Solo In Chicago

Goodbye/Hello

2009-03-13T11:21:00.002-05:00

This wasn't quite the celebratory transition I had in mind but life events have simply made it necessary so here goes...

2-3 months ago now I finally got around to moving this blog's content to its own Website using Wordpress. That's what all the blog consultants out there say to get your own site so people like Google can't just shut you down (i.e. Google owns Blogger). And for a couple months I was just posting in both places with the intent of making a big, sexy announcement about the move once the "new" site was up to speed. Well, the new site isn't quite where I want it yet but just because I'm falling behind with the double posting and don't want you to think I'm just plain, old stale. Here's the BIG, SEXY ANNOUNCEMENT:

COME JOIN (AND UPDATE YOUR RSS READERS AND LINKS) THE NEW, IMPROVED FUN OVER AT:

SOLOINCHICAGO.COM

In Civil-Contempt Cases, Jail Time Can Stretch On for Years

2009-02-10T22:17:00.000-06:00

Ah, my favorite legal topic covered over in the WSJ…civil contempt. If you get into court much and thus need to deal with entering orders and inevitably enforcing orders ya better know your 4 types of contempt and how to get them and how to defend them.

Do Ya Need a New Calendar?

2009-02-10T20:23:00.000-06:00

One would think that this wouldn’t be too big of an issue for us well-educated legal professionals but for the record in the first 35 days of 2009 I’ve been party to 3 separate cases where opposing attorneys have failed to appear. I’m not sure that I’ve ever had that happen a single time in the past and now three times in just over a month.

I’m not sure why, in one case I think the lawyer’s client was unhappy with a result and may have stopped paying but you still MUST formally withdraw. Why open the door to a letter from the ARDC? If you have a record-keeping problem, calendar in two places one likely digital and one hard copy…simple, next question.

So Here's What Happened...

2009-02-07T12:02:00.004-06:00

And I think it's an instructive tale for you small firm practitioners out there: I took a long vacation (10 days) to Michigan's Upper Peninsula and I've (and this blog has too) paid the price since my return. I have no complaints and I don't think the Firm's suffered in the least, I just haven't had a lot of extra blog time. On a very positive note, January '09 has been one of the busiest months in our history and would expect for our monthly profit to show that (Hasn't everyone heard the news that the economy is soft and dissolving marriages/financial partnerships might be best delayed??).

What's in a Name...and More

2008-12-20T14:55:00.002-06:00

A nice review in the Bar Journal's monthly Loss Prevention column. Some key points for sole practitioners:

What's your name?

Me - a name I call myself. - "Do Re Mi"²

Let's start with your firm's name, which, like all communications about you and your services, must not be "false or misleading." RPC 7.1.

One of the easiest ways to create a false and misleading name (if for some reason you want to do that) is to imply partnership where it doesn't exist. RPC 7.5(d) states that "[l]awyers may state or imply that they practice in partnership or other organization only when that is the fact." Here are a few common scenarios.

Imaginary Partners. Sometimes it's lonely to be a solo. But don't yield to the temptation to add "imaginary friends" to your letterhead. If Linda Lonewolf is a sole practitioner, she may not call her firm "Linda Lonewolf & Associates" because the "Associates" don't exist...

Unjustified expectations. A communication is false or misleading if it "is likely to create an unjustified expectation about results the lawyer can achieve." An ad stating "We'll get you a settlement - fast," by itself, suggests that the lawyer can do so in every case.

A former judge who joins a personal injury practice may not refer to herself as "Judge" in a business context, because this may lead to unjustified expectations about the results she can achieve for her clients. Note that it's fine for her to be called "Judge" in a social context. ISBA Ethics Op 92-10...

What do you do?

An Illinois lawyer may state that she "concentrates" or "limits" her practice of law to a particular area or areas of practice. She may also give other information about her practice "which a reasonable person might regard as relevant in determining whether to seek the services offered." RPC 7.4(a). And of course, this is also subject to the "false and misleading" test of RPC 7.1.

Goal-Setting with a Purpose

2008-12-20T14:47:00.002-06:00

I must say my focus has been on really finishing '08 out strong as I hurry to close-up shop before heading out of town on Christmas Eve but I saw this over at Consumerism Commentary...9 Tips for Choosing and Achieving a Purpose in Life. Sort of a kick-off to your '09 goal setting.

Long-Term Care Consumer Information

2008-12-20T14:37:00.002-06:00

Saw this little nugget recently:

Elder care. Public Act 95-823 requires long- term care facilities to complete annual “Consumer Choice Information Reports” and make them available to the public, including posting them on the internet and giving them to prospective residents and their families. These reports must include information on ownership, medical care, services, staffing, safety, security, meals, rooms, furnishings, family and volunteer support, visitation and special services and amenities. The Department of Aging, working in collaboration with the Attorney General, has the authority to verify the accuracy of the information. Violation of this Act constitutes an unlawful practice under the Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act. Effective Jan. 1, 2009.

If you have sort of a family practice like me, nursing home and long-term care calls are plentiful. Now you have a resource. Here's the full Act.

Recession = “Force Majeure”??

2008-12-20T13:46:00.000-06:00

I don’t think I’ve dealt with a force majeure issue since first year Contracts but I am always on the lookout for some old fashion creative lawyering. And I found some reported recently regarding the new Trump development on the Chicago river…

Those assertions are made in a fascinating lawsuit filed by Mr. Trump, the real estate developer, television personality and best-selling author, in an effort to avoid paying $40 million that he personally guaranteed on a construction loan that Deutsche Bank says is due and payable.

Rather than have to pay the $40 million, Mr. Trump thinks the bank should pay him $3 billion for undermining the project and damaging his reputation.

He points to a “force majeure” clause in the lending agreement that allows the borrower to delay completion of the building if construction is hampered by such things as riots, floods or strikes. That clause has a catch-all section covering “any other event or circumstance not within the reasonable control of the borrower,” and Mr. Trump figures that lets him out, even though construction is continuing.

The Governor and I

2008-12-10T12:41:00.001-06:00

Did I ever mention that I used to work at a law firm that had also previously employed our fair Governor Blagojevich? In lieu of the current state of affairs I thought a brief mention might be appropriate. Yep, it was actually the last place I worked prior to starting my current practice. It's a nice little general practice with a real estate focus in northwest suburban Elk Grove Village. I still keep in pretty close touch with one of the partners there.

Well, Rod had also worked as an associate there in the past, prior to his marriage into the powerful Mell family in Chicago. One of the assistant's at the Firm said Rod once bought a fur coat and charged the Firm saying it was important for his and the Firm's image.

Big Firm "Bill Padding"

2008-12-10T12:18:00.000-06:00

Over the last several months we've had a case against a fairly large Chicago firm regarding a dissolution of marriage and it has been fairly eye-opening and borderline laughable to view first-hand the techniques they use to run up legal fees against their client (unnecessarily I would say). The two most blatant techniques:

1. Send 2 attorneys to each court date. Look, I've tried cases a couple times where I had a second chair attorney. For a certain breed of trial with great complexity this is surely appropriate. But sending two attorneys to each court date many of which are just status hearings to get a new date? Come, come.

2. Draft letters to confirm what a court order says. I was most aghast at this one. As a simple example, we'd have a court date and say a court order got entered that read "Father shall have visitation on Tuesdays from 3pm to 9pm." I'm not the sharpest mind grant you but I have a decent grasp of the English language and the words of that Order are clear. But lo-and-behold, 1-2 days after court we'd get an extensive letter faxed over that in short will state something like, "we're writing just to confirm that Father will have visitation on Tuesdays from 3pm to 9pm." Bam, another hour billed!

So if you're looking for a good attorney and you're attracted to that big firm pedigree with the penthouse office space, fine, but just be on notice about how all those expenses will impact your bottom-line as client each month!

Don’t Be Afraid to Get Paid!

2008-12-04T17:43:00.001-06:00

That’s the title of a great piece from a recent ISBA Illinois Bar Journal article. It looks like it’s accessible without a password so that’s a nice policy change by ISBA.

Seriously, it might be the best and most relevant article I’ve ever read in a legal publication! It includes great advice from legal consultant Ellen Freedman about the most critical issue for legal services business owners: getting your customers to pay you.

Billing early and consistently is critical.

Freedman proceeds to look at receivables that have aged for just three months. At that point, she says, studies show that about 30 percent of those monies will never be collected. Allow those accounts to age as much as a year, and you can expect to collect only around thirty percent.

“If you had a prospective client that walked in your door and asked you for a 70 percent discount on your bill,” she rhetorically asks, “how many of you would be inclined to say yes?” You wouldn’t, of course, she answers herself. “But by allowing that receivable to get to be a year old, that’s what you’ve done. You’ve effectively accepted 30 cents on the dollar.” At two years, collections fall to a measly 12.5 percent - not even enough to pay for the postage for a reminder letter, she sniffs.

Make it part of your initial client meeting.

Freedman advocates that lawyers make an inquiry into their clients’ financial status and treatment of their prior lawyers a standard part of the initial client interview. To that end, she recommends, lawyers should ask clients some direct and specific questions.

“Tell me how you are going to pay me” is a good way to start, she suggests. In addition to finding out where the client works, find out about the client’s cash flow and assets, she urges. Will a third party be providing the client with the initial retainer fee? If so, find that out - and inquire further how the client can be assured of obtaining the funds necessary to pay the lawyer’s bills once the retainer fee is used up.

Maybe the best tip: Freedman suggests having clients execute an authorization to charge their credit card if their unpaid balance reaches a certain level at the same time they sign the retainer agreement.

Learn your client’s billing cycle

Most businesses, she notes, pay their bills on a designated day of the month, so that all bills that come in by a certain day each month are paid on that day. Bills that come in even a day later are normally set aside for the next payment cycle. Well-organized individuals - Freedman included - may pay their bills in a similar fashion, perhaps setting some aside the day after their paychecks are deposited.

What if a client has legitimate financial problems?

Even good clients sometimes encounter misfortunes that render them unable to pay their bills, Freedman notes. When that happens, she says, it’s up to lawyers to present those clients with options, including payment schedules. “Have your antennae up. Don’t wait for your client to ask you.” The lawyer’s ability to accept credit cards, together with an appropriately crafted provision in the engagement agreement, can come in very handy when these circumstances occur, she observes.

Revenge can be sweet

Despite your best efforts, some clients may never pay their bills. So, “When all else fails - REVENGE IS SWEET!” reads one of Freedman’s presentation slides. Explaining, she suggests, “Wait until the statute of limitations for malpractice claims has passed, and then wait until November 15th.”

Then, she continues, you can send your debtor client a letter saying it’s clear that, despite your pleas to discuss the matter, that the client has no intention of paying your bill and, therefore, has left you with no alternative but to forgive the debt. “We will be sending you a 1099 for the value of the services and the costs that we are removing from our books.” On receiving such a letter, she says, many people will be so scared that they will actually send the lawyer a check.

Draconian Cuts but Some Nice New Copiers at 32 W. Randolph

2008-12-04T17:16:00.000-06:00

Well, from the way Todd Stroger's talking 1/4 of Cook County's employees might get cut if the Cook County Board doesn't agree to his proposal to borrow some $700 million. But, I did see some nice new copy machines up on the 14th Floor at 32 W. Randolph outside the parentage courtrooms.
Why are those copies there anyways?

The Six Habits of Highly Respectful Physicians, er ah, Attorneys

2008-12-04T16:45:00.000-06:00

Saw this in the Times regarding so-called "etiquette based medicine." The author recommended six steps for physicians to use at an initial patient meeting...I think the steps could be helpful for an initial attorney-client meeting:

• Ask permission to enter the room; wait for an answer.

