Getting to the Illinois Supreme Court is a long shot. In any given year, the Supreme Court receives more than a thousand petitions for leave to appeal under Illinois Supreme Court Rule 315, notes Charles Insler in his May 2021 Illinois Bar Journal article, “Rule 317, Appeal as a Matter of Right.” From those thousand-plus petitions, the Court will allow leave to appeal in roughly 50 or 60 cases—about half of which are criminal and the other half civil. During the past five years, the odds of making it to the Supreme Court have ranged from one in 20 to one in 25. But what about Rule 317? The first part Rule 317 is clear and provides for automatic review in the Supreme Court when an appellate court has invalidated a state or federal statute. The second part of Rule 317, however, is less clear; but it provides an intriguing source for an appeal, as of right, to the Supreme Court, Insler explains.

Valued members of the ISBA:

I thank all of you for your continued support of ISBA in these challenging times. It is truly appreciated. I am pleased to announce that the ISBA will be providing members with a 15 percent dues credit for the coming 2021-22 bar year. This COVID-19 Dues Credit is available to any current, regular dues-paying member and will be reflected on the dues invoices that will be mailed this week. The ISBA is able to provide this credit as a result of programmatic savings due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the current bar year.

The Illinois Supreme Court Rules Committee will hear comments July 21, 2021, at a public hearing in Chicago on four proposals.

All the proposals, which must be approved by the Illinois Supreme Court before they could take effect, will be aired at a hearing before the Rules Committee at 10:30 a.m., Wednesday, July 21, 2021, in Room C-500 of the Michael A. Bilandic Building, 160 N. LaSalle St. in Chicago.

Our panel of leading appellate attorneys reviews the nine Illinois Supreme Court opinions handed down Thursday, May 20. Seven of the cases are civil and two are criminal.

The UIC John Marshall Law School will change its name to the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law after receiving approval from the University of Illinois Board of Trustees today.

With all required approvals and agreements obtained in accordance with university processes and contractual obligations with the Legacy Law School Corporation and the Foundation Legacy Corporation (the successor legal entities that owned and operated the law school, and fund-raised for the school, before it became a part of UIC), the name change will be effective July 1, 2021.

This is part two of a three-part video series on the Illinois Supreme Court’s remote access policy and e-filing developments, presented by the ISBA’s Standing Committee on Legal Technology.

Don’t miss this comprehensive overview of the Criminal Justice Reform Bill that goes into effect on July 1, 2021. Attorneys with all levels of practice experience who attend this online program will become better equipped to advise their clients on a number of changes to sentencing and criminal statutes. Sentencing credits within the Illinois Department of Corrections will also be discussed.

This online program will take place from 11 a.m. until noon on Thursday, June 3. 

The ISBA is working with WGN Radio to explore the possibility of creating a new weekly radio program featuring ISBA members.

The Illinois Supreme Court announced the filing of lawyer disciplinary orders on May 18, 2021. Sanctions were imposed because the lawyers engaged in professional misconduct by violating state ethics law.

In his May Illinois Bar Journal Article, “FOID Where Prohibited,” Jake Crabbs addresses the intersection of two trends of 2020: 1) a tremendous jump in gun ownership; and 2) the anecdotal rise of domestic violence during shelter-in-place conditions. These two trends intersect in the provisions of the Illinois Domestic Violence Act of 1986 and the Firearm Owners Identification (FOID) Card Act. Prosecutors, criminal defense attorneys, family law practitioners, and gun owners should all be aware of the ways these statutes interrelate and the constitutional issues that may arise whenever an order of protection is entered against a FOID cardholder. These concurrent trends may eventually lead to an increase in the total number of petitions for orders of protection against respondents who have FOID cards, Crabb writes, especially when circuit courts finally return to full capacity. This is not to suggest that FOID cardholders are more likely to commit domestic violence, per se; it is simply a plausible result of the two unrelated trends. And when it comes to orders of protection against FOID cardholders, Crabb argues, there is a significant—and constitutionally infirm—gap in the governing statutes.