Jonathan Bilyk News
Fox subpoenas documents from Chicago, Cook County over possible past issues with Smartmatic voting systems
Neither the county nor the city are being sued. The subpoenas were filed as part of Smartmatic's $2.7B suit vs Fox over news reports amplifying Trump vote fraud claims
Doctors can't be sued over improper resuscitation of man's father: Appeals panel
Illinois appeals court says a man who tried to sue University of Illinois Hospital for violating his father's DNR can't just swap in doctors for the hospital to keep his lawsuit in Cook County court
Cook County places No. 5 among worst U.S. 'Judicial Hellholes'
A new report from the American Tort Reform Association says Cook County courts' welcoming attitude for "nuclear verdicts" and "no-injury" biometrics class actions give the county a dubious distinction among America's most welcoming of jurisdictions for lawsuit abuse
Pritzker seeks $1.5M in fees from reformers who opposed his efforts to end federal oversight of state hiring
Reform advocates Michael Shakman and Paul Lurie say Gov. JB Pritzker's demand amounts to an attempt to punish them for not immediately capitulating to Pritzker's position on the need for continued federal oversight of hiring and promotion within state agencies under the governor's control
Appeals court: DuPage judge wrong to step into fight over mail-in ballots while votes were being counted
A state appeals panel has sided with DuPage County Clerk Jean Kaczmarek in a court fight with State Rep. Deanne Mazzochi, saying courts have no ability to order election officials to follow the law when counting votes until after election officials say they are done counting ballots.
Who is bail for? Question could decide fate of SAFE-T Act
Lawmakers have made changes to Illinois' sprawling, controversial criminal justice reform law. But the changes appear to have no legal bearing on the constitutional challenges to the law brought by dozens of Illinois state's attorneys
Judge: Loevy firm, not its ex-partner Drury, gets to lead face scans class action vs Clearview
The ruling from a Chicago federal judge gives the edge to Chicago-based Loevy & Loevy in a tussle with its former attorney, Scott Drury, over who can lay claim to a potential massive payday as lead attorneys in a sprawling biometrics case against facial recognition tech firm Clearview A.I.
DuPage County Clerk appeals again to escape judge's order requiring her to follow law when counting mail-in ballots
DuPage County Clerk Jean Kaczmarek has appealed to the Illinois Third District Appellate Court to overturn a DuPage County judge's temporary restraining order in a dispute with a Republican state legislator over how she is verifying mail-in ballots are legal
IL Supreme Court rejects bid by DuPage Clerk to overturn judge's order to follow law when counting mail-in ballots
DuPage County Clerk Jean Kaczmarek had argued a DuPage County judge overstepped his authority by granting a court order sought by a DuPage County state lawmaker seeking to force her office to verify mail-in ballots as Illinois election law requires
Lawsuits: Medline discriminated against people fired after denied religious, medical exemptions from Covid vax mandate
The lawsuits say Medline used an "illusory" religious and medical exemption request process to identify and "mass terminate" people who objected to the company's Covid vaccine mandate.
Jury says Sterigenics not liable for woman's cancer, in second trial over Willowbrook EtO emissions
The verdict comes two months after a different jury ordered Sterigenics to pay $363 million to a different woman, also over claims Sterigenics' emissions allegedly caused her cancer. Sterigenics still faces hundreds of other similar lawsuits.
DuPage Clerk asks IL Supreme Court to toss DuPage judge's order to follow law when verifying mail-in ballots
DuPage County Clerk Jean Kaczmarek argues a DuPage County judge improperly entered a court order requiring her office to exclusively use voter registration records to verify voter signatures on mail-in ballots. She says judges must wait until after she has finished counting votes to ensure votes were legally counted
Villa Park school district: Illinois law overrides parental rights if they object to transgender child's transition
Villa Park School District 45 is asking a judge to toss a lawsuit brought by a father who claims the school district is trampling his constitutional parental rights by refusing to respect his wishes concerning his child's gender transition from male to female, which he says is being driven by his ex-wife
Judge: Procedures used by DuPage Clerk to count mail-in ballots 'obvious way to commit ballot fraud'
A DuPage County judge has ordered DuPage County Clerk Jean Kaczmarek to rely exclusively on voter registration records when verifying signatures on mail-in ballots, as the law requires, in a win for Elmhurst Republican State Rep. Deanne Mazzochi in her lawsuit over vote counting in her race for a new term in office
DuPage County Clerk not properly verifying mail-in ballots, Mazzochi says in lawsuit
State Rep. Deanne Mazzochi, R-Elmhurst, filed suit against DuPage County Clerk Jean Kaczmarek, accusing the Democratic Clerk of not verifying mail-in ballot signatures as required by law. Mazzochi trails her Democratic opponent by about 200 votes, as of Monday evening.
State's attorneys: IL Dems rewrote IL constitution by eliminating bail; IL A/G: SAFE-T Act protects constitutional rights
Legal teams representing 62 Illinois county prosecutors and the Illinois state officials have squared off with opposing filings in Kankakee County court, with the fate of the so-called SAFE-T Act at stake
Sterigenics: Judge erred in combining EtO emissions cases, should be handled more like asbestos cases
Sterigenics, facing about 830 lawsuits worth potentially billions of dollars altogether, says a Cook County judge's decision to allow plaintiffs to consolidate their cases into groups for trial clashes with how the courts have handled other kinds of lawsuits over industrial toxins, like asbestos
Rochford wins big, O'Brien declares victory, giving Dems 5-2 majority on IL Supreme Court
Democrats Lake County Judge Elizabeth Rochford and Appellate Justice Mary K. O'Brien have prevailed in the races for two open seats on the Illinois Supreme Court, in their respective contests vs Republicans former Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran and incumbent Illinois Supreme Court Justice Michael Burke
Cook County voters hand easy wins to Democratic judges seeking retention, including Chief Judge Evans
Voters also elected Cook County Assistant Public Defender Joe Gump to a seat on the bench in the 13th Subcircuit, in the only contested partisan election for judge in Cook County.
No ruling on lawsuit vs IL vote-by-mail rules; Judge schedules Dec. 5 hearing over two-week mail-in ballot window
A federal judge said he needed more time and another hearing to determine if a group of Republicans should be allowed to continue suing the state over a law allowing mail-in ballots to be counted 14 days after Election Day