--Hopefully we can skip this step. I hope your clients aren't changing into a white gown in your office. If so, you may want to glance at the Rules for Professional Conduct.

• Introduce yourself; show your ID badge.

--Absolutely, first names surely create intimacy and warmth.

• Shake hands.

• Sit down. Smile if appropriate.

• Explain your role on the health care team.

--Explain how your firm works. Explain the process of the legal matter in question. Too often clients get surprised and have unrealistic expectations...and then they don't pay your bills.

• Ask how the patient feels about being in the hospital.

--I'm hoping coming to see me isn't as bad as having your tonsils taken out but in reality some legal issues we deal with are fairly life shattering and dealing with emotions is part of the package.

Warning Signs of Law Firm Failure

2008-11-28T17:25:00.000-06:00

Here’s the full article and the 3 shared characteristics shared by failing firms:

Below average financial performances that included excessive leverage, significant deferred obligations, low productivity and poor realization was one main category.
Internal dynamics involving leadership problems, incompatible goals among partners, differences in compensation philosophies and a lack of succession planning was the second common theme.
External dynamics dealing with competitive pressures over a historical client base, access to new clients or an ability to recruit was the third major component shared by failed firms.

Cinderella “pull-ups” and Painted Toe-Nails (on a 3-year old)

2008-11-28T15:17:00.000-06:00

Question, are we really going to hear about the next 20 years of child custody battles of Brian Urlacher? I hope not. I’d guess it will slow down once ‘ole Brian retires from the Bears. If you’re looking for the issue in the case, the question is, are Cinderalla pull-ups and painted toenails a “serious endangerment” to the child (750 ILCS 5/607)?

I think not.

Pricing in a Recession

2008-11-28T14:54:00.001-06:00

Well, I'm not running for office right now so I don't mind using the "R" word or bagel as Josh Lyman used to call it on The West Wing. We're trying to deal with the real issues facing legal professionals here at SIC and reality suggests we're nearing a recession.

How should that impact your business? Saw this interesting post including advice from many places entitled, Not a Bad Time for Small Businesses to Raise Prices. Is the title true?

I'm not sure. I've generally kept rates steady on flat fee stuff like some estate planning or residential real estate transactions. I feel like the profit margin on these sorts of things are too thin already to cut prices. However, on things that are generally billed hourly I've been more flexible to drop hourly rates. A good hourly divorce or other litigation matter could be too big of a fee case to let 10-20 dollars per hour lose a client. This was good advice from the article:

If you are going to raise your prices, set them higher than you have to, suggests Karen E. Klein, writing on businessweek.com. That way, if your customers balk, you can reduce the price increase a bit and still end up with the increase you need.

I thought the best piece of advice from the article was this:

“If your competition is busy nursing their recessionary wounds, then you should become aggressive in marketing yourself and your products,” argues Morebusiness.com, a Web site that describes itself as a “one-stop resource Web site for entrepreneurs.”

Book Review: The Servant

2008-11-22T15:39:00.000-06:00

By James C. Hunter

Reviewed by Peter R. Olson

In “The Servant” James Hunter uses the biblical concept of servant hood as exemplified by Jesus Christ to teach ethical business leadership principals based on the premise of serving others. “The Servant” takes readers on a fictional journey to a Michigan monastery where six people of varying backgrounds end up together in a leadership seminar taught by former Fortune 500 executive Leonard Hoffman n/k/a Brother Simeon (fictional).

“The Servant” is a fast and easy read at 187 pages with most of the story allowing readers to pull up a chair and view a group discussion lead by Brother Simeon on the topic of leadership. The story advocates an accountable if simplistic form of leadership seemingly absent in most of our business leaders today.

“The Servant” reflects on the awesome responsibility which leadership entails: employees spending up to half of their waking hours working and living in the environment created by the leader. Mr. Hunter defines leadership as the skill of influencing people to work enthusiastically toward goals identified as being for the common good.

“The Servant” makes an important distinction between power and authority. Power is identified as the ability to force someone to do your will while authority is the skill of willingly getting people to do your will because of your personal influence. Sure, power works for a little while but eventually it erodes relationships and can be very damaging. Think about the difference between Mother Theresa and Bob Knight.

I found this discussion to be the most useful in the story.

Wants versus needs are also compared. Leaders should identify and meet the needs not the wants of their people, and serve them. Slaves do what others want, servants do what others need. A want is a desire without any regard for the physical or psychological consequences whereas a need is a legitimate physical or psychological requirement for the well-being of the human being.

“The Servant” discusses a unique perspective on honesty as it relates to accountability. Honesty is about clarifying expectations for people, holding people accountable, being willing to give the bad news as well as the good news, giving people feedback, being consistent, predictable, and fair. In short, behavior must be free from deception and dedicated to truth at all costs.

And commitment means sticking by your choices. True commitment is a vision about individual and group growth along with continuous improvement. The committed leader is dedicated to growing, stretching, and continuously improving—committed to becoming the best leader they can be and that the people they lead deserve. It’s also a passion for your people, pushing them to become the best they can be.

And the verb love is analyzed not as the feeling that we typically associate with it but rather love as a behavior and choice. Agabe love and leadership are synonymous. When Jesus spoke of love in the New Testament the Greek agape is used, a love of behavior and choice, not a love of feeling. We can’t always control how we feel about other people but we can control how we behave towards others.

Finally, the story includes an interesting discussion about the many messages that lateness sends. First, someone who’s late is saying that their time is more important than your time. Second, it conveys the message that you must not be very important to them because he would surely be on time for an important person. It also communicates that he isn’t honest because honest people stick to their word, even time commitments. Being late is extremely disrespectful behavior and also habit forming. I can surely learn from this type of disrespect.

“The Servant” is an allegory that teaches the timeless principles of servant leadership. The use of allegory and the various personalities of the seminar participants makes “The Servant” both easy to understand and also easy to identify with, traits often lacking in so-called business leadership books.

It Would be Nice to have the Court File

2008-11-22T15:12:00.000-06:00

I'm going to try NOT to talk about the low-tech, paper court filing system in Cook County...at least for most of this post because it's actually a slightly different issue I want to raise. The issue that bothers me is within the Cook County Domestic Relations Division (I think this is division-wide although nearly all of my domestic practice these days is at Daley so this my be a Daley specific issue) when your case is court, your case file is not actually brought to the courtroom. Whether your case is set for an almost meaningless "status report" to the start of a 2 week trial, your case is listed on a docket sheet but all of the past case orders are not at your or the judge's fingertips. This can be a big problem.

I was in court this week on a case I had just gotten retained on a few days before a status hearing. So my client and I were essentially going to meet for the first time in court and he was going to give me some of the recent orders (he hadn't been able to e-mail or fax them to us). Well, at the last minute he can't show-up so now I'm in court with no previous court orders, the opposing party is pro-se and has no orders, and because the file doesn't come to court at Daley Center, the Judge has no orders. So then the judge is looking at her scribbled minutes/notes that she keeps but those aren't really court orders and so it's a big mess.

Of the 2-3 sorts of matters that bring me to court, the domestic relations division is the only division where there's not a court file in court when your case is up. Why? My guess, and now I must hark back to the poor Cook filing system, is that the problem is related to the fact that only '05 files to the present are kept on-site at Daley. The rest are off-site in the "warehouse."

I'm starting to see more than a handful of judges I'm in front of at both Daley and 32 W. Randolph us computers right on the bench, would it be too hard to have some intranet that they could access to view the case file online??

Profile: Jeffrey Steinback

2008-11-19T14:13:00.000-06:00

If you didn't see this, take a read of the nice profile from November's Chicago Lawyer. He's a sole practitioner with a very niche practice...

For Steinback — a veteran criminal defense attorney who is considered one of Chicago’s leading experts on federal sentencing guidelines, as well as a master plea bargainer whose practice focuses largely on resolving white-collar criminal matters short of trial — it is the whole person, rather than a mere description contained within the four corners of an indictment, that is at the heart of his work...

For the better half of his 32-year-long law career, Steinback, 57, has focused his practice on three areas: negotiating plea deals, almost exclusively for clients charged with federal crimes; working to secure the lightest possible sentence for clients charged with or convicted of such crimes; and aiming to convince prosecuting authorities not to indict a client who has become the target of a federal probe, or to bring lesser charges.

Take a look at the full piece. It's great advice to find your very own selective little niche. I think that's similar to Mr. Newton's practice.

3 Posts in 1...What a Deal!

2008-11-19T12:36:00.001-06:00

Watch me seamlessly interweave three separate topics into one post:

Supreme Court Rule 711 Abuse;
The Importance of Being Detail-Oriented; and,
Sloppy, Hand-written, Last-Minute changes to a final Judgment.

The above are mostly all tied to the same incident with one exception. The incident was at its core a simple, dissolution of marriage prove-up hearing. For you non-domestic relations lawyers out there this is the last hearing of a settled dissolution of marriage proceeding (divorce). The hearing itself is some 15 minutes typically where the petitioning party must "prove-up" the grounds or basis for his/her petition and then you walk the judge through the terms of the final Judgment. So although the hearing is quite brief the documents that get entered are very substantive and very important dealing with property division and parenting issues that might be relevant for the next 20 years or so.

First, the Supreme Court Rule 711 Abuse.

Let me say up front that no one's a bigger advocate of clinical experience during law school than I am. My experience at SIU's Elder Law clinic was the most useful part of my legal education and I to this day reference documents and other aspects of that experience. If you have aspirations of building a law practice shortly after law school, get some good clinical experience during law school. BUT, I was very turned off recently when I had one of my appointed contempt clients who was incarcerated and the opposing "lawyer" from the State's Attorney's office was a 711 student. I mean we're talking about a persons very freedom here and I'm dealing with a non-lawyer opposite me. The other situation leads me back to the divorce prove-up. There's a 711 student drafting the final Joint Parenting Agreement in the case. And no surprise when I finally got it sent to me the afternoon before the hearing there are probably 10 things that weren't covered that should have been. Great, have your 711 student come into court and into judge's chambers on pretrial conferences but when we're talking about documents that have critical impact on litigants' lives, how 'bout using the real lawyer.

Second and Third: Be detail-oriented and avoid having sloppy, hand-written judgments entered.

Nothing adds to your value as an attorney more than being EXTREMELY detail-oriented. And ya don't really need law school or any further CLE for this trait. You need to be more thorough and spend more time reviewing documents than your opposing counsel. And it's worth your while. Believe me, I'm not saying to inflate your bills but I am saying to bill more because you're being more thorough. The Joint Parenting Agreement I referenced above gets sent to me late afternoon before a 9am prove-up hearing the next day. So I'm doing a final read on the train heading down to Daley. I must have caught 10 errors and omissions. You must thoroughly scour final judgments!

So in the same case as where there was sloppy 711 abuse, the opposing counsel doesn't complete the case's Judgment and Marital Settlement Agreement until the morning of the hearing. I get my first view of the Judgment at probably 855am for a 9am hearing (no surprise the hearing didn't happen until 11am). And then we're stuck making last-minute hand-written changes. If the case weren't set for trial I would have just said forget it...we'll do this another day and get a proper judgment drafted. I'd estimate that this happens in maybe 25% of final dissolution of marriage judgments. And it causes them to be rife with errors and inconsistencies.

Don't Hide Assets in Real Estate!

2008-11-11T10:15:00.000-06:00

Namely because real estate is the most public of assets so it won't be hidden long! If you're in family law at all you're going to have cases in a dissolution of marriage setting or child support collection setting where a litigant wants to hide her/his assets. I'm not here to judge this action but rather to gasp and shake my head at some recent cases where litigants were attempting to hide assets and as part of the "hiding" bought Cook County real estate.

