Our panel of leading appellate attorneys review Friday's Illinois Supreme Court Civil opinions in Coleman v. East Joliet Fire Protection District and Klaine v. Southern Illinois Hospital Services.

Coleman v. East Joliet Fire Protection District

By Alyssa M. Reiter, Williams, Montgomery & John Ltd.

In this divisive case, the Supreme Court departed from stare decisis and “determined that the time has come to abandon the public duty rule and its special duty exception.”

The public duty rule provided that local governmental entities and their employees owe no duty of care to individual members of the general public to provide governmental services, such as police and fire protection.

The Court based its ruling on three considerations: (1) the jurisprudence regarding the public duty rule was “muddled and inconsistent”; (2) application of the public duty rule is incompatible with the legislature's grant of limited immunity in cases of willful and wanton misconduct; and (3) determining public policy is primarily a legislative function and, by enacting statutory immunities, the legislature had rendered the public duty rule obsolete.

The special concurrence by Justice Freeman, joined by Justice Theis, agreed that the public duty rule must be abolished, but offered alternative justifications for the abolition. Justice Thomas, joined by Chief Justice Garman and Justice Karmeier, dissented, criticizing that the majority and concurring opinions were indefensible and that “both make a mockery of stare decisis.”

Our panel of leading appellate attorneys review Friday's top Illinois Supreme Court Criminal opinions in People v. Cummings, People v. Tolbert, People v. Chambers, People v. Sanders, People. v. Williams, People v. Lerma, People v. Thompson and People v. Salem.

People v. Cummings

By Kerry J. Bryson, Office of the State Appellate Defender

Derrick Cummings was driving a van registered to Pearlene Chattic when an officer initiated a traffic stop because Chattic was the subject of an arrest warrant. The officer could not see the driver before initiating the stop. Upon approaching, he saw Cummings was a man and thus, clearly, was not Chattic. The officer asked Cummings for his license, and defendant responded he did not have one. Cummings was then cited for driving while license suspended.

The circuit court granted suppression, and the appellate court affirmed. Initially, the Illinois Supreme Court followed suit. On remand from the United States Supreme Court to reconsider its earlier opinion in light of Rodriguez v. U.S., 135 S. Ct. 1609, however, the Court reversed.

The ISBA is proud to announce IllinoisBarDocs, a new member benefit that provides affordable automated forms.

Filing paper court documents in civil cases will soon be a thing of the past in Illinois.

Chief Justice Rita B. Garman and the Illinois Supreme Court on Friday announced that the electronic filing of documents in civil cases will be required in the Supreme Court and five districts of the Appellate Court effective July 1, 2017, and in all circuit courts effective January 1, 2018.

The announcement marks the latest step in the Court's ongoing effort to utilize technology to make the court system more efficient. The Court's statewide e-filing initiative will provide a streamlined process for filing documents, conserve environmental resources and time, and generate long-term savings.

“When I was sworn in as Chief Justice in October 2013, one of the several goals that I announced was the increased use of technology in our courthouses and courtrooms, both to make the judicial system more efficient and to make the work of the courts more transparent. At that time, the e-filing pilot project had been completed. I am pleased that we have now reached the point where the technology is available to implement e-filing statewide at all levels of our judicial system,” Chief Justice Garman said.

“While full implementation will not be achieved during my term as Chief Justice, we have established a workable timetable, and I look forward to being involved as we address any challenges or concerns that mandatory e-filing may raise.”

The Supreme Court of Illinois announced the filing of lawyer disciplinary orders on January 21, 2016, during the January Term of Court. Sanctions were imposed because the lawyers engaged in professional misconduct by violating state ethics law.

If Abraham Lincoln were alive and lawyering in 2016 - assuming his practice itself otherwise stayed the same - what management techniques and technology tools would he and partner William Herndon use? Although there's no way to say for certain, our 21st century management and technology experts had fun sharing their prognostications.

If Lincoln and his practice were transported 160 years forward in time, a significant amount of his adjustment would revolve around the changes in mobile technology in the 21st century, says Bryan Sims of the Sims Law Firm Ltd. in Naperville and the ISBA's Committee on Legal Technology.

"Obviously you're looking at some sort of laptop. Probably you want one that's fairly [easy to transport]; not a huge, heavy one," Sims says. "You'd want a smart phone and a tablet, as well. I'd certainly use that all of the time." Sims sees the smartphone as, first of all, important for phone calls, although that's become a less common way of communicating than texts or e-mails. The laptop would help Lincoln produce documents, which is harder to do on a smartphone or tablet.

"Where you're outside of the office, you can draft pleadings, or motions, or whatever it is that you need to do," he says. "A lot of times, if you're traveling, you've got some down time involved, before or after court, or in between court appearances, where you can get work done while you're waiting." Find out more in the February Illinois Bar Journal.

ISBA Director of Legislative Affairs Jim Covington reviews legislation in Springfield of interest to ISBA members. This week he covers Size of juries (House Bill 4473), Limited Liability Company Act (House Bill 4361), Child support (House Bill 3982), FOIA and law enforcement (Senate Bill 2210) and Sports and concussions (House Bill 4365). More information on each bill is available below the video.

Size of juries. House Bill 4473 (Sandack, R-Downers Grove) repeals current law allowing for a six-person jury in civil matters and also repeals increased witness fees. Introduced in the House.

In this world of ever-changing employment law, in house counsel has a responsibility to institute preventative measures for their company, but they’re either afraid of the cost or don’t know that they need it in the first place. Meanwhile, employment lawyers are missing out on business because they don’t realize the need or don’t know how to use alternative fee structures to make their services financially available to the very clients who need them. All too often, a small business will run into trouble and need legal counsel that ends up costing far more than it would have if only they’d invested in preventative representation from the start.

The Illinois Supreme Court announced Wednesday that Charles William Smith has been appointed as a Circuit Judge of the 19th Circuit, 1st Subcircuit. This appointment is effective Feb. 22, 2016 and terminates on Dec. 2018. This opening was the result of the retirement of the Hon. George Bridges.