PHASE ONE - IMPLEMENTATION AND EVALUATION
(OCTOBER 1, 2009 - MAY 1, 2010)
At the September 16, 2009 meeting of the Seventh Circuit Electronic
Discovery Committee, at which the Principles were voted on and approved
for implementation during Phase One of the Pilot Program, the Survey
sub-committee was created and Joanne McMahon, Governmental Compliance
Leader at General Electric, and Natalie J. Spears of Sonnenschein Nath
& Rosenthal LLP agreed to be the sub-committee’s co-chairs.
The IAALS, through its Executive Director Rebecca L. Kourlis, agreed
to assist in the evaluation of the implementation of the Seventh
Circuit Electronic Discovery Pilot Program by judges who volunteer to
implement the Principles in select cases filed in the trial courts of
the Seventh Circuit by entering the [Proposed] Standing Order
incorporating the Principles. The selected cases will be evaluated using
objective and subjective measuring tools. The resulting data will be
presented at the Annual Meeting of the Seventh Circuit Bar Association
and Judicial Conference of the Seventh Circuit, which will be held in
Chicago on May 2 - 4, 2010. The data will also be available at the Civil
Rules Advisory Committee Conference, which will be held at Duke
University on May 10 - 11, 2010.
Following that, the Pilot Program will move on to Phase Two, which is planned to be
conducted from June 2010 to May 2011.
Now how many years will it take our Law Schools to catch up?
Sunday, 20 January 2013
Friday, 5 August 2011
Legal fees for Po Bono Legal Service Providers
Many poor clients come to Legal Service Providers with not enough, or no money to pay their legal bills.
Plaintiffs/counter-defendants, Charles and Elois Pitts, leased a four-bedroom apartment in 1996 to defendant/counter-plaintiff, Vivian Holt, at a monthly rental rate of $600. Defendant Holt requested that repairs be made to the apartment and, when they were not made, attended a code enforcement hearing conducted by the Chicago Department of Buildings. Defendant was subsequently served with notice that her rent was being increased by $100 per month effective December 1, 1996. Defendant sent a 14 day request for repairs to the plaintiffs, pursuant to the terms of the Chicago Residential Landlord and Tenant Ordinance. This notice informed the plaintiffs that defendant intended to withhold $150 from her rent if the requested repairs were not made. Subsequently, on December 1, 1996, defendant was served with 30 days notice. She was also served a 5-day notice of termination of tenancy on December 4, 1996. She paid her reduced rent of $450 to the plaintiffs on December 9, 1996.
In this case, defendant's attorneys itemized 69.40 hours of work performed to defend their client against an unlawful eviction. he court specifically 157stated that the rates charged by the defendant's attorneys were low, and further stated that, given their experience, higher rates could have been charged if the defendant's attorneys had been in private practice.
This
is exactly the case for this 60-year-old Paralegal, when he first
sought the aid of Cabrini Legal Aid in 2005, and again in 2008. CGLA
provided many hours of legal work, and through the expert work of
Attorney Andrew Dougherty saved my life.
Are Pro Bono Legal Service providers to be awarded a lower fee level than other attorneys?
This was the question in Pitts v. Holt, 710 NE 2d 155 - Ill: Appellate Court, 1st Dist., 6th Div. 1999
Plaintiffs/counter-defendants, Charles and Elois Pitts, leased a four-bedroom apartment in 1996 to defendant/counter-plaintiff, Vivian Holt, at a monthly rental rate of $600. Defendant Holt requested that repairs be made to the apartment and, when they were not made, attended a code enforcement hearing conducted by the Chicago Department of Buildings. Defendant was subsequently served with notice that her rent was being increased by $100 per month effective December 1, 1996. Defendant sent a 14 day request for repairs to the plaintiffs, pursuant to the terms of the Chicago Residential Landlord and Tenant Ordinance. This notice informed the plaintiffs that defendant intended to withhold $150 from her rent if the requested repairs were not made. Subsequently, on December 1, 1996, defendant was served with 30 days notice. She was also served a 5-day notice of termination of tenancy on December 4, 1996. She paid her reduced rent of $450 to the plaintiffs on December 9, 1996.
On
December 11, 1996, plaintiffs filed an action against defendant. On
December 27, 1996, defendant filed her answer, affirmative defenses, and
counter-claims with assistance from attorneys employed by the Lawyers'
Committee for Better Housing, Inc. She alleged in her counter-claims
that plaintiffs had (1) unlawful retaliated against her pursuant to
the terms of section 5-12-150 of the Ordinance, (2) failed to maintain
the premises in violation of sections 5-12-070 and 5-12-110 of the
Ordinance, (3) breached the Implied Warranty of Habitability and (4)
waived eviction by accepting past-due rent.
In this case, defendant's attorneys itemized 69.40 hours of work performed to defend their client against an unlawful eviction. he court specifically 157stated that the rates charged by the defendant's attorneys were low, and further stated that, given their experience, higher rates could have been charged if the defendant's attorneys had been in private practice.
After
reviewing the record and the arguments of the parties, the Court found
the trial court's award of $500 not only inconsistent with the evidence
presented at the fee hearing, but also with the public policy behind
the fee-shifting provisions of the Ordinance. The Ordinance was passed
with a recognition of the historical disparity of bargaining positions
between landlord and tenants and to protect tenants from overreaching by
residential landlords. Plambeck,281 Ill.App.3d at 267, 217 Ill.Dec. 1, 666 N.E.2d 670.
