Practice News

The Illinois Supreme Court today ruled that imprisoned ex-Gov. George Ryan should not receive any of his state pension because of his conviction on corruption charges. Here's the Court's summary opinion: No. 108184     Ryan v. Board of Trustees Appellate citation: 388 Ill. App. 3d 161. JUSTICE THOMAS delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion. Chief Justice Fitzgerald and Justices Freeman, Kilbride, Garman, and Karmeier concurred in the judgment and opinion. Justice Burke dissented, with opinion. In 2006, former Governor George H. Ryan was convicted of multiple federal felonies committed, between 1990 and 2002, as Secretary of State and as Governor. After his convictions, the Illinois State Retirement System notified him that his pension benefits from the General Assembly Retirement System were being statutorily suspended. Ryan had been a member of this system since 1972, when he joined the General Assembly, and continued in it through his holding of the offices of Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of State and Governor. However, his service in the General Assembly and as Lieutenant Governor did not give rise to any felony convictions and, Ryan asserted, he was entitled to benefits based on those earlier years of service. The administrative termination of benefits was upheld by the circuit court of Cook County, but the appellate court reversed in February 2009. In this decision, the Illinois Supreme Court held that Ryan had forfeited all of the benefits he earned from the General Assembly Retirement System, regardless of the fact that he had not been convicted of any felonies in connection with his years in the General Assembly or as Lieutenant Governor.

A recent first district case, Glass v. Dot Transportation, makes ruling on forum non motions easier by drawing some bright lines to guide the decision, report Judge Dan Gillespie and law student intern Matthew Friedlander in the latest issue of Trial Briefs. First, they write, Glass makes clear that "filing suit in the county of plaintiff’s residence should rarely be disturbed [when that county] bears a substantial relation to the litigation."  And the case also "firmly reinforces the notion that plaintiff’s choice of forum will almost never be disturbed if he or she chooses to bring suit in the county where the cause of action arose." Read their analysis here. Subscribe to Trial Briefs by joining the ISBA Civil Practice Section here.

Asked and Answered By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC Q. I do a good job of collecting initial retainers before doing work for my family law and criminal clients. But then I fall behind on retainer replenishments. Do you have any thoughts or ideas? A. This is a common problem I hear from clients in all practice areas. Here are a few suggestions:

• Try to collect a larger retainer initially.
• Actively push the use of credit card.
• If it is capable, set your time and billing system to alert you when you are at say 85%-90% of time used. Some systems will alert you when entering a time sheet after this level has been reached.
• Have someone assigned to review your Work in Process Report daily to identify any client reaching the 85%-90% level and notify you accordingly.
• If more work is to be done insure that the client is promptly billed for additional retainer before work reaches the 100% mark.
• Consider billing the client electronically if this is a method that works for the client.
• Postpone work until an additional retainer is received. If this course is chosen insure that this does not violate any ethical guidelines or responsibilities.
• The key here is assigning someone the daily responsibility of monitoring retainers, having a good time and billing system, and using the management reports from the system to stay on top of retainer usage.

John W.

Fastcase always provides static urls** for search results (and cases).  That means you can save search results as bookmarks or send them to other Fastcase users.  Just follow these simple steps to send your search results to another Fastcase user:

1. Run a search.
2. When you are on the results screen, copy and paste the url into an e-mail and send to the desired recipient.
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