Well, the real estate wasn't hidden for long and a quick signature on a Judicial Deed and now the "Ex" has the real estate.

Getting your Fees in Divorce Proceedings

2008-11-11T10:07:00.000-06:00

Mary Umberger included this snippet in a recent column which is informing...

Thinking about a divorce? These days, the real estate market may be a third party in an already-sticky situation.

Some family-law attorneys say the condition of the housing market is causing them to rethink the way they get paid for their counsel in divorce cases. Used to be, according to the Wisconsin Law Journal, many such lawyers would receive their fees when the splitting couple came up with cash at the sale of their house—typically 90 days or so after the divorce.

Now, the journal reported, such lawyers may demand larger upfront retainer fees because there's no telling when that home sale could happen. And even then, it added, there's no guarantee there will be any money to spread around because of the possibility of foreclosure or because the couple had no equity remaining in the house.

Take it from someone who's got attorney fees in more than one house around the Chicago area and has for going on more than two years, heed the above! You need to eat!

Dick Cheney and Opposing Counsel

2008-11-11T08:49:00.000-06:00

Leaving his politics aside, I have great admiration for the Vice-President as a political infighter. If you've read any of the books that have come out regarding the Bush administration or there are a couple Cheney biographies as well (I'd personally recommend either of these here or here), the power Cheney's office yielded was quite impressive. And not to be too simplistic, but oftentimes he'd win the policy battles by simply being the last person to talk with the President. There would be different executive departments and committees and such analyzing issues and then just as the President was walking out to Marine I to go out of town Cheney would get a few minutes and a signature and bam...he wins!

The analogy with opposing counsel in some of my cases has been an annoying tendency of late for this sort of thing to occur...we're in court on a status hearing with no motions pending and I've spoken with the other side and our case has been called and now we're just drafting an order and everything is done for the day. Then, opposing counsel raises a brand new issue just as we're about to be done. If the issue is something we can do by agreement great but usually it's not and that's why they wait until the last minute. My general response if my client disagrees is to just say no. Then opposing counsel will have the case re-heard, ect., ect. Fine. The real problem is that oftentimes judges will listen to these non-written, non-notice motions. They shouldn't!

How Many Billables do You Bring?

2008-11-08T12:44:00.000-06:00

That's the subject written about here at Law.com. The above or some question regarding your "book of business" is a question you must be able to answer for several reasons.

Not to be blasphemous since right now I'm a passionate sole practitioner but the reality is that there's a great chance that one day I won't be and really shouldn't be. There are many directions that this ship may head in...continue to build a great legal services business (which would require us to add additional attorneys), merge with another firm, or possibly take my book of business to another firm. And for the second two of those three alternatives direct knowledge of income/book of business/billables is critical.

I've had job interviews over the last couple years myself and this question is very relevant and always asked and indeed it's probably your biggest selling point as a potential job candidate...unlike Jane Doe who has been an Associate at law firm X, you've built your practice up to $200k (or whatever) in billables over the last three years and thus the potential new firm is getting not only a competent attorney but also someone who brings immediate new income to the firm.

Obama the Olympian

2008-11-07T17:22:00.000-06:00

We try not to be too partisan here at SIC, but there's one thing we're surely in favor of and that's sports! So if Obama's win gives Chicago 2016 a nudge I can't complain. More people and time on the international stage is bound to help us Chicago, entrepreneurs/lawyers, right? And I know one lawyer who's got $20k in attorney fees in a house down there near the proposed Olympic Village that could use a little marketing nudge.

Client Meetings for the Home Office Lawyer

2008-11-05T16:07:00.000-06:00

Two wonderfully enlightening posts recently on the above from two of my favorite blogs: MyShingle and Chuck Newton. Carolyn deals with the nitty gritty of using "virtual" offices (like Regus) for client meetings while Chuck provides an expansive tome that deals with where to meet and much more.

As for my $.02, over the last year-and-a-half I've officed in a way that sounds very similar to Carolyn Elefant. Myself and my legal assistant both work from home on a typical day and when the need for a client meeting comes up 90% of the time we'll use a "day" office from Regus for an hour or two. I agree with the five points Carolyn makes in her posting and would say generally this set-up works well. The offices I'm now using for meetings are nearly identical to the ones I used to use when I had a full-time lease with a Regus-like place. I haven't found a client yet who doesn't appreciate the potential convenience offered by a Regus-type place where there are some 20 meeting locations in the Chicago area compared to me having my own, single office location where my potential client must come.

My 'Motion of the Month'

2008-10-31T16:04:00.000-05:00

This month it's been the old Motion to Vacate pursuant to 735 ILCS 5/2-1203, generally due to improper notice on the part of the moving party. These aren't quite as juicy as the 2-301 motions where you can wipe out maintenance awards, $500k in back child support, and even wed those who were seemingly previously divorced, but they're a nice tool too. Because I've had three improper notice cases just this month due to failure to follow local rule 2.1 in Cook and Supreme Court Rule 11 (which the local rule refers you to)...particularly by pro se litigants and Assistant State's Attorney (IDHFS cases).

Here's the full rule:

Rule 11. Manner of Serving Papers Other Than Process and Complaint on Parties Not in Default in the Trial and Reviewing Courts

Generally the zinger in these motions is that notice isn't properly given at the party's "residence."

(3) by depositing them in a United States post office or post office box, enclosed in an envelope, plainly addressed to the attorney at his business address, or to the party at his business address or residence, with postage fully prepaid...

The moving party must ascertain the non-moving party's residence and give the requisite notice at said residence, period. It's classic for the moving party to make-up an address or send it to some address that was referenced in the court file 20 years ago. The good thing for you when you bring the motion to vacate is that your client should have everything in his control that can prove his residency...mail, leases, deeds, voters reg., drivers license, ect.

No Jury Demand, Please

2008-10-30T17:25:00.000-05:00

If you've got the Plaintiff that is, or at least according to this DOJ Study covered over at Law.com...

Plaintiffs won in 56 percent of all general civil trial cases. Judges ruled in their favor in 68 percent of the cases, while juries favored the plaintiffs 54 percent of the time.

The report was released Tuesday by the Bureau of Justice Statistics at the U.S. Department of Justice. The study is the first nationally representative measure of general civil bench and jury trials in state courts.

I would have thought the Plaintiff win percentage would be higher.

Urlacher, Dent, Briggs...

2008-10-30T17:09:00.000-05:00

Not just a list of Chicago athletes but rather potential clients...market to those Chicago sports teams to build your domestic relations practice. Here's another...bit player Jason Caffey from a few of the Bulls dynasty teams.

Sheriff's Office Gambling

2008-10-30T16:49:00.000-05:00

I'm as big a critic of the performance of the Cook County Sheriff's Office as anybody, but is a office football pool something really worth of the I-Team's attention? I think half the businesses in Chicago would be guilty of this transgression.

I'm Not in the "Club" so my Case was Defaulted and More...

2008-10-30T16:30:00.000-05:00

I finished up a very frustrating case this week that was quite eye-opening as it related to my client getting a fair shake before the court. I was representing an out-of-state Defendant in a courtroom that I don't frequent against a Plaintiff and Plaintiff's counsel that it seemed appeared in the courtroom regularly. Now look, I understand being friendly with the clerks and being comfortable in certain courtrooms, ect., ect. In the probate and domestic relations divisions of Cook County I'm very comfortable having practiced extensively in those divisions for 6+ years. Fine.

But when you're before the bench justice must be blind and I felt as if it was NOT for two reasons.

First, despite our client's having virtually zero contacts with Illinois, the Court denied our motion to dismiss the case for lack of personal jurisdiction. It felt like the Court wanted to let the Plaintiff bring the case here in its home forum despite the facts and the law. Second, the case is set for trial earlier this week at 930am. I have two cases at 930am so I check-in on this case and speak with Plaintiff's lawyer who tells me to take my time and go off to my other case. I come back at 1015am and the P's lawyer isn't around. Then I come back at 11ish and a default judgment had been entered. Whatever happened to holding a case for a lawyer that checked in? They didn't call the case the two times I was in the courtroom and opposing counsel wasn't.

So we can probably vacate, yada, yada, yada...but it leaves a very sour taste in my mouth about the ability of certain courts to be unbiased.

More Court Appointed Business??

2008-10-27T16:15:00.000-05:00

I know I'll be watching the implementation of Public Act 95-0846 closely relating to court appointed counsel in juvenile court cases (see a synopsis below from The Juvenile Justice Initiative). And note that the language is "requires" and thus mandatory. Maybe a business opportunity; something like the Capital Litigation Trial Bar.

Senate Bill 2118 (Sens. Raoul-Noland and Rep. Turner) – Right to Counsel at Time Petition is Filed

This bill requires the court to appoint counsel for a youth retained in custody immediately upon the filing of a petition. It also specifies that a detention hearing cannot be held until the youth has had adequate opportunity to consult with counsel. This bill is a result of the Juvenile Defender Assessment recommendations. Senate amendment #1 clarifies that the 40 hour rule is not affected. The bill passed the Senate and House unanimously. Public Act 95-0846.

Some Good Old Fashion Creative Lawyering

2008-10-27T14:57:00.001-05:00

There's not enough of this quite frankly. Too much of what I observe is akin to an echo chamber of lawyers repeating the same arguments over and over. Or being too lazy to do any legal research to better represent a client. If you're not making a creative sort of off-the-wall argument every few months or so, you may not be representing your clients effectively.

I fondly recall a Motion to Vacate a dissolution of marriage judgment our firm filed within the last couple years asking to undivorce two parties who thought they'd been properly divorced some 20+ years ago based on the Court's lack of personal jurisdiction over our client at the time the Judgment had been entered. I remember my opposing counsel's first call to me upon receipt of our motion...something to the effect of "Do you even practice family law?" Well, yes and I also know the code of civil procedure thank you very much. We didn't really want to undivorce the parties but it was nice to knock some $100,000 off of an alleged child support arrearage.

I got to thinking about the above as I've followed the debate over a post-divorce/collection case recently, In re Marriage of Takata and Hafley (IL App. 3rd), Case No. 3-07-0175. Most of the commentators out there say that it was wrongly decided, and it very well may have been, but it's some darn good and creative lawyering by the appellant (and the victor at the appellate level) win or lose. Haven't heard whether or not it's heading up for the Supremes to take a look at.

In a nutshell, the facts are simple, a custodial parent was attempting to collect a judgment of some $25,000 related to unpaid child support from her now remarried former husband. And the custodial parent (who's a lawyer and represented herself) used 735 ILCS 5/2-1402(c)(3) to go after her former husband.

(c) When assets or income of the judgment debtor not exempt from the satisfaction of a judgment, a deduction order or garnishment are discovered, the court may, by appropriate order or judgment:

(3) Compel any person cited, other than the judgment

debtor, to deliver up any assets so discovered, to be applied in satisfaction of the judgment, in whole or in part, when those assets are held under such circumstances that in an action by the judgment debtor he or she could recover them in specie or obtain a judgment for the proceeds or value thereof as for conversion or embezzlement. A judgment creditor may recover a corporate judgment debtor's property on behalf of the judgment debtor for use of the judgment creditor by filing an appropriate petition within the citation proceedings.

There's a line of cases under this section of the ICCP that supports a judgment creditor's stepping into the shoes of a debtor to sue a third party in the debtors stead. I.e., judgment debtor has access to $$ that he could recover from a third party but chooses not to assert his rights. So now judgment creditor asserts debtor's rights against third party. So in the case above the custodial parent is allowed to collect a judgment against her former husband's current wife's IRA.

