Illinois Lawyer Blog

The Chicago Tribune ran an interesting article the other day involving the complications that may arise because a jury foreman forgot to disclose some important facts. Several weeks ago a wrongful termination case concluded in the courtroom of Circuit Court Judge Jame McCarthy. In that case, attorney James Crowley had sued his former employer, Chicago State Un… Read More

Saw some coverage on this on the internet the other day. A Donald Adams of Pennsylvania agreed to go on a fishing trip with some relatives. The “lodge” at which they were staying lacked indoor plumbing. Instead, it offered portable toilets similar to that shown below. When Donald went outside to do his business, his companions decided to engage in… Read More

Recently I was knee deep in a couple of cases where settlement appeared unlikely. One case was scheduled for trial setting in a week or so and I was scrambling around getting my ducks in a row. I had to get the evidence deposition of the surgeon who operated on my client. He is not a great witness. And I was worried about how I would properly communicate the n… Read More

Kim Nguyen, a 27 year old pharmacist, is raising some disturbing allegations about the conduct of two Los Angeles Police officers. Nguyen claims that she was waiting for a taxi after a night out with two friends. A police car rolled up and the officers began to question the group. According to Nguyen, the officers then declared that she was drunk, handcuffed h… Read More

David Beck, a former president of the State Bar of Texas and American College of Trial Lawyers published an article in the the Texas Bar Journal in December of 2013. In it, he discussed the dirty little secret in the legal world – that there is an indisputable decline in the number of jury and non-jury trials in the United States. In the article, Beck fo… Read More

Saw this terrible story out of Hawaii earlier this week. Finely Boyle, the cute little girl pictured above, was seen by her dentist, Lilly Geyer of Island Dental in November. Dr. Geyer indicated the little girl had multiple cavities and needed several root canals. Finely returned on December 3 for the suggested dental work. She was given a mixture of drugs for… Read More

As of July 1, 2012, under Illinois Supreme Court Rule 243, jurors are allowed to ask questions of witnesses at civil trial in Illinois. I just completed a short jury trial about 10 days ago where I had a very inquisitive jury – they asked LOTS of questions. The whole process went fairly smoothly, in part because the trial judge had a very practical and e… Read More

Great article in the Chicago Tribune last Friday by Michael Hawthorne and Sam Roe. For decades, furniture manufacturers in the United States have poured pounds of toxic chemicals into their products in order to comply with a particular flammability standard out of California – specifically known as Technical Bulletin 117. TB 117 was responsible for the p… Read More