Practice News

The Senate and House have created special committees to review and recommend changes in Illinois' Workers' Compensation system before the 96th General Assembly adjourns on Jan. 12, 2011. The next hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, Dec. 8, at the Thompson Center in Chicago at 10:00 in Room 16-503. The Senate has posted some of the written testimony received by some of the groups that have appeared, which may be found here. The business community's recommendations include the following: (1) Require causation that the accident was the prevailing factor in causing the medical condition or disability. (2) Change the rules on wage-loss differential awards. (3) Change the medical fee schedule. (4) Allow employers to choose the treating physician. (5) Require use of the AMA guidelines for ratings of disability.

CRIMINAL

People v. Becker

By Kerry J. Bryson, Office of the State Appellate Defender Defendant, on trial for sexual offenses against his then 3-year-old daughter, sought to introduce the testimony of an expert witness concerning the credibility of hearsay statements made by the daughter. The trial court barred the expert testimony, and a divided appellate court reversed.

Asked and Answered By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC Q. I am the managing partner of a 14 attorney law firm located in Nashville, Tenn. We have 8 equity partners. The firm represents business and other institutional clients and handles transactional work as well as litigation. Each partner over the years has accumulated "partnership interest" percentages and these interests are used totally to determine annual compensation as well as ownership in the firm. The only numbers that matter in our firm are billable hours -- not dollars -- and billable hour reports are all that we have ever looked at when reviewing associate performance or partner contribution. We are now beginning to question the wisdom of this approach -- should be considering more than hours? A. Billable hours alone is a poor indicator of associate or partner performance and you should include more measures/metrics in the analysis. More and more law firms today realize that partner contribution and value goes beyond and involves much more than “billable hours” and their compensation systems incorporate other factors into the analysis. Billable hours is just one metric in the overall equation. Many law firms focus on various measures of revenue dollars - fees billed, fees collected, etc. The next question is what kind of fee dollars - working attorney, responsible (managing) attorney, or originating attorney. Fees collected by working attorney seems to be the primary focus of smaller law firms. Origination (attorney that brought in the client) attorney fees collected is often part of the mix as well. Very seldom do we see responsible attorney fees collected considered.

The Illinois Supreme Court has announced that Matthew G. Bertani received a majority of the votes cast by the circuit judges in the Twelfth Judicial Circuit and has been appointed to the office of associate judge. Mr. Bertani received his undergraduate degree in 1983 from Drake University and his Juris Doctor in 1988 from the University of Arizona. Mr. Bertani is currently affiliated with Sabuco, Beck, Hansen, Schrock & Bertani in Joliet, Illinois.