The critics say this is wrong because the current wife's IRA isn't "marital property" until a dissolution of marriage is filed between the father and his current wife.

Maybe so and I'll let people far smarter than me figure that one out (unless it comes up in one of my cases of course), but in closing, I just appreciate some good old fashion creative lawyering when I see it.

Fathering Resources for your clients

2008-10-27T13:16:00.000-05:00

Saw this in the Sunday Trib. regarding Goodwill's YES! Father's Project. Here's an overview from the Website:

Goodwill is helping young fathers, aged 18 to 21, take responsibility for themselves, their children, their family and community with the YES! Fathers Project. The project has the endorsement of Stedman Graham, a well-known author, speaker and marketing executive, who often focuses on issues of diversity, urban youth and ethical behavior.

The young men participate in educational and leadership development components. Emphasis is placed on education and employment. Staff help participants earn their high school diplomas or GED, if necessary. The young fathers participate in community work experience, internships, job shadowing opportunities and are linked to adult mentors who provide guidance and stability.

Eligibility:

Young fathers, aged 18 to 21
Identified as being low-income
Residents of public housing
Resident of the City of Chicago

I don't know about you but when I'm over at 32 W. Randolph it feels like I'm at the epicenter of family breakdown and if there's anything I could do to fight this societal scourge I'll do it. Selfishly, I don't know why there aren't more domestic relations referral program appointments over there to help everyone out...it doesn't have to be pro se chaos over there.

Free ADR CLE @ Daley

2008-10-27T13:01:00.000-05:00

Saw this little nugget in October's Bar News:

A monthly series of free brown-bag luncheon seminars on Cook County Circuit Court mandatory arbitration and mediation procedures is co-sponsored by the ISBA Alternative Dispute Resolution Section.

The programs are conducted by the Law and Chancery Divisions from 12 noon to 1:45 p.m., usually on the second Thursday of each month, in courtroom 1905 of the Richard J. Daley Center. Future dates are Nov. 13, Dec. 11 and Jan. 8.

There is no charge to attend, but reservations should be made in advance by calling Rae Ferenzi at (312) 603-6078 or Patty Formusa at (312) 793-0134.

Seriously, if you keep your eyes open you shouldn't have to spend a dime on MCLE requirements if you don't want to.

An Order is an Order is an Order

2008-10-24T17:09:00.000-05:00

Isn't it? An order entered by a sworn-in judge is an enforceable order, no? I've been dealing with a particular judge in a case recently who seems to take the position that if he/she didn't enter a particular order it shouldn't be given as much weight or on an one occasion it should be ignored because he/she wouldn't have entered it. A default order got entered by another judge but this other judge claims she wouldn't entered an Order based on the evidence and proof of personal service. This is wrong! And very frustrating from the lawyer's perspective. I'm contemplating my next move...

How to "Connect"

2008-10-17T11:02:00.001-05:00

Well, Clinton '92 taught me it was all about the two-handed handshake and the level of intimacy was dictated by the location of the non-shaking hand...ya know is it just cupping the hand or does it go up on a person's shoulder. And then Dale Carnegie essentially takes the position that the key is being interested in others. I think Dale's a genius but sometimes those touchy feely types like "The Clinton."

Here's a piece I saw over at Law.com. Nothing too original though the handshake and business kissing analysis is funny...

The following handshakes send the wrong message:

The vise grip: A tight squeeze that crunches the knuckles implies someone who might actually pull punches, if things get tough.

The wet fish: Moist or not, grasping a hand that is weak or flimsy leaves an impression of a pushover, an individual with no backbone.

The fingertip shake: Grasping only the fingers of a hand suggests the person is too timid or weak to hold the whole hand.

The two-handed: A two-handed shake can signify real warmth and affection, or it can be interpreted as a power play...

• Women should not leave any lipstick on the recipient.

• A greeting kiss should be an air kiss or a light brush of the cheek.

• A business kiss should never be on the lips.

• A kiss should be bestowed only on people with whom you are well acquainted.

• Women may kiss men or women. Men may kiss women, and depending on the culture, men may kiss men.

Lawyer = Professional Writer

2008-10-16T15:22:00.000-05:00

I just finished up another version of our firm's quarterly client newsletter and it got me dwelling on the absolute necessity of good writing skills by lawyers. I learn a tremendous amount when drafting our newsletter writing an overview article, answering client questions, and then analyzing several cases within our practice areas. If I weren't writing a lot I wouldn't be reading 10 cases in full for a proper understanding...I'd just be skimming my ISBA eClips and moving on. That's better than nothing but it's shallow and I don't remember what I've skimmed.

Remember, a lawyer is a professional writer! I know in reading many of the letters and pleadings that cross my desk that many lawyer's don't take a lot of time sharpening up their pens so to speak but that's a big mistake. I don't care if you're a transactional lawyer or trial lawyer the fact is that your writing skills define you as a lawyer. Plus, marketing to your client base is the most important marketing you must do so why not benefit from that marketing, even before those new clients start calling.

Benefit from the Foreclosure Mess

2008-10-16T10:57:00.000-05:00

I had lunch with a lawyer friend/mentor recently who mentioned some court appointed work he'd gotten involved with recently and I'd guess there's plenty of work in this area now. The role is that of "Special Administrator" in foreclosure cases where a defendant is deceased. This is my understanding...Plaintiff files suit against Defendant(s) on a mortgage typically. A/the D is dead. Court then appoints Special Administrator to do an investigation of decedent's circumstances and to look at whether or not there might be a will or an heir out there who wants this house that is now being foreclosed but may have some equity. I don't practice foreclosure and couldn't find the basis for these appointments in the foreclosure statute. It may just stem from 735 ILCS 5/2-1008 which deals with how a trial court should deal with the death of a litigant.

My colleague suggested he found this opportunity through an attorney colleague who worked at one of Chicago's largest foreclosure firms and now this firm appoints him on many of its cases. So this might be your link to this sort of work...seek this our from Plaintiff-side foreclosure firms.

You Must Be an Expert on This Issue!

2008-10-13T10:37:00.000-05:00

If you're any degree of a "trial" lawyer or practice in any area where you're in court a lot, you must be an expert on service of process/personal jurisdiction/subject matter jurisdiction issues.

These matters impact every case that you file or defend and can potentially undermine all your great lawyering if not done right, up front. Here's another recent case on the subject where a special process server wasn't properly appointed before serving a defendant and guess what, there's not going to be a sheriff's sale in that foreclosure case because the Judgment was void!

There are few swords sharper in one's arsenal than section 5/2-301 of the IL Code of Civil Procedure. If you're not looking at service issues in any post-decree or post-judgment matters coming into your office you're doing a disservice to your clients. The classic cases we're using this on in the domestic relations field are old child support collection matters. It doesn't matter if the petitioning party thinks he/she's owed $500k, if there wasn't proper service up front you can wipe that arrearage out. The place to really look for these 301 Motion to Vacate cases are parentage cases where the case was brought initially by the State's Attorney. I still listen to these cases today when I'm sitting over at 32 W. Randolph and the State will be suggesting to the court that we see there's a utility bill in someone's name so can we just serve by certified mail, ect., ect. Well, those are the cases that get blown up 18 years later.

Lock Up the Lawyers!

2008-10-10T13:00:00.002-05:00

I strolled off the elevator on the 30th Floor at Daley this morning around 945am and there were some television cameras interviewing what appeared to be a young, female attorney. I asked around a bit and was told a Jewish, female attorney skipped a court appearance yesterday and therefore a Judge held her in contempt and apparently she was detained this morning. Of course yesterday was Yom Kippur and many Jewish attorneys may have not been in court. The courtrooms were amazingly empty yesterday.

I guess it's not only clients we have to worry about!

Chicago Lawyer Jailed: The Conclusion

2008-10-07T16:09:00.000-05:00

Just a follow-up to a previous post about Chicago lawyer Allison Smith's being jailed for direct criminal contempt of court at Daley. The First District Appellate Court overturned her conviction. Thanks to a commenter for forwarding the decision.

The underlying message seemed to be that the trial court was wrong on a substantive ruling regarding the lawyer's Motion to Strike a trial date. This error is what caused the lawyer's outburst and was ostensibly the reason for her being jailed. The facts do seem to describe a distinct lack of civility on the part of the lawyer, but the Appellate Court seems in essence to say the lawyer had good reason for her feelings if not actions and therefore contempt is not appropriate...reversed and remanded.

Hot Off the Presses

2008-10-06T18:35:00.001-05:00

Just heard this from a reliable source:

I'm happy to report that the City Council Finance Committee today unanimously passed Ald. Burke's proposed Ordinance to bar transfer taxes on the transfer of interest in marital home real estate pursuant to Judgment for Divorce or Separation,, including an amendment which I suggested making the proposal retroactive (to 1992!). I led off the testimony which also included Mario Ventrelli of the Schiller firm, Helene Snyder on behalf of the CBA and a Woman victim of the harebrained idea was was a client of mine which started this whole thing.

Note that they intend to NOT exclude business real estate, and there was no discussion of second homes.

I expect the proposal to pass.

Tribune Commentary on Judicial Elections

2008-10-06T17:32:00.000-05:00

Saw this interesting commentary in Sunday's Trib. by Roy Hofer, former CBA President, entitled 'A judge-to-be beat our flawed selection system.' It outlines the case of Attorney Kristyna Colleen Ryan who apparently won a Chicago Democratic primary and is unopposed in the general so thus will be sitting on a bench in Cook County soon.

Nothing too new in the piece, our elected Judiciary may fairly be open to ridicule and the retention elections are pretty much of a joke. But what's wrong with a 36-year-old lawyer on the bench?? I'm under 36 and not to be too immodest but I bet I could do a fine job.

But according to Hofer Ms. Ryan is "unqualified" and used "schemes" to win and her seemingly serious effort to serve on the bench is a mere "ruse." God forbid she didn't kiss the bar association rings through the screening process.

How much do ya bet he's an O'Bama supporter in the Presidential election? But he's plenty experienced to be President.

Client Trust Accounts and Bank Failures

2008-10-02T17:03:00.000-05:00

MN Lawyers Mutual had an interesting piece in its last newsletter cover the issue above. The article's fairly extensive. The general rule is that you shouldn't hold more than $100,000 of a client's money in a single bank since that's the max coverage on FDIC insurance. Personally we rarely have more than $10,000 of clients' money in our trust account. This was interesting to me:

Generally, a depositor’s account at a bank is
insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
(FDIC) for up to $100,000.4 According to the
FDIC, deposit account records of the banking
institution must disclose the existence of a
fiduciary relationship before insurance coverage
based on fiduciary relationships will be
recognized.5 Lawyers should make sure that the
fiduciary nature of any account holding fiduciary
funds is clearly reflected in the title of the
account used by the financial institution. If the
deposit account records of the banking
institution do disclose the existence of a
fiduciary relationship, then FDIC insurance (up
to applicable limits) will be available for each
client or third person whose funds are held in the
account. Under Rule 1.15(a) a lawyer is required
to “clearly identify” his or her trust account.
Designation of the account as an IOLTA/trust
account satisfies this requirement and discloses
the existence of a fiduciary relationship for
purposes of FDIC coverage. This designation
means, for example, that if a lawyer’s IOLTA is
holding $100,000 for Client A, Client A’s funds
are insured up to $100,000 unless Client A has
funds deposited in another account in the same
financial institution as the lawyer’s IOLTA
account. A lawyer holding $1 million in his or
her clearly identified trust account on behalf of
10 clients would have FDIC insurance coverage
up to $100,000 for each of these 10 clients
provided the lawyer’s and /or bank’s recordkeeping
documents the identities and deposits of
the client’s on whose behalf the deposits were
made.

