A federal judge has determined a state employee — notable for his public anti-union stances — can’t intervene on behalf of the state in a lawsuit it faces from a union leader asking courts to declare unions aren’t obligated to represent employees who refuse to pay membership dues.
A federal appeals panel has tossed out a Chicago federal judge’s order requiring Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown to provide immediate public access to all civil lawsuits filed in the county, saying the judge was wrong to intervene in the matter both because the state courts had not been given the chance to weight in and because the appellate judges doubted delaying access to filed lawsuits violated anyone’s constitutional rights.
A state appeals panel has said ExxonMobil can't be held accountable for severe injuries suffered by a worker in a mishap at the company's Joliet refinery, affirming a Cook County judge's findings that the oil and gas company had limited or no knowledge of the contract employer's allegedly unsafe procedures on the job site.
A state appeals panel says a man won't get a new trial in his lawsuit against the Hyatt Regency hotel in Chicago, saying a Cook County jury was not wrong in finding him 100 percent responsible for the injuries he says he suffered when he tripped and fell over a missing floor tile covered by carpet.
An organization which provides services to and promotes the role of attorneys in the title transfer process in real estate transactions has come under the scrutiny of state regulators, which has ordered $14 million in fines for allegedly allowing attorneys who are not registered as title insurance agents to score commissions from the sale of title insurance policies.
A state appeals court says law firm Romanucci & Blandin can’t necessarily use the Illinois frauds statute to escape a lawsuit brought by another lawyer who claimed their refusal to pay her $7,000 in fees violated a deal she had struck with one of the firm's clients to represent that client’s husband in court and be paid from funds the client would win in the settlement of a lawsuit being prosecuted by an attorney from the Romanucci & Blandin firm.
Amid a night of historic domination at the polls, Democrats also largely swept once more in the races for judges in Cook County’s courts, flexing their muscle not only in contested races, but also in withdrawing support from a Democratic judge and former prosecutor, who, after being targeted by a coalition of social justice advocates, became the first county judge in nearly three decades to lose his bid for retention to the bench.
In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decision to deny paint manufacturers' appeal of a California ruling requiring them to pay more than $400 million for lead paint remediation, companies could face significantly greater odds of litigation under the theory of "public nuisance."
Former Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn has secured, for now, new life for his attempt to place on the ballot two referendums, including one to slap term limits on Chicago’s mayor, and another to create an elected consumer advocate post in the city.
After a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court rejecting Pennsylvania Republicans' attempt to redraw that state's congressional districts, an organization dedicated toward reforming how Illinois draws its legislative districts, which are currently skewed to favor Democrats, says the decision could help spur reform in other states, including Illinois, both legislatively and in the courts.
While most judicial candidates are running unopposed in Cook County, voters can still help select a few of those who will preside from the bench. And voters have been asked to exercise caution when casting ballots in the General Election for at least two Cook County candidates.
Hospital groups are "breathing a sigh of relief" following a recent Illinois Supreme Court decision upholding the constitutionality of their tax-exempt status, an attorney says.
A federal judge sided with Attorney General Lisa Madigan and the Illinois State Board of Elections in a lawsuit that sought to lift a state law that prohibits independent expenditure committees from contributing funds directly to political candidates, to "level the playing field" in an elections system the plaintiffs asserted is tilted.
A Chicago federal appellate court has struck down a $10 million arbitration award to loan officers in a class action against Waterstone Mortgage, which alleged the company shorted officers on overtime pay, saying arbitration should only have involved the plaintiff, not another 174 employees who joined the action.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh has been assigned to review appeals from the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago, replacing Justice Elena Kagan in that task. However, the change may not ultimately mean much.
The Supreme Court of Illinois has unanimously yanked the plug on a downstate court’s ruling that found the Illinois Commerce Commission breached due process by not notifying landowners their properties were in the path of proposed power lines, saying the lower court overstepped its authority, although two justices disagreed with the majority’s reasoning, calling it a “threat to individual rights.”
A federal appeals panel has upheld a lower court’s ruling Chicago ordinance inspectors did not violate a woman’s right to due process by waiting six months after an inspection to cite her for allegedly having overgrown weeds, saying that period was not excessive and she got her due process at her administrative hearing.
A U.S. distributor and seller of Chinese-made vitamin supplements could still be on the hook for a $9 million default judgment originally entered against the potentially insolvent foreign company that made the vitamins, after the Illinois Supreme Court said state law and policy goals make it possible to hang such damages on others in a product’s manufacture and sale chain.
A man who participated in a Chicago city program for the homeless failed to prove he was a YMCA tenant under Chicago’s landlord ordinance, losing the opportunity to continue a class action suit against the Y over evictions, a state appeals panel has ruled.
Saying customers have an obligation to read and understand the terms of their insurance policies, the Illinois state Supreme Court has rejected the try by a couple to make their American Family Insurance agent pay for providing them with a policy that didn’t protect them against a defamation lawsuit, even though they had specifically asked the agent to obtain that coverage for them.
.jpg)
.jpg)
