Court wary of tech abuse

Court wary of tech abuse Recent incidents of technology abuse in the courtroom have prompted the Illinois Supreme Court to form a committee to study the potential for covert documentation of court business with new types of equipment. Court officials have heard reports of laptop computers and cell phones being used to record and transmit proceedings. Some cell phones also are capable of making and sending digital photographs. Individual use of such devices for these purposes is prohibited by the Supreme Court rule against cameras and audio recording equipment in trial courtrooms. Chief Judge Robert K. Kilander of the 18th Circuit will chair the new committee that consists of seven other members of the judiciary. They are Appellate Justice James K. Donovan of the 5th District and Judges Moshe Jacobius, Mary Ellen Coghlan and Drella C. Savage of Cook County, Edward R. Duncan of DuPage County and Elizabeth A. Robb of McLean County, and Associate Judge David A. Youck of Iroquois County.
		By Jim Covington Director of Legislative Affairs The General Assembly is furiously passing new legislation out of its chamber of origin. This is a sampling of some of the legislative activity in Springfield. Mandatory sentence in domestic battery. House Bill 2976 (Poe, R-Springfield) requires that a minimum of 48 consecutive hours of imprisonment for a first offense of domestic battery. For a second or subsequent conviction of domestic battery, the offender must be sentenced to a minimum of 72 consecutive hours of imprisonment. Current law requires that the offender be sentenced to a minimum 48 consecutive hours of imprisonment for a second conviction committed within five years of a previous conviction. Burrell v. Southern Truss. Senate Bill 274 (Cullerton, D-Chicago) clarifies that in personal injury litigation the seven different health care provider lien statutes must be read together so that the injured plaintiff cannot have his or her entire recovery consumed by these statutory liens. Increase in sheriffs' fee. Senate Bill 267 (Jacobs, D-Moline) increases the current "court services fee" from $15 to $25 that is assessed against all parties in every civil action and defendants in all criminal cases. The fee is to defray the expenses incurred by the sheriff in providing court services and security. It is imposed by county board ordinance or resolution. Small estate affidavit. Senate Bill 1347 (Winkel, R-Urbana) increases the ceiling for the small estate affidavit process from $50,000 to $100,000. Negligent driving. House Bill 517 (O'Brien, D-Coal City) creates the criminal offense of negligent driving. Uninsured motorists. Senate Bill 1207 (Harmon, D-Oak Park) makes three changes in the law governing uninsured motorists. (1) Requires that the decisions of arbitrators in uninsured-motorist claims to be binding on both the insureds and insurers regardless of the award. (2) Requires the filing and publication of insurer customer affairs records under §5/143d of the Insurance Code so that consumers are better informed while they select automotive insurance. (3) Increases the potential penalty from 25% to 100% of the loss amount at issue and from $25,000 to $100,000 under §5/155 of the Insurance Code for unreasonable and vexatious insurer delay. Videotape interrogations. Senate Bill 15 (Obama, D-Chicago) is a bill that requires videotaping of interrogations in homicide investigations. Although it is a work-in-progress, there appears to be a consensus that something close to Senate Amendment No. 1 will be passed by the General Assembly. Senator Obama deserves much credit for closing this deal. Death penalty reform. Senate Bill 472 (Cullerton, D-Chicago) is the omnibus death penalty reform bill. Although it is a work-in-progress, there appears to be a consensus that something close to Senate Amendment No. 3 will be passed by the General Assembly. Senator Cullerton deserves much credit for closing this deal. Unauthorized practice of law. Senate Bill 688 (Cullerton, D-Chicago) permits consumers who suffer actual damages and any bar association acting on behalf of its members to bring suit against any individual or entity from the unauthorized practice of law based on the structure of the Illinois Consumer Fraud Act. Homestead exemption. House Bill 2208 (Mathias, R-Buffalo Grove) is being amended to increase the homestead exemption from $7,500 to $15,000 for one joint owner from $15,000 to $30,000 for joint ownership. It also increases some of the personal property exemptions as well.