There weren't any malpractice cases cited where lawyers got in trouble, even one where lawyer kept $1,000,000 of clients money in a bank and bank failed. I would guess that result might be different now with all the banks failing.

Lawyer Divorce Solicitations

2008-10-02T13:33:00.000-05:00

There was an interesting thread recently on one of the list serves I frequent. It seems several lawyers on the list had recently been retained by clients to defend dissolution of marriage (divorce) actions and upon meeting with the new clients heard that the clients had gotten several lawyer solicitations/advertisements upon the dissolution case being filed. Interestingly, one of the lawyers had sent one of these advertisements to our friends over at ARDC and their opinion was that as long as the envelope and letter were clearly marked as advertisements then it's OK.

Is this too tacky? The family lawyer equivalent of "ambulance chasing"??

Maybe, but I don't find this as distasteful as actual ambulance chasing. Granted I've never been close to involved with PI work but putting two and two together I think some firms essentially find injured people or look for recent accidental deaths and solicit them for legal services. So something bad has happened and lawyers are sort of preying on people in the midst of a tragedy. But the "divorce solicitations" have come seemingly from a search of a court's records when a real case has been filed and that person likely should need someone to represent him/her.

I'm not rushing out to do this sort of thing but I'm not too offended by the behavior.

IL Constitutional Convention

2008-10-02T13:03:00.000-05:00

Is everyone following this litigation regarding the ballot wording related to whether or not we should call a constitutional convention here in Illinois? Eric Zorn has been all over it in the Trib. and they editorialized about it yesterday too. Two cheers to the Chicago Bar Association for bringing suit regarding the ballot wording. I'm voting in favor of a convention, can governance in Illinois get worse?

I got a pamphlet mailed from Secretary of State White this week. Sort of comical actually, it lays out arguments in favor of and opposing the convention. Who's arguments are these and why does the electorate need to see them? If private groups want to lobby on the issue fine but why are we getting this drivel from our government. A particularly humorous argument AGAINST having a convention:

"(It) could be controlled by special interest groups and lobbyists..." Don't people know about our current Combine??

Your Family Law Practice...Not Always High-Minded Jurisprudence

2008-09-30T16:30:00.001-05:00

Lawyer: Pro golfer's wife denies stealing phone

Sep 29, 2:06 pm EDT

JACKSON, Miss. (AP)—An attorney for John Daly’s estranged wife, Sherrie Daly, says she did not steal the pro golfer’s cell phone.

Randy Fishman said Monday that “this is a divorce case and people accuse each other of stuff all the time.”

Sherrie Daly was freed on a $500 bond Friday after being accused of stealing the phone from the golfer’s tour bus in June. The bus was parked behind the John Daly Bar & Grill in the north Mississippi city of Olive Branch.

Fishman says he expects nothing to come of the misdemeanor charge of petit larceny. A court date is set for October 9. Sherrie Daly lives in Germantown, Tenn.

I've never had a cell phone fight before...there was that case with the patio furniture.

Judges and Time Management??

2008-09-29T18:22:00.000-05:00

Why in 90% of courtrooms do judges just set like 80% of cases at 9/930/10am? If you practice where I practice, every status hearing in most courtrooms gets set at the same time so you have 30 cases scheduled for say 930am. So inevitably those courtrooms get backed up and time gets wasted.

There's one judge I appear in front of a lot who does things differently and it's not rocket science. She spreads cases evenly in 15 minute increments from say 9am to 12pm. So there's not 30 cases at 930am and then 5 the rest of the morning. There's 2 cases at 15 minute increments and her call moves along swimmingly!

Some "Petition for Rule to Show Cause" Nuggets

2008-09-29T17:54:00.001-05:00

If you practice in the domestic relations field you need to be an expert on petitioning to hold a party in contempt of court and defending your client against being held in contempt of court. This is the most common pleading you'll deal with in the family law field. Do you know the 4 types of contempt cases? Well...indirect civil, indirect criminal, direct civil, and direct criminal of course. 90% of the time I'm dealing with indirect civil, in other words the alleged violation of the court's order occurred outside the purview of the court and standard of guilt or violation is a preponderance of the evidence standard.

So I had three contested Petition for Rule hearings on Friday morning so I have some fresh viewpoints to share...

First, you will (almost) NEVER successfully defend a party against a Petition for Rule without non-verbal or tangible evidence to support your position. I've had a couple of these lately where the client I was defending had pretty good "sob" stories...real homeless, sort of destitute tales of woe but little or no written support for his/her verbal testimony. I just don't think judges believe these tales even if they're true. In one of my recent cases I had a corroborating witness but still no paper records of tax returns of financial woes. And I'll acknowledge that the big problem here is that these clients keep terrible if any records so there's not too much you as lawyer can do.

Second, don't file your Petition for Rule until your case is really ripe. I know I've done this before as a younger attorney and I saw it Friday too. Granted this is subjective and every case has its unique facts but you shouldn't file your Petition against the dad who's legitimately unemployed and has missed a couple child support payments. I had one of these Friday, my client had a ton of legitimate doctor's records regarding his injuries over a couple years and he was some $1,300 behind in child support. What client wants to NOT have the other party held in contempt (so no jail and no attorney's fees) and all you've gotten is a judgment for $1,300?? Probably a money loser for the client after they pay theirlawyer.

4 Tech Tips

2008-09-20T09:11:00.000-05:00

From Friday's CBA Technology and Practice Management Committee:

1) Buy an orange briefcase for your computer. This lessens the possibility of anyone stealing it at airports, etc. Red is good too;

2) Put message on your PDA offering reward if returned, has worked for me three times, once with cabbie;

3) Use Acrobat for marking up case law and other docs -- can do in color and type comments;

4) Buy and use Time Map, particularly for litigators.

An Overview of Loan Forgiveness Programs for Public Sector Lawyers

2008-09-20T08:47:00.000-05:00

I suppose the devil will be in the details and it's too late for me, but here's our federal government's handout to lawyers who choose to work as federal or state prosecutors, public defenders, and something called "public interest legal services." So go to a state school, work in one of these sectors for a few years and your law school loans are gone.

So you wanna be a Judge?

2008-09-20T08:30:00.000-05:00

Well, it ain't all black robes and high-minded jurisprudence. Sometimes you get human excrement thrown at you.

Lap Dances and Legal Fees

2008-09-19T07:57:00.000-05:00

Here's the story from today's Trib. about a DeKalb lawyers who had his law license suspended for acts relating to his representation of a stripper and bartering her legal fees downward in exchange for stripteases.

Let me say for starters, I don't like to make light of the failures of other attorneys because I'm not here to suggest I'm without failing and I hate it when I see lawyers "outing" other lawyers in various list serve forums. That said, since this piece was in today's Tribune which I'm guessing gets a bit more traffic than this little ole' blog I'm surely not the primary source of publicity.

At first glance at the Tribune piece my thought was honestly, what's wrong with bartering for legal services? I have known friends who've bartered for shares of stock and horses in the past. Is a lap dance different?

However, if you read the ARDC docs (Complaint, Review Board decision, and final Order) the story goes beyond lap dances to allegations of sexual abuse. Here's a blurb from the ARDC Review Board:

This case is before the Review Board on exceptions filed by Respondent-Appellant, Scott Robert Erwin. The Hearing Board found that, as charged in the Administrator-Appellee's two-count amended complaint, Erwin represented a client when the representation might be materially limited by his own interests, in violation of Rule 1.7(b) of the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct (134 Ill. 2d R. 1.7(b)), failed to withdraw when he knew or reasonably should have known that continued employment would result in a violation of the Rules in violation of Rule 1.16(a)(2) (134 Ill. 2d R. 1.16(a)(2)), engaged in overreaching, breached a fiduciary duty, violated Rule 8.4(a)(3) (210 Ill. 2d R. 8.4(a)(3)) by committing a criminal act, specifically battery, that reflects adversely on his honesty, trustworthiness, or fitness as a lawyer, and engaged in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation in violation of Rule 8.4(a)(4) (210 Ill. 2d R. 8.4(a)(4)), conduct that is prejudicial to the administration of justice in violation of Rule 8.4(a)(5) (210 Ill. 2d R. 8.4(a)(5)) and conduct that tends to defeat the administration of justice or bring the courts or legal profession into disrepute in violation of former Supreme Court Rule 771 (134 Ill. 2d R. 771) (renumbered to Supreme Court Rule 770). The Hearing Board recommended that Erwin be suspended for fifteen (15) months.

Take a look at some of those rules...they're quite broad. I know I haven't looked at those lately. Look at Rule 770: "conduct that tends to defeat the administration of justice or bring the courts or legal profession into disrepute." Or 8.4: "A lawyer shall not: violate or attempt to violate these Rules." Or 1.7, where a lawyer's own intersts limits the lawyer's representation.

Rember, clients are not your friends! And as you're performing legal services for people, don't stop asking, what's the worst thing that can happen and how do I cover my butt if allegations are raised??

Sheriff OKs deal to ban Political Hiring

2008-09-12T11:45:00.000-05:00

Alright, I'm waiting with baited breath for the Sheriff to now function smoothly and efficiently. Here's the Sun-Times article and a blurb:

Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart on Thursday agreed to settle a federal lawsuit that seeks to eliminate political hiring in his office.

The proposed deal calls for appointing a federal hiring watchdog to keep tabs on the Sheriff's Department and could pay workers who claim to have been passed over for promotions or new jobs for political reasons. Cook County taxpayers would pick up the tab for those settlements.

9/16...More Free CLE

2008-09-12T11:42:00.000-05:00

Some free domestic relations-related CLE @ CBA from the Woman's Bar Association of IL (I think men are invited too):

THE WOMEN’S BAR ASSOCIATION OF ILLINOIS presents

A Domestic Relations Round table Discussion:

“Non-traditional Wage Earners”

led by

The Honorable Raul Vega

There is Light at the end of the Tunnel

2008-09-11T11:19:00.000-05:00

I was struck by two articles I saw recently where attorneys have successfully melded their legal careers around their passions. I struggle with this all the time asking myself what do I possibly care about divorces and real estate transactions? In other words, but for my current profession and my law firm background, I wouldn't care too much about these fields, i.e., I'm not spending too much "hobby time" in those fields.

But it seems this can change...

Here are two stories of Yvonne Ocrant and John Swarbrick and the interesting directions in which their legal careers have turned. Ms. Ocrant has successfully melded her love of horses into an equine practice and Mr. Swarbrick was just named AD at Notre Dame (the football team needs some work).

It's Just a Status Hearing, Judge

2008-09-11T10:58:00.000-05:00

I used that line a couple weeks ago and the judge who wanted to get the particular case moving nearly bit my head off because I used the line in the context of explaining why our client wasn't in court for a status hearing. Of course in this case I was correct, at least in my point maybe not my smugness.

The April '08 ISBA "We password protect everything" Bar Journal had a short piece explaining the limits on a court's authority when a case is merely set for status and a party has not properly motioned something up. In other words you're in court only for a status hearing and then someone asks a court to make a substantive order or ruling. A court does NOT have authority to do this...two cases to cite: Felzak v Hruby, 367 Ill App 3d 695, 855 NE2d 202 (2d D 2006) and Ligon v Williams, 264 Ill App 3d 701, 637 NE2d 633 (1st D 2004).

