Illinois Lawyer Referrals and Legal Guidance

Archive for February, 2010

It’s really about who your Illinois criminal defense lawyer knows

Friday, February 26th, 2010

One of the major principles in hiring a criminal attorney in Illinois for most charges is getting a lawyer that focuses on criminal defense AND is very well connected. Just the other day this point was really well demonstrated.

A man called us after the police came knocking on his door. Long story short is that his former employer is accusing him of theft because they over-paid for months and he never told anyone about it. Eventually they figured it out and instead of asking him to reimburse them, they went straight to the police.

Nervously they called us and we recommended a former prosecutor in the county where the case would take place. He happened to be good friends with the lead investigator and with one 15 minute phone call was able to convince the investigator it was a mistake and allow the client to pay back the over-payment without any arrest.

In most cases this scenario would have resulted in an arrest which probably would have cost the client their new job. It also would have presented the possibility of jail time. They didn’t necessarily hire the “best” lawyer out there, but they did hire the best one for their situation. And as a result their major problem was taken care of before the day was over.

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Tags: criminal defense, theft
Posted in Criminal Defense in Illinois | Comments Off

Can I sue an attorney in Illinois?

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

If you look around the phonebook or internet, you probably won’t see many Illinois legal malpractice law firms. That is for a few reasons. One, these cases are difficult. Two some attorneys (hypocritically in our opinion) don’t want to promote that they do this type of work because they worry about backlash from other attorneys. Three, they want to promote other areas of law instead. Rest assured though, if you have a good case there are plenty of attorneys that handle these matters.

So how do you know if you have a good case? Few things to consider:

1. Did I suffer irreparable harm? Your lawyer might have screwed up, but if his error can be fixed then you don’t have a case.

2. As bad as the work was, is it a judgment call situation? If an attorney fails to file a lawsuit before the statute of limitations is up, that is clearly malpractice. But if they don’t do what you asked them to or don’t do it well that is a tough case to prove negligence. There is a big difference between legal negligence and just bad lawyering.

3. Had the law firm done everything correctly would they have won the case? You have to essentially prove two cases, the lawyer screwup and the original case. That’s not always as easy as it sounds, especially in more complex cases where the defendants usually win like medical malpractice.

4. What damage was caused? If the harm suffered was only a few thousand of dollars, it probably isn’t cost effective to file a lawsuit. If it’s not financial harm, but emotional (e.g. limited child visitation), even if you can prove a mistake, how do you quantify damages?

As you can tell (hopefully), this isn’t always easy to accomplish, but it’s certainly worth exploring. Finally, if your lawyer has made a mistake, damages or not or if they are just unethical you can file a complaint with the organization that regulates lawyers in Illinois, iardc.org.

Tags: legal malpractice lawyer Chicago
Posted in Litigation | Comments Off

Illinois attorneys advice on malpractice, privacy, guardianship and more

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

Every Wednesday we provide five legal tips based on questions we have received from readers:

I am gay, but not “out.” I was at a bar and someone took my photo which ended up online and in print with a gay social magazine. I didn’t give permission for this to happen and am furious. Can I sue them?

No which is why magazines like Us, People, etc. exist. When you are out in public, photos are fair game. At the same time though the photo can’t imply something that isn’t true (e.g. if you are straight and it says you are gay then that would be a case).

The medical malpractice attorney I called said that the doctor that treated my Dad was negligent, but because of co-morbidities he didn’t think there was a case. What does that mean?

It means that although malpractice happened, they think your Dad was so sick that even if the doctors had done things right he would have still died or would have had significant health problems that didn’t allow him to live a quality life. Fair or not that prevents many cases from being successful.

My aunt has dementia and signed power of attorney to a neighbor last week. She has no idea what she did and we are worried the neighbor will loot her bank account. What do we do?

You need to petition the court for guardianship over her and get medical records that show because of her dementia her power of attorney should be voided. Most guardianship attorneys in Illinois can do all of that for you.

What is the best advice that you can give someone when explaining their case to a potential attorney you are interviewing?

Good question. Stick to the facts without editorializing the problem. In other words, you don’t at first need to tell them how sad, angry, frustrated, etc. you are. There is time for that, but at first just sticking to the facts is important.

I was hurt on the job and need physical therapy. I can still work, but my employer is telling me that I have to go to therapy on my own time. Can they do this?

It depends. If you can reasonably get the treatment that you need after hours then the answer is probably yes. But if you work long hours or have the type of therapy that can only be done during the day time or if there is not an option available after hours for you then they would likely have to let you do it during work hours.

Tags: guardianship, malpractice medical, privacy
Posted in Five Tips | Comments Off

Illinois personal injury laws- “You should sue for a million dollars.”

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

You’ve probably seen a newspaper headline that says something to the effect of “John Smith suing for $10 million dollars!” That sure makes for a splashy headline, but of course makes no sense in reality, at least not in Illinois.

