by W. Anthony Andrews and Shontia Fox COVID-19 has drastically changed the way individuals interact. Employees project their voices through face masks, doctors diagnose patients via Zoom, and students shuffle between virtual links rather than classrooms. Legal traditions and customs also have been altered to better protect the health of litigants. For the most part, face-to-face interactions with clients, opposing …

by John E. Motylinski Last year, the Illinois General Assembly decided to consolidate Article 3 and 4 pension funds’ investments. The legislature enacted Public Act 101-0610, which created two statewide investment pools to manage downstate police and fire pension funds. The Act also laid out an ambitious goal: to transition all affected pension monies to the consolidated funds by July …

by Maureen Anichini Lemon When the pandemic hit, some school board negotiating teams put their negotiations on hold, thinking that the March ‘shut down’ would be a temporary setback. The current escalation of COVID-19 cases, however, should have all school boards with a soon-to-expire collective bargaining agreement (CBA) contemplating the pros and cons of virtual collective bargaining. In general, employers …

by Shawn P. Flaherty A foreign fire insurance board is quite possibly the most superfluous layer of government in the State of Illinois. The statutory purpose of a foreign fire insurance board is to create a seven-member board to adopt rules and procedures to expend the revenues that municipalities and fire protection districts collect from out-of-state insurance companies that issue …

by Michael Castaldo III Municipal income is generated mostly from sales and property taxes. Consequently, many municipalities rely on fines and fees to bolster their revenue. Some of the most common fees come from towing and impounding vehicles connected to criminal activity. The ordinances imposing those penalties, though, often invoke court challenges where plaintiffs claim the fees or fines are …

by Ericka J. Thomas COVID-19 has presented challenges to all of us in a variety of different ways. It has changed how we do business, how we educate, and how we communicate. For the essential industries that have been able to remain operational, business is definitely not “as usual.” These industries have had to create plans to keep their workers …

by John E. Motylinski The Illinois Appellate Court recently threw out a lawsuit brought by a chainsaw wielding plaintiff who was injured in trimming a neighbor’s tree without permission. Lee v. Lee, 2019 IL App (2d) 180923. Aside from its amusing facts, the Lee decision will be remembered for two reasons: (1) the court applied the open and obvious defense …

by Ryan R. Morton Just a few years ago, the General Assembly made significant changes to the Limited Liability Company (LLC) Act (805 ILCS 180/1-1 et seq.), partly decreasing members’ liability. Last year, the state legislature went the opposite direction, amending the LLC Act again to create liability for members’ own wrongdoing. The changes, which took effect January 1, 2020, …

by Meganne Trela When an employee gets hurt in the line-of-duty, local government agencies are only required to pay the premiums for the “basic” health insurance plan – even if the employee was on a different, more expensive health plan at the time of the injury – under the Public Safety Employee Benefits Act (PSEBA). The Third District Appellate Court …

by Maureen Anichini Lemon On June 15, 2020, the United States Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling that protects LGBTQ individuals from employment discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In a 6–3 majority decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, 140 S. Ct. 1731 (2020), the United States Supreme Court confirmed that Title VII protects individuals …