Melinda Bentley, ISBA First Assistant Counsel & Assistant Director of Legislative Affairs, reviews three bills of significance signed by Gov. Quinn in the last week. She takes a look at Transfer on Death Instrument (PA 97-555), FOIA and "Recurrent Requesters" (PA 97-579) and Maintenance and Life Insurance (PA 97-608).
Practice News
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September 1, 2011 |
Practice News
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September 1, 2011 |
Practice News
A new law in effect limits the number of petitions for judicial candidates. Public Act 97-81 states as follows:
“A candidate in a judicial election may file petitions for nomination for only one vacancy in a subcircuit and only one vacancy in a circuit in any one filing period, and if petitions for nomination have been filed for the same person for 2 or more vacancies in the same circuit or subcircuit in the same filing period, his or her name shall be certified only for the first vacancy for which the petitions for nomination were filed.”
The State Board of Elections will accept for filing and process only one petition for a circuit vacancy and/or only one petition for a subcircuit vacancy in any filing period. PA 97-81 did not change existing law regarding candidates filing for other multiple incompatible offices.
Please refer to the judicial candidate filing and multiple office filing information in the State Board of Elections’ 2012 Candidate’s Guide (www.elections.il.gov) for further guidance. The 2012 Candidate’s Guide contains important information as to these topics and the State Board of Elections’ policies on judicial filings. The State Board of Elections’ policy on judicial filings can be seen here. -
September 1, 2011 |
Practice News
By Peter LaSorsa
Months ago I wrote an article in this publication about the new Google algorithm called Panda. Google has a webpage devoted to questions about Panda and how the average person can tweak their website content to allow for better rankings. The Google article is located here. Below are a few of the more important things to consider for improving your rankings but I would suggest reading the Google article and coming up with a more robust website strategy based on the tips in the article.
Here is a list of the top five questions the algorithm asks (chosen from my own personal preference).
1 comment (Most recent September 1, 2011) -
August 31, 2011 |
Practice News
What happens in 2013, when the federal estate tax exclusion goes back to $1 million if Congress does nothing? What are the implications of the decoupling of Illinois' estate tax from the federal exclusion, so that any taxable estate over $2 million generates Illinois estate tax?
Steven E. Siebers's article in the September Illinois Bar Journal explores these and other questions and helps you advise estate-planning clients, especially married couples, in these uncertain times.
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August 31, 2011 |
Practice News
Asked and Answered
By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC
Q. We are a five attorney firm in Detroit. Our firm does exclusively elder law and estate planning and most of our fees are based upon flat fees. Business has been steady and solid in spite of the recession. In an effort to improve profitability we are considering raising our fees but are concerned about adverse effects that it may have upon our competitiveness. We are already at the high end of the fee scale. Do you have any thoughts?
A. Raising fees is one approach to improving profitability. Clients are starting to push back more and more concerning legal fees. If you are at the high end of the rate scale I suggest that before charging off and raising rates you step back and conduct a process review by using an approach similar to the following:
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August 29, 2011 |
Practice News
NOTICE
If your bank does not yet appear on the List of Financial Institutions Eligible to Hold Trust Accounts as of September 1, 2011, do not panic.
There are now more than 300 financial institutions included on the List of Financial Institutions Eligible to Hold Trust Accounts. To date, only one small bank has refused to be included on that list. However, a significant number of banks have not yet submitted an agreement to provide overdraft notification, which is a prerequisite to being included on the list.
The ARDC and the Lawyers Trust Fund of Illinois are working with banks and other financial institutions to make compliance with the new provisions of Rule 1.15 as easy as possible. Some banking institutions have informed the ARDC that they want to comply with the new trust account rules, cannot meet the deadline, but are hoping to accommodate depositors as soon after September 1, 2011 as is possible. We believe that most of the banks that have not yet submitted an agreement intend to do so, but require additional time do so. There is no immediate need to change banks.
If your bank does not yet appear on the List, there is no need to move your account to a different bank until you know, for a fact, that your bank does not intend to agree to Trust Account Overdraft Notification.
Please continue to monitor the ARDC website, as we receive new Trust Account Overdraft Notification Agreements every day.
Please note that, in light of the problems caused in the wake of Hurricane Irene, certain banks headquartered on the East Coast may not be in compliance with the Rule by the effective date.
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August 26, 2011 |
Practice News
Public Act 97-555 (Bradley, D-Marion; Wilhelmi, D-Joliet) creates the Illinois Residential Real Property Transfer on Death Instrument Act. It allows an owner of real estate to transfer residential property on his or her death. The definition of "residential property" is borrowed from the Disclosure Act and the Mortgage Foreclosure Act.
The act requires that the owner (1) sign in front of a notary and two credible witnesses and (2) have the same mental capacity to execute a TODI as is required to make a will. This new Act will take effect January 1, 2012.
You may review the text of this Act here.
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August 25, 2011 |
Practice News
The amended rule forbids non-interest bearing pooled accounts, imposes new recordkeeping requirements, and obliges banks to report IOLTA-account overdrafts. Read Helen Gunnarsson's summary of the changes in the September Illinois Bar Journal.
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August 24, 2011 |
Practice News
Asked and Answered
By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC
Q. I am the chair of our three person management committee. Our firm, now entering second generation, is a 17 attorney firm in Kansas City, Missouri. We represent businesses and other institutional clients. We have several of our founding partners in their 70s and as they phase back and slow down we are discovering that the younger generation of partners have not developed client development skills. What should we be doing to get more business? We are not sure we even know how?
A. Research conducted over the years by numerous research organizations has shown that on average it costs five times as much (dollars/time investment) to get new clients than it does to get more business from existing clients. It just makes good business sense to leverage existing relationships.
Institutional clients are reducing the number of law firms that they use. According to BTI Consulting Group, corporations in the Fortune 1000 list are using 20% fewer core law firms than they did a year earlier. As a result fewer firms will be getting work from these companies and they will likely be the firms that successfully cross-sell their practices.
Recommendation From a Fortune 500 Client
Recently I was doing a telephone interview with the general counsel of a Fortune 500 company for our law firm client and I asked him if there was an opportunity for the law firm to get additional work in a practice area in which the company had no experience with the law firm previously and if an opportunity existed what the firm needed to do to earn the business. Here is his response
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August 17, 2011 |
Practice News
When your case rests on the X-rays and you learn the X-rays were thrown away, that's not a good day. Loss or destruction of evidence -- "spoliation" (one of my favorite legal terms) -- can make it impossible to bring or defend a lawsuit.
One option when that happens is to sue for spoliation of evidence, a bona fide tort in its own right. Another is to seek sanctions against the offender(s), and that's the option Judge Barb Crowder explores in the latest Trial Briefs, newsletter of the ISBA Civil Practice and Procedure Section. "[K]nowing the potential and most frequently used sanctions will assist counsel in evaluating what steps to take" when evidence is lost or destroyed, she writes. Read her analysis.