Now sometimes everybody wants to do some things at a status and that's fine. Just don't get caught off guard.

Threatening Attorneys with Disciplinary Action

2008-09-11T10:26:00.001-05:00

Chicago Lawyer had an interesting piece on this subject in the September issue (unfortunately it's not online). This issue is Rule 1.2(e) of the Illinois rules of professional conduct. Here's the text of the Rule:

(e) A lawyer shall not present, participate in presenting, or threaten to present criminal charges or professional disciplinary actions to obtain an advantage in a civil matter.

What's funny if you read the article with the cases cited, each case includes a lawyer accusing another lawyer of wrong-doing and then threatening to file an ARDC complaint against him. And of course the lawyer making the ARDC threat is the person who in the end gets in trouble with the ARDC for violating 1.2(e).

Now there's nothing wrong with filing an ARDC complaint against another lawyer and it happens with some frequency. Just don't do it to "obtain an advantage in a civil matter."

The Risks of Taking Cases at Inconvenient Courthouses

2008-09-02T12:43:00.000-05:00

I've always practiced in "volume" law firms. I don't say that as a criticism I simply mention it to explain that I've never worked in a big dollar trial practice where I think you essentially take the big money cases just about wherever you can find them because the potential payoff is worth the inconvenience. I've always worked in environments where you make your money by having a lot of say $2,500 to $10,000 cases going all the time.

In a volume practice you need to be careful not to take cases that waste a lot of travel time or to take cases at courthouses where you can't schedule multiple cases on court dates to really get good value out of your court appearances. You make your $ in a volume practice by scheduling 3-5+ cases for every day you're in court.

Because here's the risk....all it takes is one case where there's a lot junk and many, many court appearances at the inconvenient courthouse to be a huge drag on profitability. I have a case like that right now. We've had stupid problems with a Sheriff not properly returning an Affidavit for Service, a disagreement with the Court as to the definition of joint/several liability, an honest scrivener's error that nonetheless required another court date to repair. Now this sort of thing would be a pain-in-the-butt regardless but if it's at a courthouse where I have tons of other cases I can be scheduling other matters and making those mornings profitable. But when this is the lone case, then this turns into a big time waster and money loser.

Increased Order of Protection Remedies

2008-08-21T14:34:00.000-05:00

Here's an overview regarding the new Cindy Bischof Law that allows courts to order GPS tracking for people accused of violating protection orders who are let out on bail and determined to be at high risk for violence. It also allows judges to put a convicted violator on a GPS ankle bracelet.

What I don't like about the new law is it seems to NOT apply in any way to civil orders of protection. Granted I'm just speaking from the perspective of one individual but I see many, many more civil orders of protection than I do criminal orders of protection.

Why not add a new remedy to the Domestic Violence Act?

The "Interesting" Reasons Why Clients Choose Attorneys

2008-08-18T12:21:00.000-05:00

I witnessed an interesting/sad/eye-opening example of attorney selection last week at Daley that unfortunately probably speaks to the stupid reasons why client's choose lawyers and I suppose should emphasize the importance of client education as part of your marketing.

So here's what happened...

I have a case set for hearing and I'm defending my client in a sort of run-of-the-mill Petition for Rule to Show Cause (asking to find my client in contempt of court) regarding non-payment of child support. This is fairly severe stuff where my client can potentially be jailed for up to six months. Well, the opposing attorney doesn't think that she needs to have her client or any witnesses for that matter to put on the case. Her client's the petitioning party. The case gets called and the judge explains that of course you have to have your client here and the hearing got re-scheduled.

A few minutes later I'm out in the hallway speaking with my client and the other lawyer walks out of the courtroom and quickly followed by a gentleman who had been sitting in the courtroom gallery. He stops the lawyer, introduces himself, asks for a business card and seemingly was interested in possibly having this attorney represent him (granted I don't know if this guy has ended up becoming a client).

But I just found this turn of events fairly jaw-dropping. Here's a lawyer who doesn't even know that a client/witness has to be brought to a hearing to prove her case and then a potential client whom I think was in the courtroom while I and the other attorney were before the judge is actively seeking her out regarding potential representation.

I suppose there are many teaching points from this example...like more than you think client's choose attorneys for totally superficial reasons like physical appearance, but I would emphasize just the importance of client education as part of your marketing efforts. We can't solve consumer ignorance completely but your marketing efforts can educate clients and show potential clients what you know.

Thick Skin and Attorney Withdrawal

2008-08-07T13:18:00.000-05:00

I think the fact of withdrawing from a case is one of the ways that attorney's are too non-businesslike. Name a service provider that you use that wouldn't stop service if their bill went unpaid for more than 2-3 months. And yet I see lawyers staying in cases way too long. Withdrawing from a case must be a pure business decision...work on pro bono cases in areas that you're passionate about don't let your pro bono work be involuntary.

I saw a good example of proper attorney withdrawal yesterday...sort of funny actually. I was up on the 30th Floor at Daley meeting with the opposing attorney and his client on a case. I was in court defending a motion the attorney had filed relating to various post-divorce things, primarily selling a former marital residence. Well, after speaking for a while the opposing client grew frustrated and said simply, I'm not signing a listing agreement to sell the home. That was the main purpose of being in court and then she's goes on about her interests "not being represented."

Well, we had our case called and the attorney was granted leave to withdraw on the spot. This happens to be in a 3-4 year divorce that went through a contested trial and this attorney got a good judgment for the client. And I know he has a nice sized lien on the marital residence so he'll get paid eventually.

Always fire clients when necessary.

I Always Miss All the Fun

2008-08-07T10:18:00.000-05:00

Saw this little nugget today and heard about it on Chicago Public Radio:

Cook County Circuit Clerk's office evacuated at Daley Center after bomb threat.

I was at Daley until about 11:50am so I must have just missed the dramatics. The piece isn't too specific but it must have been room 802. And who doesn't love the practice of family law...

Police were investigating whether the incident was related to a bomb threat involving a pending domestic court case.

Non-Engagement Letter

2008-07-30T11:33:00.000-05:00

I just found myself doing one of these so I thought I'd post what we use to communicate with non-clients the fact that we're not representing them. You do not want to unwittingly create an attorney-client relationship when you don't actually want to represent someone. Also, having just renewed a malpractice policy I recall that the use of non-engagement letters is one of the questions on a malpractice application and not using them likely impacts your premium for the worse.

Here's our non-engagement letter:

Thank you for your time and consideration. I have appreciated the opportunity to talk with you and discuss our firm’s potential representation of you regarding various pending domestic relations related matters. I have reviewed the information you provided me, but for various reasons, we have decided not to represent you in these matters.

In declining, we express no opinion of the merit of your case or the potential for its success or failure. You should seek legal assistance from another attorney.

Please note there is a limited amount of time for you to pursue this matter. If you are to proceed, you should do so with haste. Time could be critically short. I recommend that you immediately contact another attorney for assistance. The Chicago Bar Association has a lawyer referral service and can be contacted at 312-554-2001.

Please email or call if there are questions or if there are additional legal needs more suited to our practice areas.

Report on Conditions at Cook County Jail

2008-07-25T14:38:00.000-05:00

If you need some interesting reading of a public policy nature to read over the weekend why not try out the Justice Department's review of the Cook County Jail...here's the full report, the U.S. Attorney's press release, and the Chicago Tribune's treatment of the report's release.

Note the Sheriff's response saying he felt betrayed because they allowed the Justice Department access...only in Chicago. It was pursuant to federal law Mr. Sheriff.

Here's just one of many, many troubling examples from the report...

In July 2006, Lonnie L., 59-years-old, was leaving the
medical area of intake and heading to the bullpen.
When he turned around to get more medication, an
officer told him not to return to the medical area.
Lonnie did not obey the order. The officer came into
the medical area and hit Lonnie on the mouth. When
Lonnie fell to the ground, the officer kicked him and
again struck him in the mouth, knocking out a tooth.
The officer dragged Lonnie by the pants out of the
medical area. During Lonnie's intake strip search, the
same officer hit him in the back with a cane. Three
inmates testified that they witnessed the incident.
Medical records indicated injury to Lonnie's ribs and
lung. CCJ found abuse and recommended that the officer
be terminated.

Tell a Story about Yourself...

2008-07-25T13:39:00.000-05:00

A good advice piece regarding developing your "elevator speech."

Here's a simple three step model to describing yourself:

Meaningful minute. Civiello advises clients preparing lengthy presentations to start by distilling their messages into 60 seconds. Her basic formula goes like this: "Say who you are, what you do, and why you do it better."

When clients stumble over the third part she asks, "What do you contribute? Why is the world a better place because of what you do?" If that's a little too grandiose, consider what sets your performance apart. How is your contribution different from others?

I'd Like to Stop Beating Up on the Cook County Sheriff, BUT...

2008-07-23T14:25:00.002-05:00

The facts are hard to ignore.

I had an incarcerated client with a court date set for yesterday. And after waiting for some time in the courtroom, one of the Sheriff's deputies explains to me that my client wasn't going to be brought in yesterday...or more simply, the Cook County Sheriff forgot to bring my client to court! We've posted about difficulty with the Sheriff previously here and here regarding service of process and previous difficulty with the jail.

But in the case of my client yesterday, so the case got continued until today when the Sheriff did bring my client in and my client got released as I expect would have happened yesterday if he'd gotten to court. Those lost days are nothing to kid about and I'm starting to think the federal court may be wanting to put a value on those civil rights violations...the strange ways in which new practice areas come about.

Follow the Path of the Summons/Affidavit Return...

2008-07-16T15:00:00.002-05:00

It sounds like some sort of kids game doesn't it? Unfortunately this "game" can be a pain in the @$%$#@ when the Cook County Sheriff's proof of service affidavit doesn't find its way to the court file like it's supposed to.

This was a new one for me earlier this week. This was one of those rare cases where the Sheriff actually made effective service on a defendant in a case (or at least they said they did). Case was in District 5 Bridgeview but the summons had been placed down in room 701 at Daley. So the week before our trial date (forcible entry and detainer case) we verify with the Sheriff that there's been good service over the phone. Then I get down to court Monday and there's no Sheriff's Deputy's affidavit in the court file. I run down to the Sheriff's branch office in Bridgeview and they present me with some printout (not an affidavit as required by IL Rules of Civ. Pro) that says there's been good service...judge says not good enough (some judges will take this as proof of service). Well, this didn't exactly get my Monday off to a great start.

Today I follow-up on the matter in room 701 at Daley since that's where the original summons had been placed for service. Beyond getting terrible customer service their answer is "we sent the affidavit to the Circuit Clerk in District 5." Maybe they did...the greater fault MAY lie with the Circuit Clerk but who mails anything important without making a copy?? But no they didn't have one. We'll check with the Circuit Clerk in Bridgeview but I'm not getting my hopes up.

Aside from the quality of government issues we have in Cook County, I think the above may cause me to try and deal with the branch Sheriff offices more often rather than placing most of our stuff for service at Daley Center. By doing this at least the step of the Sheriff getting proof of service from Daley Center to the suburban courthouses is eliminated.

Free Conference Call Software

2008-07-08T17:55:00.002-05:00

Here's another free Web-based service I recently discovered: Rondee.com. They offer free, Web-based conference calls for up to 100 participants. This is a great service for the home office lawyer who doesn't have an extensive and expensive telephone system. Just use your cell!

The Pace of Justice at 32 W. Randolph

2008-07-08T17:43:00.002-05:00

I had a pretrial conference over in courtroom 1403 over at 32 W. Randolph today with Judge Reynolds. She's a nice edition to the team over there...it's a very difficult court call.

