sheley, centering on a judge who nodded off during the trial. People v. Sheley, 2017 IL App (3d) 140659.
The Sheley court held that a judge falling asleep during the proceedings does not constitute per se reversible error. The court reasoned that a judge falling asleep does not rise to the level of structural error - i.e., one that "renders a criminal trial fundamentally unfair or an unreliable means of determining guilt or innocence." Id. at ¶ 16.
Sheley was based on a criminal trial - the focus was on the defendant's rights first and the judge's conduct only as it relates to whether the defendant got a fair trial. But what should a lawyer or other observer do when a judge falls asleep on the bench? Find out in the January Illinois Bar Journal.
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December 21, 2017 |
Practice News
As lawyers increasingly focus their practices, a given attorney often isn't the best choice to handle a given case. Yet clients typically don't know where to turn, which means lawyers and their firms end up deciding which cases to accept and which to refer, and - when they send cases out - how to handle that referral.
Once done on the down-low, referrals have become a more above-board part of legal practice, says Warren Lupel, former special counsel in the litigation and dispute resolution practice at Much Shelist in Chicago. "There's nothing wrong with it, and it's even desirable in most instances," says Lupel, who appeared with Daniel Breen of Chicago's Breen Goril Law during a CLE presentation at the ISBA's Solo and Small Firm Practice Institute in October. "If you are not that specialist, and you know a specialist, the client is going to get a better deal if you refer."
Whether and when to refer is a case-by-case judgment based on one's confidence level in handling a particular matter, Lupel says. "You don't have to be the best lawyer in the country or the county to keep the file," he says. "But if you're a real estate lawyer, and you get a medical malpractice case, that decision should be easy."
Other judgments are trickier, he says. "You may handle small personal injury cases, and this is a big one. Maybe you don't refer it."
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December 13, 2017 |
Practice News
Illinois has become a center of biometric privacy litigation. The Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act is the only one in the nation that allows private parties to sue and has a fee-shifting provision allowing plaintiffs to recover attorney fees.
And biometric privacy lawsuits are in the news - there has been a spike in litigation against employers over fingerprints and other biometric data. Biometric data is a measurement or copy of a unique physical characteristic of an individual. It can be a fingerprint, retina or iris scan, voiceprints, hand scans, or facial geometry.
In March 2016, Google faced a class-action lawsuit alleging violations of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (see "Class action suit alleges Google is violating Illinoisans' 'biometric' privacy," May 2016 LawPulse, at http://bit.ly/2zE4FRQ). As of November 11, 2017, the case is still in the discovery phase.
Most new lawsuits in Illinois are based on employers and retail businesses that allegedly fail to obtain written authorization before collecting fingerprint scans ("Spike in IL lawsuits vs employers over fingerprints, other biometric data may be just the beginning," Cook County Record, at http://bit.ly/2jqsTc0).
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December 5, 2017 |
Practice News
In a veto session conducted under the shadow of sexual harassment allegations by female lobbyists and others, the Illinois General Assembly overrode Governor Rauner's vetoes of many bills. Among the new laws:
Illinois Student Loan Servicing Rights Act. Legislators overrode the veto of Senate Bill 1351, which was championed by Attorney General Lisa Madigan. Also known as the Illinois Student Loan Servicing Rights Act, the Act introduces licensing requirements for servicing student loans in Illinois.
It also establishes a "Student Loan Bill of Rights," which prohibits certain servicing practices, imposing various requirements upon student loan servicers. The Act allows the Attorney General to enforce violations under the Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act.
Criminal justice reform. The General Assembly made more strides towards criminal justice reform during the veto session. In particular, HB 184 has been amended to reduce some burdens placed on parolees and to give courts more latitude in determining sentencing.
Unclaimed Life Insurance Benefit Act. The legislature overrode Governor Rauner's amendatory veto of SB 302, which amends the Unclaimed Life Insurance Benefit Act. The bill expanded the Act's scope to include lapsed and terminated life insurance policies. It also requires insurers to compare policies, annuity contracts, and retained asset files to the full Death Master File to determine whether there are unclaimed benefits.