Illinois Lawyer Referrals and Legal Guidance

Illinois divorce: Learning the basics

May 24, 2013

If you’re starting to gather information about the divorce process in Illinois, here is some basic information about the process for you to consider.

• The first step is to file a document with the court stating that you want a divorce; your spouse will be served and have a certain amount of time to respond.
• In order to file for divorce in Illinois, you or your spouse must be a resident, meaning that you (or your spouse) must have lived here for at least 90 days prior to filing.
• You have to state the grounds for your divorce, which can either be irreconcilable differences (also called “no-fault”) or a specific reason, such as adultery.
• Depending on the grounds, there may be a waiting period. You and your spouse will have to live “separate and apart” for a time. This doesn’t necessarily mean you need to live in separate residences. You may be able to waive this requirement.
• You can get temporary orders for spousal support, custody, etc., as the entire process might take awhile.
• The law makes a distinction between marital property and non-marital property. Basically, marital property is what you have acquired during the marriage. This is the property that will be divided. You generally get to keep property that you acquired prior to the marriage.
• Most divorces end in settlement, with both sides agreeing to property division, support and other issues. If you can’t agree, the judge will decide. Either way, it’s pretty final. You’ll have an uphill battle if you want to go back and change the terms of your divorce.

Hopefully, you found some of this list helpful. We almost always recommend hiring an attorney when getting a divorce, especially if your spouse has an attorney. Even if things are amicable at the start, they can turn sour. Some of the things you agree to can affect your life significantly, such as spousal support, division of assets, custody of children, etc.

The law on grandparent visitation in Illinois

May 23, 2013

The law does not give grandparents any inherent right to see their grandchildren. The reason behind this is that it would interfere with parental rights, which the law tends to strongly support. Judges, however, can make an exception if the grandparents can prove their case.

The law gives parents the priority when it comes to making decisions for their children, but grandparents do have the right to petition the court, which is a formal request asking the judge to hear a case and make a decision.

Some specific things need to be proven in order for a grandparent to win court-ordered visitation. First, the grandparent needs to prove that visitation is being wrongfully withheld. This means that the parents are wrongfully withholding visitation and that the withholding is harmful to the child’s mental, physical or emotional health. The fact that a child may not be allowed to get to know their grandparent is not enough. It’s not an easy thing to prove, and an expert – such as a mental health professional – may be necessary to testify about any harm that it could cause the child.

Second, the grandparent has to prove to the court that either (1) the child’s unrelated parent is deceased, (2) the parents are divorced and at least one parent does not object, (3) a parent is incarcerated or (4) a parent is incompetent.

The judge will hear the arguments as to why grandparent visitation should be ordered, including the nature of any existing relationship between the child and grandparent, the motives of each party and whether each side is acting in good faith (and not out of revenge). The physical and mental health of both the grandparents and the child may be considered as well.

These cases aren’t always easy, but when the best interests of the child would be well served by grandparent visitation, it can be an important thing to fight for.

Illinois workers’ compensation laws – 5 things you should know

May 22, 2013

The Illinois Workers’ Compensation Act is the law that covers workers injured while working on their job in Illinois.  We have an extensive state wide network of experienced, successful, Illinois work injury attorneys.  If you would like a referral to one of them let us know.  In the meantime, here are five things we think every injured worker should be aware of.

1. You can’t waive away your rights to Illinois workers’ compensation benefits.  Even if you signed a contract that said you couldn’t pursue work comp benefits, that wouldn’t be enforceable.  The only way to lose your work comp rights is to wait too long to bring a claim or to settle your case at the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission.
2. If you hire a lawyer, total lawyer fees can never exceed 20% of what you recover.  So while hopefully you never have to switch attorneys, if you do, it won’t cost you more money.
3. Some injuries are from specific accidents like hurting your back while carrying a box or slipping on a wet floor and injuring your leg.  Others are a result of repetitive trauma such as getting carpal tunnel syndrome from excessive typing.  No matter your injury or how it happened, you need a doctor to state that it’s work related so it’s important to give all physicians an accurate history of how you hurt yourself.
4. Insurance companies will try to reduce the amount of what they pay you.  One way they do this is by assigning “nurse case managers” to talk to your doctor and try to influence your care.  You don’t have to allow this to happen and it’s usually a good idea to have these nurse booted off your case.  Often it’s the first thing a lawyer does when they are hired.
5. 100% of your medical bills should be paid.  No co-pays, no out of pocket expenses.  If you have any costs, make sure you get reimbursed.  There is no cap on how much medical care you can receive and any attempts to collect from you by the doctor can be stopped.

 If you have any questions about Illinois work comp laws or need an attorney referral, please let us know.

When a lawyer commits malpractice in Illinois

May 21, 2013

If your lawyer totally screws up your case, you’ll probably want to sue for legal malpractice, especially if it ended up costing you a lot of money. The first thing you should know is that legal malpractice cases are somewhat complicated, so not every instance of attorney error is worth a lawsuit. However, if you lost your case because of legal malpractice, you have the right to try and recover what you should have gotten the first time around.

There are lawyers out there who will help you sue another lawyer. They will likely only take your case if it’s a “good” case. This means a couple of different things. First, the error has to count as actual malpractice. Some errors are just mistakes, misjudgments, etc. The legal system isn’t always easy to predict, and a lawyer isn’t expected to get it right every time. Second, you have to prove that if your lawyer hadn’t screwed up, you actually would have won.

So a legal malpractice case is essentially two cases in one. You also have to consider what you lost due to your attorney’s malpractice. These are your damages. If you don’t have monetary damages, then there’s nothing for the court to award you. If your attorney screwed up your custody case, it’s going to be hard to prove monetary damages. However, if you are suing someone for an injury with clear damages of $100,000, then that is what you are suing to recover. Don’t forget, you still have to prove that you would have won if your lawyer hadn’t committed malpractice.

Legal malpractice attorneys will help you figure all this out and decide whether you should pursue your case. There are some great legal malpractice attorneys in Illinois, but they can be hard to find. They don’t always advertise, and there aren’t as many of them around. If you need help finding a legal malpractice attorney, let us know. Legal malpractice attorneys generally charge a contingency fee, which means that they only earn a fee if you win. If you lose, you don’t pay any fees.

Why suing the US military is almost impossible

Some of our finest soldiers, a group of Navy Seals, were seriously injured in a training accident last week and one of them was killed.  It’s not 100% clear what happened, but it sounds like they were driving a Humvee that rolled over, possibly due to someone being negligent, but it’s not clear.

These guys deserve all of our respect and everything we can give them.  They are the bravest of the brave and the toughest of the tough.

Earlier in March, in Nevada, seven marines were killed and eight injured in a mortar explosion.

While it appears that there was some sort of negligence in that case too, other than applying for normal Veteran disability and death benefits, there is nothing these men and their families can do.

The reason there is no lawsuit against the military is that Federal law bars lawsuits for injuries or deaths that happen during a time they were active duty.  That means that the widow of the Seal that was just killed can not sue anyone.  If he wasn’t married, his family can’t sue.

The only exception to this is if you are going after a party not connected to the military.  For example, it’s not uncommon for Seals to perform training exercises in various US cities.  If while undergoing this training they were injured by a civilian, they’d be able to sue the civilian.

I personally think we should do more for our soldiers, but I don’t tell people what I think the law should be, I tell them what the law is.

So unfortunately, suing the military if you are active duty is almost impossible, even if you retire after the accident.  What’s crazy is that if a retired military member is visiting a base and gets hit by a car, they’d have a case.  But if they were walking with someone who was active duty, the active duty solider would not have a case.  Crazy, but true.