By way of a little background, the court at 32 W. Randolph deals with parentage cases...child-related matters like custody, support, visitation, ect. when the parents aren't married. If there's contention over any child custody issues, the parties are required to attend mediation. The parents come back for a "mediation intake" date, attend 2-3 sessions of mediation, and then there's a mediation status court date after the mediation is completed.

In court today the earliest available dates for mediation intake were late October and for the follow-up mediation status court date March. If you're going to require mediation how 'bout investing in a couple more mediators.

Free Invoicing Software from Intuit

2008-07-08T17:36:00.002-05:00

There's nothing more important than getting clients to pay your bills. I recently experimented with Billing Manager from Intuit, a free, online invoicing software from the makers of QuickBooks. It's probably not a full accounting solution for your firm, but for a start-up not ready to make a big investment I like what it offers.

The invoices look good and you have the option to customize them to your firm. Also, the invoices are easily printed out or e-mailed to clients. Clients can pay your bills online if you sign-up for the corresponding credit card payment program.

More important than any legalese...Make it easy for clients to pay you!

Do Judges Earn Royalties from the Law Bulletin??

2008-07-08T17:28:00.003-05:00

I say that mostly in jest but I was handling a name change case today at Daley. There were several other name change cases in the courtroom along with my case and many of them were pro se. A name change case requires publication in a county-wide newspaper for three weeks. And as each client stepped up the judge would ask, do you have your publication from the Law Bulletin?

Not a big deal but I like most lawyers try like heck not to use the Law Bulletin...it's a rip-off.

Why encourage this?

Get Inside Their Heads not Their Hearts

2008-06-30T20:35:00.004-05:00

I saw this little nugget in a recent edition of The Economist. It was a study by Adam Galinsky over at Northwestern that looked at two related approaches often used in negotiations: perspective-taking and empathy. Although the terms are often used interchangeably they're actually different. Perspective-taking is the cognitive power to consider the world from someone else's viewpoint, whereas empathy is the power to connect with them emotionally.

Which was more successful your lawyer/negotiators???

The results of the three studies imply that perspective-taking is a useful trait to have and a useful approach to take in negotiations, and that empathy, although helpful in many types of social interactions, can be detrimental both for creating integrative solutions and promoting one’s own self-interest.

“Negotiators give themselves an advantage by thinking about what is motivating the other party, by getting inside their head” Galinsky said. “Perspective-taking gives you insights into how to structure a deal that can benefit both parties. But unfortunately in negotiations, empathizing makes you more concerned about making the other party happy, which can sometimes come at your own expense.”

So learn your opponents perspective but don't be too squishy.

Lawyer E-mail Addresses

2008-06-27T16:31:00.002-05:00

I'm bothered when lawyers or law firms do not include e-mail contact information on their letterheads or anywhere where I can find it. It's not efficient.

For example, today I needed a property inspection report from another attorney so instead of shooting him a quick e-mail and getting it returned to me. I had to call him, got voicemail, he called back and got voicemail, and I still don't have the inspection report.

Cool, FREE Outlook Add-On

2008-06-25T14:16:00.002-05:00

Checkout Xonbni...I've been using it for about a month now. Once installed it's a thin tool bar pane when you open up Outlook. It does a bunch of things with your email: supplies contact phone numbers, looks-up email threads with particular contacts quickly plus file attachments, and has some cool social networking features.

Get it for the email search capabilities alone. Find an old email in seconds instead of the less than fast "Find" feature in Outlook.

Compete with Customer Service

2008-06-25T12:58:00.002-05:00

Just a quick little post and I'll follow-up with some ideas and examples on how best to do this going forward. But this factor in business struck me this morning as I was returning several phone calls to lawyers and generally getting terrible service. Primarily I was getting pure voice mail...not even a minimally helpful receptionist or secretary. And I'm assuming it wasn't just me...if that great, potential new client called one minute after me I'm guessing she got the same lack of responsiveness. Surely you can do better?

I think too often lawyers are solely focused on their legal competence as the criteria upon which they're judged. But that's not correct, particularly as it relates to clients. I might suggest that non-lawyer clients frankly cannot judge your legal acumen but I bet they know good customer service when they see it.

Grow your legal services business through beating the competition with great customer service.

Schedule "Profitable" Court Dates

2008-06-23T07:48:00.002-05:00

I have a good compare/contrast example from the past week that might provide some useful guidance. The issue is scheduling your court schedule in a way that's profitable versus a way that's NOT.

The key to making your court-related legal work profitable is scheduling as many court hearings on one day in one courthouse as possible. As a caveat to that, I don't think it's wise to practice in courts that require much more than 30 minutes of travel time. Understand that my statement is colored by the fact I'm practicing in a large urban setting and from my home or office I can get to 4-6 courthouses within 30 minutes. In a rural environment you may have to modify this "30 minute rule." Also, I generally practice in hourly billing areas as opposed to big dollar contingency cases.

For example, last week I was able to set 5 cases at Daley Center on one day. You probably don't want to set 5 contested hearings but I think I had a couple status hearings and entered an Agreed Order on another case and maybe 2 of the matters were substantive and took 30+ minutes. But on that type of day where you have 3-6 cases up in one court, those are quick and usually easy $500 to $1,000 days often spent in one hallway at Daley.

By contrast today I'm driving 30 minutes to get a Special Process Server appointed in one case. This happens to be one of our very best clients so that's the unique factor in play here but that's a money loser trip. I'll make calls in the car as best I can and bring some work with me to do while I'm in court but it won't get close to the billable day where there's 3-6 items set in court.

It's not always possible early in your practice to set a lot of cases on each day because you may not have too many cases. But as your practice matures, I'd suggest these two rules:

1. Never go to court unless you've set at least 3 cases for that day (Obviously there are exceptions to this rule like emergency motions and the like but as a general rule I suggest the above);

2. Don't cover any courthouses located more than 30 minutes from your home/office. Speaking from my experience as someone with an office in Chicago's Loop and a home in the near northwest suburbs. I can get to Cook districts 1-4 while following the above criteria and almost to Lake County and District 5. Anything beyond that and it's a loser. I'd suggest that nearly anywhere in the Chicago area you can get to 2-5 courts within 30 minutes...focus on those cases/clients. Unlike some transactional work like a real estate closing where maybe you go a bit farther because you'll only actually go somewhere one time, court is very unpredictable and you might find yourself going to court on a case several days in a row.

I Don't Have a Problem with 2-Year Legal Education

2008-06-20T17:52:00.002-05:00

I mean God forbid there's a degree of progressiveness in law school land. Here's the piece about Northwestern's announcement of its new 2-year law degree program.

Many passionate comments about the move...I liked this one:

As a law school graduate, here's my take: great move. There is absolutely no reason why it should take three years of dedicated study to prepare someone to be a lawyer when 80% of legal tasks could be performed by paralegals with a community college certificate and a few months of on-the-job experience.

Law school is about 25% actual education and 75% jumping through hoops. Let's see if the rent-seeking, self-serving, self-protecting legal industry will allow this to happen or if they will threaten to revoke Northwestern's ABA accreditation.

Depending on one's mindset what's the problem with in essence cramming two years into three. Use your summers for school instead of working and it's easy. Who's it good for? I think if you're going into law school with a specific outcome in mind ("I've wanted to be a prosecutor from age 5") go for it. Get out and do what you've always wanted to do.

On the other hand if you're like me and went to law school with some faint notion of being a non-practicing lawyer/politician/writer I think that extra year for "discovery" is a good thing.

Free Legal Forms?

2008-06-14T15:53:00.002-05:00

Here's a new site aimed at providing fee legal forms and articles to the public: JDSupra. Give away your legal work? That's nuts. Well essentially the site is trading you the forms for publicity on their Website. Or you might consider selling your forms.

Virtual Phone Systems

2008-06-14T13:36:00.002-05:00

I looked into this a bit yesterday and perhaps this info. could be helpful to you. These are Internet based services that answer your phones and let you set-up various extensions and such regardless of where everyone's located. We have a small staff of folks all working from home so it seems ideal for our set-up.

The two I reviewed were Gotvmail.com and eVoice. It appears the services offered are virtually identical but I chose eVoice. It essentially boiled down to price, $29.95 per month for 1000 minutes versus $49.95. Gotvmail had some decent pricing options for very low minute amounts but not enough for us. eVoice comes from the same company as eFax which we've been quite happy with.

A Family Law Business Opportunity

2008-06-14T12:56:00.002-05:00

Here's a recent case interpreting the Illinois Parentage Act touching on what happens when a Voluntary Acknowledgment of Paternity has been signed by two parents and later on one of them thinks it's a mistake...i.e. one of them claims usually the alleged father is not the father. The case is unusual because it's actually the child's mother who tries to vacate the court's order against the first father.

The case emphasizes again the huge stakes of acknowledging you're the father without DNA testing. If you're wrong and you don't get into court within 60 days you're likely stuck. You're on the hook for 18-23 years of various forms of child-related financial support.

I know everyone reading this space isn't and may not want to be in the domestic relations field. But I post on the above mainly to point out the huge numbers of pro se litigants in this field and encourage reaching out to these people as a business matter. Go over to 32 W. Randolph, 14th Floor, someday...I'd say 70% of cases have one or both pro se litigants. I'm seriously considering having some high school kid stand out front with our firm's flyers.

Sorry, We Ignored the Court's Order

2008-06-09T17:27:00.002-05:00

The Cook County Sheriff that is...I mean they don't come right out and say it but sit around a courtroom sometime and observe. I often do. A couple recent tales from the 30th Floor (Daley Center that is).

First, I was in court the Wednesday after Memorial Day weekend. I actually got appointed to represent two new jailed clients. But while I was conferring with my client in the jury room there was another inmate there too. Well, moments later his case got called and he was brought before the judge. Lo-and-behold it came out that he'd been ordered released on the Friday before Memorial Day weekend and he was never released now, some 5 days over. Hopefully he's out by now but he's not my client...hard to tell.

Second, my client who was jailed for missing one court date when a Petition for Rule to Show Cause was pending (seeking to find him in contempt of court) found himself in the medium security division down at 26th and Cal. for a couple nights. Honestly I don't know all their divisions but he told me in horror that hethis guy with no criminal record who missed one civil court date was housed with all these murders and such. Fun, fun.

I say the above a bit in jest but it isn't funny especially if you're the inmate. I think the recourse is a 1983 case in federal court but it's out of my area but once was tangentially involved in such case. Of course if I keep seeing all this abuse...that's how practice areas get formed I guess.

Oops, I Forgot to Blog

2008-06-09T17:16:00.002-05:00

Well, not really but I saw that posting here and I liked the title.

No you just have a few long weekend commitments out of town, the law practice starts to really heat-up, and then there's this new writing gig and the blogging lags. I have a weekly commitment over a Technolawyer Newswire. It's fun but a bit of work too. Technolawyer has several free newsletters if you're not yet a subscriber. The big upside as it relates to this blog is I'm coming into contact with a lot of useful technology products that I'll speak about or introduce to readers this space. I mean I'll never be The Connected Lawyer but perhaps I'll leave my Luddite days behind.

Don't Send Your Secretary or Paralegal To Court

2008-06-03T14:10:00.002-05:00

I was sitting in court at Daley yesterday waiting for my case to be called and I observed a young woman step up on a case who was not a lawyer which she readily admitted. After some questioning the judge angrily demanded that her firm get a lawyer over here immediately. The young woman made the call outside the courtroom and then returned saying that no one could come over and that the attorney had a broken leg and wouldn't be available for 4 weeks (ever heard of crutches). The judge then asked whether or not there were children involved in the case (domestic relations matter) so the young woman went outside to make another phone call. After which she returned and said there are no kids involved and the judge finally granted her a 5 week status date.