When you file a personal injury lawsuit in Illinois (or any other type of case), you file what is called a complaint. The complaint alleges what happened, but doesn’t specify damages. In fact the only time you see money mentioned in most complaints is when at the end of it an attorneys states that he believes the case is worth more than $50,000.00. That places the suit in the Law Division which creates certain rules as to how the case will be handled.

I guess a scummy or uninformed lawyer could try to “impress” his client by asking for millions of dollars in the complaint, but it would really have no meaning and might actually hurt the case. It certainly doesn’t add any value to the case. Cases are worth what the evidence reveals they are worth.

As a client you can usually rest assured that your attorney wants to recover as much as possible for you because the more they get for you, the more they get for them. Some clients have unreasonable expectations. There is a well known story in Chicago legal circles about a car accident attorney who called his client to the office for a meeting about settling the case. He said that he felt the case was worth $65,000.00 and articulated the reasons why he thought that. His client wasn’t happy and said, “You know, I was kind of hoping for a million dollars.” Now mind you that the client had been rear-ended and had around $20,000.00 in medical bills, but otherwise made a great recovery. The lawyer looked at the client and the story goes that he told him they should ask for $3 million instead. The client got all excited and said “Do you really think we can get that?!?” The attorney said not at all, but we’ve got the same chance of getting three million as we do one million.

Ok, so maybe it wasn’t very nice of that lawyer, but it’s pretty accurate. You can’t get hung up on numbers of what would make you happy or what you heard someone else got in a case. Your case is unique to you and the facts are unique. Maybe there is a potential defense that makes it worth less in settlement. Perhaps it’s not worth a ton of money. Whatever the situation is, have your lawyer outline what a reasonable range is and how they came up with that figure. It almost never can happen in the beginning of a case because there isn’t enough information. But don’t be afraid to ask up front when the right time will be to determine what the case might be worth.

Tags: Chicago personal injury lawyer, Illinois accident attorney
Posted in Injury Cases | Comments Off

Need an Illinois divorce attorney? Tell us how you really feel.

Monday, February 22nd, 2010

A reader looking for an attorney referral sent in the following:

I’m pretty sure my wife is a demon sent from hell to make my life miserable. That having been observed I would like to divorce her.

Well that doesn’t pull any punches, now does it?

Posted in Illinois Family Law | Comments Off

Child support in Illinois- Getting What You Pay For

Monday, February 22nd, 2010

The Illinois Department of Child Support Enforcement is a State run agency that will pursue child support cases for free. They only deal with support, not custody, visitation, etc. A couple of years ago years ago I read a report in one of the local papers where the agency was boasting of how much money they had collected, stating that they had been successful for 38% of the parents that had come to them for help.

Think about that. This means that in more than 6 out of 10 cases they fail.

About 10 times a week we get a call from someone who has been trying to work with them and is frustrated. The story is almost always the same: It’s taking forever; they don’t do what they say they they will do; they don’t go after out of state parents; un-prepared at court; seems like there is a different person on the case every time, they don’t do anything with the information I give them, etc.

If you don’t have money to hire a lawyer it is probably your only option. But if you do (typically costs around $2,500 up front for good ones we recommend) then while there is no guarantee of a result, most of the concerns stated above can be solved. There is no official measure of success rates for private attorneys, but a reasonable estimate would be somewhere above 90%. I certainly like those odds better.

On the plus side, the State has been doing more things to wake up dead beat parents. Namely they are often enforcing the law (isn’t that nice) which says your driver’s license can be suspended and your passport revoked if you don’t pay. You can also get thrown in jail. We think that if the State was more aggressive with these options that their success rate would greatly increase.

Tags: child support, Illinois
Posted in Illinois Family Law | Comments Off

Illinois criminal laws: “I want to drop the charges”

Friday, February 19th, 2010

Domestic batter is one of the most common criminal charges. That certainly is true in Cook County and other parts of the State. Quite often cooler heads prevail or the couple “kisses and makes up” and decide that the prospect of 364 days in jail and a$2,500 fine is not one that they want to face anymore.

So a lot of people show up at their court date thinking that if their significant other wants to drop the charges then the case will just go away. Problem is that this isn’t how it works.

Once an arrest is made, the case isn’t Jane vs. Jim, it’s the State vs. Jim. You can’t just walk in and say you don’t want the case to go on anymore.

In fact we’ve seen cases where someone called the police, had the offender arrested for battery, changed their mind and then got charged with filing a false police report. We’ve seen the same thing happen to people who suddenly decide that they won’t testify or show up to court. If you get a pissed off Judge or prosecutor or an angry cop, your lack of cooperation can open up a whole additional can of worms.

So what do you do if you pressed charges and now want to back out on that? It shouldn’t work this way, but the reality is that you need a well connected criminal defense attorney who knows the prosecutors and can talk to them in a way that you can’t. Most prosecutors won’t listen to someone that is not represented. Part of that is they are too busy and part of it is they don’t want to let someone go who they feel is manipulating the situation.

It’s unfortunate to have to spend some money to get out of a situation like this, but when the alternative is jail time it is certainly worth it.

Tags: criminal defense, domestic battery
Posted in Criminal Defense in Illinois | Comments Off

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