A great question. And the answer is...it depends. (We're lawyers, right?)
But I found an IBJ article by Anton Mikel from 2004 that describes in detail which kinds of files have to be kept for how long -- to the extent that's determinable -- and who owns the contents of a client's file (is it the client or the lawyer?).
The article is here. And I found it listed among many promising entries on the "File Retention and Management" page of ISBA's Practice Resource Center. The Center is a practice resource in itself, a place "where we've assembled articles, ethics opinions, and other tools to help inform your decisions about practice-related issues." Check it out if you haven't already. I'll point to it from time to time to remind you it's there.
Practice News
-
January 5, 2010 |
Practice News
-
January 5, 2010 |
Practice News
Adam Liptak had a nice article in today’s New York Times discussing the American Law Institute’s abandoning any further recommendations on the death penalty. At http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/05/us/05bar.html?ref=us I like the contrast he drew with these two paragraphs: “Instead, the institute voted in October to disavow the structure it had created ‘in light of the current intractable institutional and structural obstacles to ensuring a minimally adequate system for administering capital punishment.’ That last sentence contains some pretty dense lawyer talk, but it can be untangled. What the institute was saying is that the capital justice system in the United States is irretrievably broken.”
-
January 5, 2010 |
Practice News
Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., has released its 35th annual list of words that should be banished. If you got time, this is an amusing tradition that started at a 1975 New Year’s Eve party of LSSU employees and friends. (Sounds like my kind of party.) You may find the list of words that are banished at http://www.lssu.edu/whats_new/articles.php?articleid=1905.
-
January 5, 2010 |
Practice News
Next time you find yourself with a list of cases you need to print, try using Fastcase to pull and print them as one document. Here's how: 1. From your homepage, click "Advanced Caselaw Search." Then, click the circle next to "Citation Lookup." 2. Enter citations for up to 20 cases you'd like to print - separating the citations with commas. Click "Search." 3. Click the small printer with a "plus sign" to the left of each result; each "plus sign" will become a "minus sign" - this means that the cases are now in your print queue. 4. Open the Fastcase "Print" dropdown menu. Click "View Print Queue" and to see a list of all the cases to be printed. 5. Select a preferred format for printing: Microsoft Word, Adobe Acrobat PDF, and Rich Text Form are available. 6. Click Print/Save and your computer will ask if you want to open the document. Click "Open" or "OK." Your cases will open as one document with page breaks between cases. Print as you would print any other document. Questions? Call 1-866-773-2782 (7AM-7PM Central) or email: support@fastcase.com.
-
January 4, 2010 |
Practice News
So, do judges in criminal cases have to allow lawyers to question prospective jurors or don't they? After the Illinois Supreme Court's ruling last September in People v. Garstecki, trial judges at least can't arbitrarily bar lawyer questioning, Pat Kinnally writes. They can only do so if the complexity of the case and other factors warrant it. Pat explains in the latest ISBA Trial Briefs.
-
December 30, 2009 |
Practice News
Blount v. Stroud is the subject of at least three recent commentaries, one of which focuses on the Illinois Supreme Court ruling in the 2009 case, the other two on the appellate court ruling that upheld the jury's punitive-damages award. In the latest ISBA Labor and Employment Law newsletter, Mike Lied writes about the supreme court opinion, which established that common-law tort and federal anti-discrimination claims aren't preempted by the Illinois Human Rights Act. And Megan A. Drefchinski wrote in the same newsletter about the first district ruling upholding the hefty ($2.8 million) punitive-damages award. Steven R. Merican also focuses on the punitive-damages aspect in a post to his Illinois Appellate Lawyer blog. According to Merican, the case stands for the proposition that "to get a reversal, an appellant must show by a manifest weight of the evidence that a punitive damages verdict was the result of passion, partiality, or corruption."
-
December 30, 2009 |
Practice News
I was reviewing my notes from Stephen King’s On Writing that I wanted to share with you. I recently read On Writing and found that I liked King and that he really cares about his craft. (Not that anyone who sells millions of books needs my approval.) Some random advice from On Writing that might be helpful to you. (You can buy this book new for under $10.) “I’m convinced that fear is at the root of most bad writing.” “Timid writers like the passive voice because it is safe. They also think it sounds authoritative.” Hmm… why write, “I have a dream” when you can write, “A dream was had by me”? “I believe that the road to hell is paved with adverbs.” His analogy is that adverbs are like dandelions—a few are nice but not an entire field of them.
-
December 30, 2009 |
Practice News
Asked and Answered By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC
-
December 29, 2009 |
Practice News
"Like you, I’ve been hearing about RSS feeds and seeing the little RSS icon (looks kind of like a satellite signal) for several years but never took the time figure out exactly what they are or what they can do," Trent Bush writes in the latest ISBA Standing Committee on Legal Technology newsletter. "However, I recently dove in and have added several feeds to my MyYahoo homepage and I am now a huge fan. In this article, I’ll give you an introduction to RSS feeds and explain how easy they are to use." Read more.
-
December 29, 2009 |
Practice News
[caption id="attachment_6908" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Terrence J. Lavin"][/caption] The Illinois Supreme Court has named ISBA Past President Terrence J. Lavin to fill an interim vacancy on the 1st District Appellate Court, effective Feb. 1, 2010. The vacancy will be created by the retirement of Justice John P. Tully on Dec. 31. "I'm obviously delighted," Lavin said. "It's something I've always wanted and never thought would present itself." Lavin earned a degree in journalism in 1977 from the University of Illinois and his law degree from Chicago-Kent College of Law in 1983. He clerked at Corboy & Demetrio during law school and started his own practice in 1992 - which he has with some regret begun to wind down. "I just had a meeting with a client and had to tell her she'll need to find another lawyer," he said. "I will miss not being there to fight for her and for the others I represent." Lavin's appointment runs through Dec. 3, 2012. "I look forward to having the opportunity to learn more about the law," Lavin said. "We practice in such specialized areas and I have practiced in such a specialized area. This will keep the brain exercised. I look forward to putting on the robe and going to the other side of the bench."
