Should lawyers provide free consultations to prospective clients? Discounts to new clients? Refunds of a consult fee to clients who ask for one? ISBA lawyers offer their opinions.
Illinois becomes the 24th state to allow wrongful-death plaintiffs to recover for their grief, sorrow, and mental suffering at the loss of their loved one.
A major overhaul of DUI law doubles the summary-suspension period and requires offenders to submit to alcohol monitoring devices in return for driving permits. Critics charge that it will produce unintended consequences, including fewer guilty pleas.
Two districts of the appellate court construe Arthur v Catour, holding that plaintiffs can recover only what Medicare and Medicaid paid the provider - not the larger, undiscounted amount billed - and allowing a physician's expert testimony that a medical bill was reasonable.
Case law from the United States Supreme Court and the seventh circuit interpreting the federal rules can make it hard for settling parties to draft orders of dismissal that allow the judge to retain jurisdiction.
What can you do to preserve your client's right to appeal when the trial court issues an order of ambiguous finality? The Waddick case may provide some lessons.
The court last month approved lawyers' use of the advance payment retainer, cautioning that more familiar retainer agreements will be the preferred option in most cases.
A law firm did not violate the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act when it followed Illinois procedure for collecting a state-court judgment, the seventh circuit ruled.
Does the tradition of billing by the hour push lawyers to pad bills and thus engage in the kind of "dishonest" behavior forbidden by the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct?
Has the Illinois Supreme Court embraced a test that makes it harder for employers to classify workers as independent contractors rather than employees and thus avoid employee-related taxes and other expenses?
Under the direct participant theory, recently adopted by the Illinois Supreme Court, a parent business that guides its subsidiary's activities may be liable for the subsidiary's torts.
The court held that slave descendants' section 1982 claims are, inter alia, too speculative and the claimants too far removed from the wrong of slavery.
In a victory for consumers, the Illinois Supreme Court upheld the use of the "risk-utility" test in a product liability suit based on an item with open and obvious dangers.
The Illinois Supreme Court rules that a phlebomist's disclosure at a local tavern of a patient's blood-test results was outside the scope of her employment.
The Illinois Supreme Court refused to abandon the rule in Tuite v Corbitt but overturned the trial and appellate courts who applied it in dismissing the plaintiff's case.
Amended RPC 1.15, effective June 1, requires lawyers to place nominal or short-term client funds with banks that pay the same return on IOLTA as on non-IOLTA accounts.
The appellate court reversed the trial court's rejection of a plaintiff's firm's argument that its extraordinary effort justified fees that exceeded the statutory med-mal limit.
The supreme court lifted its 12-year-old limit, effective last month. Will its next step be to publish Rule 23 opinions on its Web site? Appellate advocates hope so.
The state is on track to issue new regulations that will make it harder for clients who are headed for nursing-home care to hang on to assets. Elder law and estate-planning practitioners need to be prepared with new strategies for the new rules.
