Jonathan Bilyk News
Joyce firm widens effort to claim $15M fees in 20-year court fight, accuses Much Shelist of malpractice
A Cook County judge ordered majority partners in two investment partnerships to pay $87 million, including $15 million in legal fees. The partners have argued the judgment amounts to little more than a fee award to the law firm of Edward T. Joyce & Associates.
Cicero, tow biz end long court fight over terminated contract, which involved claims against politically-connected town lawyer
Defunct tow company Tuff Car agreed to pay $100K to Cicero to end the six-year-long court fight, which began with claims Cicero owed $2 million, and included unsuccessful attempts by Tuff Car to sue Cicero's town attorney, who divorced Tuff Car's owner's daughter
Loop buildings' union-only work rules not enough to back tenant's RICO class action vs Jones Lang LaSalle: Judge
The judge said a tenant from a downtown Chicago office building managed by Jones Lang LaSalle has done enough to back up their claims of an illegal "hot cargo" conspiracy between JLL and unions across 20 Chicago towers
Calumet City sues ex-attorneys, says they won't cooperate with new lawyers, who have ties to Speakers Madigan, Welch
Calumet City Mayor and Illinois State Rep. Thaddeus Jones won election in May 2021, and immediately replaced the city's longtime lawyers with attorneys with ties to current Illinois House Speaker Emanuel "Chris" Welch or indicted ex-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan or
CPS can't force teachers to get COVID vax, get tested, or get fired, Springfield judge says
Sangamon County Circuit Judge Raylene Grischow says Chicago Public Schools lacks authority under state law to enforce its so-called vax-or-test mandate, and also can't rely on its contract with the Chicago Teachers Union to sidestep the law
Kane Co Health Department: Pritzker did not discuss indoor dining ban with county before issuing COVID order
No one associated with Gov. JB Pritzker or the state health department discussed the reasoning or enforcement behind Pritzker's 2020 indoor dining ban with at least the Kane County Health Department before issuing the order and requiring local health departments to enforce it, according to answers to questions filed in court by the KCHD
Watchdogs: Woman who got COD no-bid contracts is 'public figure,' can't sue those who reported story for defamation
A new filing in the long-running defamation case asserts news articles published by the Edgar County Watchdogs about no-bid professional services contracts secured by Carla Burkhart from College of DuPage, in which the Watchdogs reported she falsely claimed to be an architect, are protected by the First Amendment
Pritzker: Federal court-appointed hiring monitor has no authority to evaluate IDPH COVID pandemic temp lab tech hires
The Pritzker administration has asked a federal judge to deny an attempt by a court-appointed state government hiring monitor to force the state to turn over details about how it hired allegedly unqualified lab techs at the Illinois Department of Public Health in the early days of the COVID pandemic
Jumio class action settlement dooms similar IL biometrics class action vs WeWork over office user face scans
A federal judge said a 2020 settlement ending a class action vs facial recognition tech vendor Jumio also applies to Jumio's customers, thwarting a class action brought against WeWork under the Illinois BIPA law
Judge: Young alderman candidate can't keep suing Madigan, Marty Quinn for 'dirty tricks,' threats, voter intimidation
A federal judge conceded former House Speaker Michael J. Madigan and Chicago Ald. Marty Quinn may have taken improper actions to keep a young man from putting his name on the ballot to challenge Quinn. But it didn't violate the man's constitutional rights, the judge said.
Judge: Waukegan teacher voluntarily joined union, can't claim union misled her, violated constitutional rights
A Waukegan high school English teacher said she believed she had been misled into joining the local teachers union. The union refunded her dues, plus $500, when she resigned and filed suit.
Appeals panel restarts class action vs Chicago over bogus Central Business District parking tickets
The lawsuit has accused the city of Chicago of wrongly issuing at least 30,000 parking tickets with enhanced penalties for illegally parking in the city's downtown Central Business District, when they weren't parked in the District
Appeals panel: Underground vault could mean Lyric, opera house owners must pay for woman's sidewalk trip-and-fall
Three state appellate justices have ruled a city permit allowing the Lyric Opera to use a storage vault under a sidewalk adjoining the Civic Opera House allows City Hall to pursue the Lyric and owners of the opera house for coverage in a lawsuit brought by a woman who tripped on that city sidewalk
Equity firm GTCR, formerly headed by Rauner, says it never owned, operated Sterigenics, should exit EtO suits
Lawsuits accusing Sterigenics' emissions of causing cancer have long included GTCR as a co-defendant, which enabled current Gov. JB Pritzker to blame former Gov. Bruce Rauner in the 2018 campaign. GTCR says it only advised other investors associated with Sterigenics' parent
Judge says online college test proctor Respondus can't ditch IL biometrics class actions over student facial scans
A federal judge said the Student Terms Respondus required students to agree to before they took online tests doesn't substitute for written consent, and doesn't mean Respondus can force students to try to sue under Washington state law, rather than Illinois' stringent biometrics privacy law
Antitrust class actions mount accusing Deere of forcing farmers to pay Deere millions to fix tractors
Five class actions now accuse Moline-based John Deere Co. of violating federal law by installing onboard computers on their tractors that control its functions, while denying farmers and independent repair shops access to the software and tools they need to repair and maintain their farm equipment
Truck drivers' class action accuses Universal Intermodal of refusing to return ex-drivers' escrow funds
The class action lawsuit filed in Chicago federal court alleges Universal Intermodal Services didn't return hundreds of dollars to drivers within 45 days of the end of their employment
Fed hiring monitor asks court to order Pritzker administration give details about IDPH lab tech hires
Hiring monitors, including an Illinois state inspector general and a federal court appointed special master, say the state has refused to divulge more information concerning how a number of unqualified people, including relatives of state workers who held no college degrees and worked at places like ice cream shops and laser tag arenas, were hired as “lab techs” by the Illinois Department of Public Health in 2020
Judge shuts off Cicero's bid to flush BNSF claims $1M yearly sewer bill hike broke federal law protecting railroads
BNSF said the town of Cicero's efforts in 2021 to force the railroad to pay $1 million more in sewer bills amounted to an illegal effort to force BNSF to help the town close a budget hole, and violated federal laws prohibiting local taxes on interstate railroads
IL legislation would OK 'predatory lending practices' in third-party lawsuit funding, boost costs for all, biz groups warn
SB1099, the so-called Consumer Legal Funding Act, would produce even more lawsuits, that take longer to settle, while allowing lawsuit investors to charge 18% interest rates, assessed every 6 months, to people borrowing money to fund lawsuits, business groups say