Illinois Supreme Court Debates Self-Critical Analysis Privilege
Last week, the Illinois Supreme Court heard argument in a case being closely watched by the civil defense bar: Harris v. One Hope United, Inc. Harris poses a simple question: does Illinois recognize...
View ArticleIllinois Supreme Court Debates Scope of Accountant-Client Privilege in Will...
Last week, the Illinois Supreme Court heard oral argument in Brunton v. Kruger. Brunton involves the scope of the accountant-client privilege – specifically, what happens to that privilege after the...
View ArticleState’s Defense of Pension Reform: Constitutional Convention Couldn’t Make...
Today we continue our discussion of the centerpiece of the Illinois Supreme Court’s civil docket – the public pension reform case – with a look at the State’s Opening Brief, which was filed January 12,...
View ArticleIllinois Supreme Court Affirms Revenue Decoupling for Natural Gas Rates
In the closing days of its January term, the Illinois Supreme Court unanimously affirmed the Appellate Court’s decision in People ex rel. Madigan v. Illinois Commerce Commission, approving the use of...
View ArticleIllinois Supreme Court Affirms Constitutionality of Nursing Home Bed Tax
In the closing days of its January term, a unanimous Illinois Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of a “bed tax” on Illinois nursing homes, reversing the Circuit Court’s judgment that the tax...
View ArticleIllinois Supreme Court Dismisses Appeal on Interlocutory “Rules of Road”...
What procedural and substantive rights are potentially impacted by “rules of the road” orders in child custody cases – interlocutory orders which regulate what the contending parents can and can’t do...
View ArticleIllinois Supreme Court Affirms Circuit Court Jurisdiction Over Workers Comp...
The Workers Compensation has broad jurisdiction to award or apportion attorneys’ fees in connection with counsel’s work before the Commission. But what if one of the attorneys didn’t appear before the...
View ArticleIllinois Supreme Court Clarifies Impact of Oral Rulings on Time to Appeal Clock
What’s the impact on your time to appeal when the trial court says in open court that all substantive attacks on the judgment are denied – does the clock start? That’s the question presented in...
View ArticleIllinois Supreme Court Denies All Ten Amici Requests in Support of State in...
Over four days in mid-January, no fewer than ten entities – public entities, charitable institutions and individuals – filed motions for leave to file amicus briefs in support of the State’s defense of...
View ArticlePensions at the Constitutional Convention, Part I: The New Jersey Spina Decision
One of the central issues in the ongoing battle, now pending before the Illinois Supreme Court, is about what the delegates to the Constitutional Convention of 1970 who adopted Illinois’ Pension...
View ArticleIllinois Supreme Court Debates Implied Right of Action Against Clerk for...
During its January term, the Illinois Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Cowper v. Nyberg, a case from the Fifth District posing a novel question: does a prisoner have an implied right of action...
View ArticlePensions at the Constitutional Convention, Part III: The Opponents and the Vote
We conclude our discussion of the July 21, 1970 debate on the Pension Protection Clause at the Illinois Constitutional Convention. Today, we’ll take a look at more statements by opponents of the...
View ArticlePensions at the Constitutional Convention, Part II: The Clause is Introduced
Although there were several reasons for the 1970 Illinois Constitutional Convention, public pensions became a major subject of discussion in the weeks before the delegates gathered. Elmer Getz, the...
View ArticleIllinois Supreme Court Agrees To Decide If School Districts are Subject to...
In the closing days of its January term, the Illinois Supreme Court agreed to decide a question involving the potential collision of several different aspects of Illinois constitutional law: are school...
View ArticleIllinois Supreme Court Agrees to Decide Whether a Condo Foreclosure...
In the closing days of its January term, the Illinois Supreme Court agreed to decide an issue of considerable potential importance to the real estate bar – when does a foreclosure sale on a condominium...
View ArticleThe Illinois Pension Plaintiffs’ Brief: The Cause of State Underfunding, and...
As we’ve written previously, the plaintiffs in the Pension Reform Litigation pending before the Illinois Supreme Court needed to accomplish three things in their Appellees’ Briefs to put themselves in...
View ArticleIllinois Supreme Court Debates Intersection of Party Diligence and Motions to...
Section 2-1401 of the Illinois Code of Civil Procedure (735 ILCS 5/2-1401) provides that a judgment may be set aside more than thirty days after its entry on petition for various reasons. So when is...