Sending a non-lawyer from your office to court is stupid at so many levels. By far the biggest reason being the behavior that you're subjecting your staff too. I've seen the above happen more than once. Granted it's not the non-lawyers fault but it's akin to someone yelling at the ticket agent at the airport...it's not her/his fault the flight's 2 hours late but he/she is on the front line and will take the brunt of the criticism. Beyond that I think you're probably opening yourself up to being accused of unauthorized practice of law and you're certainly not helping your relationships with opposing counsel or the court.

Don't Be Too Judge Reliant

2008-05-22T14:51:00.003-05:00

I'm making a little confession here about a stupid thing I did recently to save you a future hassle.
I over-relied on a particular judge's idiosyncrasies to the detriment of what I wanted done. Nothing major or particularly fatal longer-term but I had a less than perfectly productive court date. Because, "our" judge wasn't on the bench for our court date.

I have this case that's been going on for 5+ years and we're now at the post-appeals stage (If you want a primer on the Illinois Partition Act just ask...that's this case). Well, we've had this same trial judge for all that time and he knows the case well. And he has this thing that he literally does NOT look at pleadings. So over five years I've probably filed 50ish motions/petitions and he's likely never looked at one of them and he shuns even your attempt to hand documents to the bench when you're before him.

And wouldn't ya know it this week he wasn't there, and his replacement actually wanted a written motion in order to do what we wanted done. And this BAD, BAD lawyer didn't have one.

That Bothers Me!

2008-05-22T14:36:00.002-05:00

Well lets see here, there are golf driving ranges that charge more for hitting off grass than off mats; loud music played in public places; and, people who have more than one hand on the table while eating. Yep, those three things bother me!

But keeping it in lawyerland here, how 'bout judges that hold-up their courtrooms for 5-10 minutes per case by drafting court orders for pro se litigants. I had a morning over a 32 W. Randolph this week and the phenomena is prevalent over there. The issue is that there are many, many cases there (parentage court) where neither party is represented by counsel. But is it really the best use of your time (and the public's dollar/time) to be spending 5-10 minutes once every say 4 cases or so to be drafting a court order while a room of 25 other litigants waits?

There are always several lawyers in the room...how 'bout asking for a "friend of the court"? I'm there for ya.

When Possible, Do the Work Pre-Court...it Saves Everyone

2008-05-22T14:24:00.002-05:00

Why do so many lawyers have this affinity for doing everything at the last minute? Even when it's not at all necessary and often hurtful.

Let me explain, earlier this week I had a status hearing on a domestic relations case. A temporary visitation schedule had run out and we hadn't quite come to a final case settlement. So, there wasn't much disagreement about setting out some additional, short-term visitation at this court date.

Why not spend a little time on the case 2-3 days before hand, negotiate an Agreed Order outside of court, and then at the court date no clients and likely only one attorney is needed. It saves time and money & you eliminate mistakes. I'm pretty darn detail-oriented but mistakes are inevitable and there chances are greatly increased when you're negotiating out in the courtroom hallway and then drafting fairly complex, multi-page orders by hand.

Looking ahead a few days on your calendar and then shooting over an e-mail or fax to your opposing counsel really is the better way to handle the above.

Looking for Work on Facebook

2008-05-10T10:33:00.001-05:00

A nice overview about how various professionals are building business and getting jobs on Facebook.

Another LegalMatch Comment

2008-05-10T10:14:00.002-05:00

Don't mean to pile on poor old LegalMatch. I've written about our firms experience with them in the past. But I did see another comment pop-up about another firms experience with them so I thought I'd post it:

LegalMatch is a nightmare. Sure, you eventually earn more than you pay, but not without significant pain. We responded to over 550 family law cases in a year and secured a whopping 10 clients. Oh yes...pre-screening....thanks LegalMatch. Pity the fool that tries to weed through the mess. Unfortunately, it's a numbers game. You have to respond to everything until you make your fee back. Great site for seeking pro bono work though. We get 5 times the referrals for no out of pocket cost (albeit a discount on fees) through Consolidated Legal Services and those clients are working and don't have the issues with funds that the majority of LegalMatch clients do.

I continue this conversation not to beat a dead horse but frankly because I still see consistent questions from lawyers on list serves about LegalMatch and I continue to get lawyer questions on the subject.

3 Years + $150k = Commencement with Jerry Springer

2008-05-09T15:16:00.002-05:00

Check him out a week from today over at 357 East Chicago Avenue (NU Law School). He'll head straight over from NBC Tower and naked cousins fighting about incest to the austere Northwestern Law School who's graduates include current Associate Justice John Paul Stevens.

Lawyer Civility

2008-05-07T14:29:00.002-05:00

I must admit that I kind of chuckle when I constantly read about various bar leaders and supreme court judges constantly harping on the subject of lawyer civility. Not because I don't think it's a legitimate concern for bar leaders to have, but it often seems like it's something these folks who are a long way from the front lines of our court systems like to talk about without actually experiencing the day-to-day grind of say traffic or domestic relations court on a regular basis. Personally I think lawyer civility is important because what's really far more important is representing your client's best interests. And if you're a total jerk to opposing counsel you're generally impeding your client's best interests and likely costing her far more $$$.

Now back to the real world (the hearing rooms at 32 W. Randolph), I don't know if people were on edge because of the rain this morning or what. But my opposing IDHFS lawyer was VERY uncivil. Just incredibly so. And it was an appearance by me not to oppose what was being done (a child support extension beyond a child's 18th birthday since the child hasn't graduated high school). I was there just to see proof that the child was still enrolled in school and then I'd be willing to have an Agreed Order entered. Yet this lawyer wouldn't give me a copy of the letter from the school (without conflict), she got upset when I wanted to review the Order that she drafted before it got entered, and she asked me why I stayed in the hearing room after our case was over. Frankly I think her problem she was a newbie attorney who's lawyer image was based more on television than reality and she's with IDHFS so she's accountable to no one. Happy Wednesday!

At Least You Got What You Needed Mr. Connected Lawyer!

2008-05-07T14:11:00.003-05:00

There's another rant over at The Connected Lawyer about antiquated court filing systems in various Illinois counties. I feel his pain and have written about the issue in this space previously. This was my experience this morning...

So I've been appointed by the court to represent a Respondent in some post-decree (post-divorce) litigation. I got appointed in March and the procedure is that when I'm appointed the judge's clerk faxes me a copy of the order appointing me. But beyond that it's up to me to meet with my now client and sort of figure out the case status. Part of that review usually means a trip to room 802 at Daley to review my client's case file. Fine...I'd rather be doing this on the Internet in my home office but that's for a past and likely future post. Here's the critical problem: I was appointed on March 24th and another substantive order was entered that day. The substantive order that was entered on March 24th is NOT IN THE COURT'S FILE; today is May 7th. What is that some 53 days? I ask the court's clerk and she gave me some explanation about "it's on its way to the warehouse" and it would take an hour to look into it (not necessarily find it). And this case is in court on May 9th. Now it's beyond a hassle to becoming a real detriment towards my ability to competently represent a client.

Emergency Motion Strategy

2008-05-04T21:17:00.002-05:00

Do you ever file these? Frankly I think a lot like Orders of Protection there's a tendency for them to be abused, but, when done right they can give you a big tactical advantage. By definition, an Emergency Motion is a motion that's presented in court without the normal requisite 5 business days notice. The Cook local rule allows these to be presented ex parte but typically you are going to give notice to your opposition by fax, just with less than 5 days notice.

I brought one in court last week with a degree of effectiveness. Your first hurdle frankly is totally subjective, will your judge say the issue you're raising is an emergency or something that should be set based on the normal notice provisions. In the courtrooms I'm frequenting I'd say that less then 50% of the time are judges allowing these emergency motions to proceed when initially presented. But, if you clear that hurdle you have a chance to get some things done. Interestingly, a big reason is often that since your opponent doesn't have much notice, she can't get her client into court and in a sense the judge is getting only your side of the story. Also, if you're dealing with a small firm on the other side oftentimes there can be lawyer conflicts that won't let the lawyer get to court.

Name Change, Change

2008-05-04T20:54:00.002-05:00

So as you can tell I had a little fun at the old courthouse Friday. Among my pleasures was filing a new Name Change case. I'd just had one of these finished up in February so I thought I knew the procedures so you can imagine my surprise when I went to file the new case in the Chancery Division and was told, Name Change cases are now within the County Division. No sweat I suppose other than having to re-draft my documents and pay the county for copies I'd previously made at our office.

And how 'bout a $319 filing fee for a name change? I think the above was my first new case filing in a couple months and a new $25 fee increase came down the pipe March 1st. But how 'bout the equity of a $319 filing fee for a name change. All the county needs to do is open a file and then a judge sees me for 10 minutes in 2 months. And that's the same filing fee as the 5 year divorce with 50 court appearances and a 3 day trial.

28 N. Clark "No Fee" Filing Box GONE!

2008-05-04T20:35:00.002-05:00

Probably not the end of the world but just don't be like me on Friday running a bit late to court over at 32 W. Randolph and wanting to avoid having to get through security and wait for an elevator over at Daley, I scooted up to the second floor at 28 N. Clark and I couldn't file what I needed to file.

Parking Costs in Fee Petition

2008-04-30T09:44:00.002-05:00

So in domestic relations contempt of court land we're often filing Fee Petitions or having them filed against us. They're actually quite informative, you really get to see what other lawyers are billing clients and they help you know the market for attorneys fees. I got one recently where the attorney has parking costs listed as expenses in the fee petition. Is this reasonable? Will a judge give him those costs? I think it's fringe.

You're Released Immediately (Which Means 12 Hours Later)

2008-04-29T10:59:00.002-05:00

Just so everyone can better educate their clients, if necessary, let me share my experience getting a prisoner out of Cook County Jail yesterday. This is the case I've written about previously. So we were in court yesterday morning and the judge "released" her immediately. That's the gist of the court's order...Respondent shall be released from the Cook County Department of Corrections immediately. This was say 1030am at the Daley Center downtown. Well my client actually got released from the Cook County Jail (26th & California) at 11pm. The client had been held over the weekend so she had some stuff down at the jail so I do understand that it was necessary for her to go back to jail first and then get released. But 12 HOURS...brutal. Just wanted everyone to know the meaning of "immediately" in this context.

If I Knew Just One Thing When I Started My Practice...

2008-04-28T17:18:00.003-05:00

Ah lets make it two...

So I'm on enough lawyer list serves that invariably and frequently some newbie asks advice in some form of the above. I thought there were some interesting points made recently.

First, and this should be a no-brainer, CONTROL YOUR EXPENSES. I still kick myself about throwing away money in the early start-up years. For me it was overspending on office space and commercial lawyer referral programs. A law firm can potentially earn you a nice living, but it's different than a non-legal start-up business where oftentimes you can really grow a business for 3-5 years and then sell it or go public. A legal services business is much harder to sell even though now (at least in IL) you can sell a Firm and your growth will generally be more slow and steady.

Second, get your 10-60 second "elevator speeches" down. Take some time to figure out how to explain to people (clients, potential referral sources, family members) EXACTLY what you do. Many people don't understand what attorneys do, and what types of cases you are and are not willing to work on. I could kick myself for the number of times I've answered oh "I'm a family law and real estate attorney." BAD ANSWER!

Be Everywhere on the 'Net

2008-04-28T15:33:00.001-05:00

Lawyer Search Guide...it's a free registration. Clients can find you!