		Stephen Anderson Editor Sending a knee-mail A 15-minute cab ride from downtown Chicago to 3200 north took 45 minutes the night tag-along followers of an orderly band of demonstrators swelled into a disorderly throng that throttled the flow of traffic. In those stalled cars were just as many Americans who had misgivings about Operation Iraqi Freedom, but were more discreetly considerate about expressing their views in public. They just wanted to go home, or get to work. This is the downside of the Bill of Rights, as its intent is misunderstood and misappropriated by abusers of situations. Two things about the Ten Amendments need to be remembered, or to be taught to those who slept through the class on basic civics. One is that as citizens of a free country, we were born with those rights. The constitutional bylaws merely codify them and create a basis for judicial interpretation. The other is that any right must be balanced by concomitant responsibility. You might call responsibility the dues we pay for having rights. So when we proclaim that "Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech," for instance, we agree to modify our manner of speaking responsibly, so it does not cause grief or harm to others. And when we insist on "the right of the people peaceably to assemble," we accept the responsibility of abiding by rules that describe the times and places where assemblies, if peaceable, should take place. Such a place, a person of respectable perspicacity might infer, is not a six-lane arterial thoroughfare during the evening rush hour. The bleating of "like, I mean, it's our right, you know" doesn't comfort the inconvenienced, or gain moral support. "People died for the right to protest," said a veteran police officer as he released several women who had been arrested during the March 20 disturbance. "That's fine, as long as you don't infringe on anybody else's rights." Egress from a fire station had been blocked, and ambulances had to circumvent the mob on alternate routes for access to Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Hundreds of police officers, who might have been needed elsewhere, were assigned to contain a second demonstration the next night. This being a moment of warfare, of suffering and of soul searching, there may be a more effective way to advocate peace. It rests within another of those rights: the free exercise of religion. Rather than shriek slogans and epithets that no one in power can hear, the vindicators of both pro and con should disperse into myriad sanctuaries where meaningful prayer has a better chance of being heeded. Imagine the headlines if those thousands of dissidents had thronged into churches and temples, instead of into the streets. It's a time for supplicatory knee-mail, a divine 911 call. The tumult isn't working. Measuring evolution by the rule of law In olden times, when Iraq was Mesopotamia and Baghdad was a minor burg 50 miles north of Babylon, the fertile plain between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers had been an opulent center of advancing civilization since 4000 B.C. It was there, almost four millennia now past, that Hammurabi, a Babylonian king and war lord for 42 years, built roads and canals and codified one of the oldest sets of laws in human history. Among the edicts he had etched in stone ­ actually a block of black diorite that was discovered in 1901 ­ was that "if a man destroy the eye of another man, they shall destroy his eye." That concept of justice also surfaces in Exodus, in the chapter after the Ten Commandments, as "life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe." No doubt much of Hammurabi's code became the foundation for civilized justice, although not the "eye for eye" part, at least literally. But that style of retribution apparently is standard among despots of the Hussein ilk. Little mercy is shown to prisoners in Iraqi camps. If our current mission is accomplished, like it or not, the emancipated citizens will enjoy humane treatment and opportunity for the first time since the last monarchs were assassinated in 1958. Junta after subsequent junta led to repression and terrorism as a way of life. Lawyers will lead the way to change. The ABA has a Strategic Initiative for Post Conflict Regime Change that promises to provide technical assistance and enable the Iraqi people to establish a government based on the rule of law. The people will be allowed to participate in the institutions that will govern them. Some say this is none of our business. Others believe that our intervention will have been the right thing to do. Time will tell. Meanwhile, don't neglect your knee-mail.
		Friday, April 4, 9 a.m. ­ Board of Governors meeting; Par-a-Dice Hotel, East Peoria. Monday, April 7, 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. ­ Family Law Section certification training for child representatives in marriage dissolution matters; Quality Inn Suites, Bradley. Wednesday, April 9, 4-5:30 p.m. ­ Law Student Division program on Managed Care Liability, followed by reception; Chicago-Kent College of Law. Friday-Saturday, April 11-12 ­ Young Lawyers Division/Appellate Lawyers Association law school moot court competition; Richard J. Daley Center, Chicago. Thursday, April 24 ­ Take Your Children to Work Day programs. Thursday, May 1 ­ Law Day programs throughout the state with theme, "Independent Courts Protect our Liberties." Friday, May 2, 2:30-5:30 p.m. ­ Child Law Section program, "The Face of Disparity: Addressing Over-representation in Juvenile Justice"; Northwestern University School of Law, Chicago. Saturday, May 3, 8:45 a.m.-2:30 p.m. - Committee on Minority and Women Participation Lawyer's Workshop, "Making Corporate Connections"; Chicago Regional Office.
		Thomas' Italian heritage reflected in sports honor By Stephen Anderson When Illinois Supreme Court Justice Robert R. Thomas is honored this month by the Chicagoland chapter of the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame, it will be in part a tribute to his parents. The justice's mother emigrated from Italy's Abruzzi region at the age of five, and his father, a native of France who taught him to play soccer, came from the Tuscany region. Justice Thomas will be recognized by the Hall of Fame chapter as its 2003 Man of the Year during the Festa Primavera XIV dinner dance Saturday, April 26, at the Diplomat West in Elmhurst. Although he has been a lawyer since 1981 and a judge since 1988, Thomas is better known nationally as a record-setting placekicker for the Chicago Bears and two other National Football League teams. A high school soccer star who put his talented toe to work on the University of Notre Dame gridiron, he kicked the winning field goal when the Fighting Irish defeated Alabama in the 1973 Sugar Bowl and were picked as national champions. Thomas was an Academic All-American in 1974 and was inducted into the Academic All-American Hall of Fame in 1996, but despite the laurels he earned, he had his share of disappointments in professional football. He was drafted out of college by the Los Angeles Rams, but he was cut from the team before his first season began. The Bears acquired him on waivers in 1975, and he starred in Chicago for a decade. But although Thomas had his best year in 1984, making 22 field goals in 28 attempts, he was released by the Bears before they started the 1985 season that culminated in victory in Super Bowl XX. He played in 15 games for the San Diego Chargers and finished his career in 1986 with the New York Giants, retiring after an ankle injury shelved him on injured reserve. Fortunately, Thomas had already begun to practice law in St. Charles and Geneva. He had earned his law degree from the Loyola University School of Law over a four-year period of classes at night and between football seasons. "I can see some carryover benefit from having faced the pressures of being an NFL kicker to my current position, facing the pressure relating to deciding important cases," Thomas told the DuPage County Bar Association in 2000, when he ran for the Supreme Court. Elected to the 18th Circuit Court in 1988, Thomas was acting chief judge from 1989 until 1994, when he was elected to the Appellate Court. In 2000, he achieved victory in the Super Bowl of judicial playoffs - election to the Supreme Court. The DuPage County Bar honored him as Lawyer of the Year in June 2001, and in the following September he also received the Justinian Society Award of Excellence. The National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame event on April 26 will begin with a 6:30 p.m. reception and 7:30 p.m. dinner. For information and reservations, call Jim Talerico at (708) 917-8028 or (708) 671-0699.
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