"Veterans Court" and "Military Legal Rights" aired on Illinois Law in May and June. Appearing on these programs were moderator Nancy McKenna and panelists Jason Vail, Frand Grenard, Mark Kammerer and the Hon. Lawrence Flood."Veterans Court" "Military Legal Rights"

ISBA Director of Legislative Affairs Jim Covington reviews bills in Springfield of interest to ISBA members. This week he covers House Bill 5434 (Post-judgement collection of debts), House Bill 3972 (Cell phones and driving), House Bill 3636 (Mechanics' Lien Act), House Bill 5823 (Health Care Services Lien Act). More information on each bill is available below the video.

The General Assembly is grappling with a $2.7 billion Medicaid funding gap in the as of yet unpublished "SMART" bill. One of the pieces in it may be a reversal of the Medicaid eligibility rules in the compromise last fall between the Department of Healthcare and Family Services' and the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules. An excellent and comprehensive summary of that compromise may be found here in the January 2012 Illinois Bar Journal (by Diana Law and William Siebers). Some of these changes may include the following: (1) A home held in a trust, even an individual’s personal revocable living trust, shall no longer be considered homestead property. (2) People over the age of 65 can no longer participate in a federally created OBRA Pooled Trust. (3) A healthy spouse still living at home will receive only the minimum resource allowance instead of the maximum allowance as previously approved by JCAR. Whatever action the General Assembly may take on this issue will occur in the next ten days, and we'll try to keep you informed to the extent we can.

ISBA President John G. Locallo (right) and ISBA Board member Gina Arquilla DeBoni (second from right), both alumni of Chicago-Kent College of Law, participated in the hooding ceremony during the school's 2012 Commencement ceremony on Sunday, May 13, at the UIC Forum in Chicago. President Locallo hooded his nephew and DeBoni hooded her brother.  Keynote speakers included (from left) Laurel G. Bellows, president-elect of the American Bar Association, and Her Royal Highness Princess Bajrakitiyabha Mahidol of Thailand.