The Illinois Supreme Court announced the filing of lawyer disciplinary orders on January 17, 2024. Sanctions were imposed because the lawyers engaged in professional misconduct by violating state ethics law.

The Illinois Supreme Court has announced today the creation of the Pretrial Release Appeals Task Force (Task Force). As a result of the implementation of the Pretrial Fairness Act in September 2023, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of appeals from pretrial release decisions by the circuit courts. The Task Force will convene to thoroughly review pretrial release appeals and their impact on the caseloads in each of the five districts of the Illinois Appellate Court.

 In the fourth of five installments of his series on trial advocacy, former trial Judge and Appellate Justice Gino DiVito focuses on cross-examination. The cross-examining attorney’s role is to teach the jury while never giving it an opportunity to learn from an opposing witness, Judge DiVito writes. He suggests that, to avoid turning the jury against you, carefully set up the witness during cross-examination with leading and closed questions, and questions for which you know the answers. And never provide a witness you are cross-examining with an open-ended question.

DATE CHANGE! Due to the below zero temperatures anticipated for Jan. 16, the first Mentoring Circles Meetup will be rescheduled for the safety of all participants. Please let us know if you will be able to attend our new meetup date on Monday, Jan. 29, 2024.