The Court vacated
the circuit court's fee award, which it found to be an abuse of
discretion and unsupported by the record, and remanded the case for
further proceedings. The Appeals Court directed the court to reconsider
its decision in light of the above discussion and to enter a fee award
that is consistent with the Ordinance.
Wednesday, 6 April 2011
Republican Pushes Alternatives to Legal Aid - The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times
Republican Pushes Alternatives to Legal Aid
The
chairman of a House appropriations subcommittee said today that
private-sector lawyers aren't doing enough to help the nation's poor
with legal problems, warning that they might need to make up for
expected cuts in federal funding.
U.S.
Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) is a longtime supporter of funding for civil
legal aid, but he said the largest source of such money, the Legal
Services Corp., still faces proposed cuts from the House’s new
Republican majority. LSC and its local partners should turn to resources
from large law firms, state bar dues and law schools, he said.
Speaking
during a budget hearing, Wolf singled out for criticism the lawyers who
represent Guantánamo Bay detainees such as accused 9/11 conspirator
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
“That’s
the pro bono work? The pro bono work should be helping poor people here
in the United States,” said Wolf, the chairman of the House
appropriations subcommittee on commerce, justice, science and related
agencies. “Some of these people who represent Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
ought to consider going into the inner city.”
The Legal Services Corp. is facing a potential budget cut of $70 million
for the current fiscal year, and Wolf’s subcommittee is considering
what its budget should be for the 2012 fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.
In
a response to Wolf, who raised the subject of new funding ideas in
January, the Legal Services Corp.’s board of directors is organizing a
task force on increasing pro bono work. Harvard Law School Dean Martha
Minow and Davis Wright Tremaine partner Harry Korrell III are the task
force’s co-chairs.
LSC President James Sandman, pictured above, said during today’s hearing that many ideas for supplementing the agency’s work are being tried — for example, many law schools encourage pro bono work. As for involving more lawyers from major law firms, Sandman, a former Arnold & Porter managing partner, said they represent only 15% of lawyers.
There
are other challenges, too, said Hunton & Williams partner Robert
Grey Jr., a member of the Legal Services Corp. board who testified with
Sandman. For example, Grey said, many of the people served by civil
legal aid programs live in rural areas, where there are relatively few
lawyers to take pro bono work.
Private-bar lawyers handle about 12% of cases for LSC-funded programs, Grey said.
Separately,
Wolf said the Legal Services Corp. risks losing support in Congress if
the agency’s work is seen as political. He criticized a recent “Know
Your Rights” booklet produced by Legal Aid of North Carolina for farm
workers because it contained a cartoon of President George W. Bush
digging a grave for the workers’ wages. “You’ve gotta get rid of this
political stuff,” Wolf said.
Sandman and Grey said political statements by grantees would be inappropriate. “What we want to try to do is focus people on what they do best, which is represent the poor,” said Grey, pictured above.
George
Hausen Jr., executive director of Legal Aid of North Carolina, said in a
telephone interview that he heard about the cartoon from an LSC
official after today’s hearing. The booklet was used a year ago to
educate farm-workers about their rights, and including the cartoon was a
mistake, Hausen said. He said he didn’t know where the cartoon came
from.
“We
have some enthusiastic and zealous people who work in our program, and I
don’t know that they thought through this entirely,” Hausen said. The
purpose of the booklet, he added, was not to demean Bush, and the
cartoon related to changes Bush proposed to the H-2A visa program.
Click here (PDF) for the booklet.
Tuesday, 9 March 2010
New Nursing Home Legislation Looks to Reform Illinois
A group of elder advocate groups brought together by the AARP joined in Springfield to announce nursing home legislation that will reform the way nursing homes operate in Illinois. Senate Bill 685 was introduced by Heather Steans and Jacqueline Collins, both Democrats from Chicago. As been highlighted recently in the media, nursing home residents in Illinois
have been victims of nursing home failures. Nursing home patients have
been the victims of physical, mental and sexual abuse. They have been
given the wrong diagnosis or wrong medications all at the hands of
nursing home employees. This bill will go way beyond what has recently
been proposed in the Governor’s task force. To read more reaction about
the Illinois nursing home legislation, please click the link.
The new Illinois nursing home legislation will address many problems currently plaguing residents. The group's press release states that legislation will improve the quality of care for nursing home residents and create meaningful regulations for Illinois
nursing homes. These include disincentives and penalties for facilities
that provide inadequate care. Also, the legislation would provide
regulations that promote resident safety and a safe environment for all
older people in Illinois
nursing homes. One of the most important provisions is that the
legislation would require higher staff to patient ratios and better
training for direct-care staff. This is extremely important because many
studies have found that a home's employee to resident ratio is a vital
part of a safe nursing home. The Chicago nursing home lawyers of Levin & Perconti support this legislation and ask that everyone contact their Illinois
representatives to voice their support as well. The Illinois AARP set
up a Nursing Home Reform Legislation Hotline. We encourage you to call 1-888-616-3322 to ask your Illinois legislators to support Senate Bill 685.