View ArticleDo You Have to Disclose a Personal Injury Claim in a Bankruptcy Proceeding?
Can a personal injury claim be barred by judicial estoppel if you fail to disclose the unliquidated claim in your personal bankruptcy proceeding? That’s the question the Illinois Supreme Court agreed...
View ArticleIllinois Supreme Court Debates Jurisdictional Issues in Child Custody Case
A Circuit Court has subject matter jurisdiction to enter a child custody order pursuant to the Illinois Constitution. But the Court apparently lacks jurisdiction to proceed pursuant to the Uniform...
View ArticleIllinois Supreme Court Agrees to Decide Breadth of Misconduct Exception for...
In the closing days of its January term, the Illinois Supreme Court agreed to hear a case from Division 5 of the First District, Petrovic v. The Department of Employment Security. Petrovic presents an...
View ArticleIllinois Supreme Court Agrees to Decide Fiduciary Duty Claim Against Former...
In a few weeks’ time over at Appellate Strategist’s sister blog, the Illinois Supreme Court Review, we’ll address the question of just how rare it is to get an unpublished decision – what we in...
View ArticleIllinois Supreme Court Debates Anonymity of Internet Poster
In the closing days of its January term, the Illinois Supreme Court heard oral argument in Hadley v. Subscriber Doe. Hadley poses the question of whether the defendant is entitled to quash the...
View ArticleIllinois Supreme Court Agrees to Decide When Tender Will Moot Putative Class...
The plaintiff files a skeletal class certification motion the same day as his putative class complaint. Subsequently, the defendant tenders a check to the plaintiff representing everything the...
View ArticleIllinois Supreme Court Holds Innocent Misrepresentation on Malpractice...
A law firm partner innocently repeats a misrepresentation by one of his or her partners on a renewal form for the firm’s malpractice insurance. Can the misrepresentation be grounds for completely...
View ArticleThe Pension Case: The State’s Reply Brief
In their reply brief in the Public Pension Reform Act appeal, the State immediately zeroes in on what it perceives as the central difficulty of the plaintiffs’ position: the trial court’s conclusion...
View ArticleIllinois Supreme Court Likely Poised to Strike Down Pension Reform Act
9684675705_4dda20b9d4_zThis afternoon, the Illinois Supreme Court heard oral argument on the biggest case on its civil docket, In re Pension Reform Litigation. In re Pension Reform Litigation involves...
View ArticleIllinois Supreme Court Clarifies Voidness Doctrine, Strikes Constitutional...
In the closing days of February, the Illinois Supreme Court handed down its decision in LVNV Funding, Inc. v. Trice, a direct appeal from the Cook County Circuit Court. LVNV is noteworthy because it...
View ArticleChief Justice Invites New Governor, Legislature to Rare Evening Oral Argument
This evening will bring an event likely not seen in Illinois in more than a century – an evening session of the Illinois Supreme Court....By: Kirk Jenkins
View ArticleIllinois Supreme Court Declines to Apply Environmental Injunction Retroactively
In July 2004, the Illinois legislature amended the state Environmental Protection Act to authorize the Attorney General to seek “an injunction, prohibitory or mandatory, to restrain violations . . . or...
View ArticleIllinois Supreme Court Holds Circuit Court Clerk Had No Duty to Confirm...
When a defendant is convicted of a criminal offense and sentenced to prison time, the Unified Code of Corrections requires the Circuit Court clerk to transmit to the Department of Corrections the total...
View ArticleIllinois Supreme Court Holds Custody Order Not Void Despite Custody Act...
The Uniform Child-Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (UCCJEA) includes various provisions for determining where a custody and parentage dispute should be litigated when multiple states are...
View ArticleIllinois Supreme Court Holds Accountant is Holder of Privilege, No...
Late in the March term, the Illinois Supreme Court handed down its opinion in Brunton v. Kruger, an opinion with potentially significant implications for Illinois accountants. Brunton posed three...
View ArticleIllinois Supreme Court Declines to Recognize Self-Critical Analysis Privilege
The self-critical analysis privilege – the notion that organizations should be able to take a candid look at their own procedures and performance without fear of being forced to disclose the results in...
View ArticleIllinois Supreme Court Holds Captive Insurance Agents Owe Limited Tort Duty...
Section 2-2201 of the Code of Civil Procedure provides that “[a]n insurance producer . . . shall exercise ordinary care and skill in renewing, procuring, binding, or placing the coverage requested by...
View ArticleIllinois Supreme Court Holds Doctrine of Equitable Adoption Doesn’t Apply to...
Two years ago, the Illinois Supreme Court recognized the doctrine of equitable adoption in the context of an estate proceeding. In In re Parentage of Scarlet Z.-D., the Court was presented with the...
View Article136 Means 136: Ballot Signature Requirement Requires Strict Compliance
Ballot access statutes nearly always require that prospective candidates present a given number of valid voters’ signatures in order to qualify for the ballot. In Illinois, nomination for offices below...
View ArticleIllinois Supreme Court to Decide If State’s Union Contract Conditioned on...
In the closing days of the March term, the Illinois Supreme Court agreed to wade yet again into the contentious and politicized area of public employee wages and benefits. State of Illinois v. American...
View ArticleIllinois Supreme Court Agrees to Decide Property Dispute Between Former...
In Hewitt v. Hewitt in 1979, the Illinois Supreme Court decided that for public policy reasons, Illinois courts cannot decide property disputes between unmarried couples. In the closing days of the...
View ArticleIllinois Supreme Court Holds Treasurer Needs Appeal Bond Too
Earlier this month, a unanimous Illinois Supreme Court held in Illinois State Treasurer v. Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission that the State Treasurer, when appealing a workers’ compensation...
View ArticleIllinois Supreme Court OKs Injunctive Suit Against University Trustees
Earlier this month, the Illinois Supreme Court disposed of one of the older cases on its advisement docket. A sharply divided Court held in Leetaru v. The Board of Trustees of the University of...
View ArticleIllinois Supreme Court Debates Whether Attorneys’ Fees Are Charged to Health...
In the final days of its March term, the Illinois Supreme Court heard oral arguments in McVey v. M.L.K. Enterprises, LLC. McVey poses a question of considerable importance for tort litigation: must...
View ArticleIllinois Supreme Court Appears Skeptical of Wrongful Death Claim Arising From...
Earlier this month, the Illinois Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Turcios v. The DeBruler Company. Turcios poses a simple question: can a plaintiff state a claim for wrongful death arising from a...
View ArticleIllinois Supreme Court Debates Tort Duty of Care for 911 First Responders
In the closing days of the March term, the Illinois Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Coleman v. East Joliet Fire Protection District, a case from the Third District. Coleman poses the question of...
View ArticleThe California Supreme Court - What to Expect in 2015
On Wednesday, April 29, 2015 at 11 a.m. PDT/2 p.m. EDT, Sedgwick attorneys Kirk Jenkins (Chicago), Hall Marston (Los Angeles) and Michael Walsh (Los Angeles) presented a webinar titled “The California...
View ArticleUnanimous Illinois Supreme Court Strikes Down State Public Pension Reform Act
As we predicted, the Illinois Supreme Court has unanimously struck down the state Public Pension Reform Act. The Court’s opinion was written by Justice Lloyd Karmeier....By: Kirk Jenkins
View ArticleIllinois Supreme Court Holds Fees and Costs Not Deductible From Health Care Lien
Yesterday, a unanimous Illinois Supreme Court resolved an important question for the health care industry. In an unanimous opinion by Justice Mary Jane Theis, the Court held in McVey v. M.L.K....
View ArticleThe Illinois Supreme Court In 2014: A Look At The Stats
For the last two years, we’ve taken a close statistical look at the previous year’s decisions from the Illinois Supreme Court to see what insights could be gained about the court’s voting patterns and...
View ArticleNo Cause of Action for Wrongful Death by Suicide, Illinois Supreme Court Holds
In the closing days of the May term, the Illinois Supreme Court unanimously declined an invitation to create a tort cause of action for wrongful death in cases where the decedent committed...
View ArticleIllinois Supreme Court Affirms Deed Tax, Illuminates Constitutional Tax Analysis
In the closing days of the recently concluded May term, the Illinois Supreme Court handed down its decision in Marks v. Vanderventer, unanimously upholding the constitutionality of a statewide...
View ArticleIllinois Supreme Court Holds Trial Courts May Consider Equity on Fact-Bound...
Section 2-1401 of the Illinois Code of Civil Procedure provides that courts may grant relief from a judgment on petition made within thirty days of the original entry of the judgment. The statute...
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