When someone calls our office looking for free Illinois legal guidance, the first thing we typically say is “How can I help you?” We want to hear what you are looking for in your own words and we’ll ask questions as needed.

Sometimes people tell us they have no idea what type of lawyer they need. Other times they know exactly what they want but just want to know who’s best for their case. And other times they think they know what they are looking for, but are actually looking for the wrong thing. That’s most common when people say their case involves family law.

When some people hear the words family law, they think it means cases involving their family. About once a week I get a call from someone who says they want a family law attorney, but upon further talking we realize what they really meant was guardianship or probate or orders of protection or even just regular civil litigation.

The reality is that family law doesn’t mean legal situations that involve your family. Suing your brother for taking something that belongs to you has nothing to do with family law.

What family law is in the legal world is anything related to divorce, custody, child support, QDRO’s etc. These are cases that are handled in a specific courtroom called family law court. So it’s usually a marriage or a situation where the issue involves a child between you and a now or soon to be ex.

So if someone says they are a family law attorney, it’s really just another way to say that they are a divorce attorney. If you go to the over issues relating to someone’s death or property or suing a family member, they might take your case, but it doesn’t mean that they are the best choice to do that. If your case involves the asset of a deceased family member for example, you’d be better served by hiring a lawyer who handles probate and estate related matters on a daily basis.

This isn’t the only area of law that confuses people by its name. Workers’ compensation has to do with job injuries, not employee pay. That’s another one we get a lot of confused calls about.

All of this is one reason we started this website way back in 2001. We wanted to provide a service that could educate the public and answer any questions at no cost and hopefully in a “plain English” way. If you have any questions you can call us any time at 312-346-5320.

Business owners have the duty and privilege to mitigate their losses. This means that you could and should attempt minimize the potential losses you may incur. Mitigating your losses includes protecting your property from further loss or at the least being proactive at protecting against a current loss.

This can include taking or having taken out a business interruption insurance policy on your business. These policies are meant to reimburse businesses for financial losses they incurred due to unforeseen circumstances that prevent normal operation of business.

Business interruption insurance can cover anything from payroll to mortgage payments to relocation costs. The amount of insurance needed, and the cost of that amount depends on a business’s gross earnings and estimation projections of lost future profits as well as risk of loss.

Your policy should kick in between 48 to 72 hours once it is activated. However, it is important to check your ‘restoration period’ which is the length of time when your policy with assist with lost revenue as everyone’s different.

A common problem amongst business owners – COVID losses
A common recovery problem that businesses are currently having are COVID losses. One would think that a global pandemic would be considered an unforeseen circumstance therefore, insurance companies would cover businesses’ lost income during the pandemic.

Unfortunately, it has been found to be the opposite. There are a few policies that do cover COVID loss, but insurance companies have quickly denied them and have launched a campaign to discourage businesses from pursing the claims. An extensive number of businesses have filed lawsuits after being denied coverage from their insurance companies, and all were lost.

Despite the past failed lawsuits, there are circumstances that make a ‘good case.’ The easiest circumstance to be in is that your coverage does not exclude pandemics or infectious disease. Courts have found many clauses to be ambiguous and often decide against the insurer.

Another circumstance is proving that your business satisfies the “physical loss” requirement. This doesn’t always have to include damage to buildings or equipment. It could include safety threats or prohibiting access to use of your property. Another good circumstance to have experienced is that, specifically, the government prohibited access to your business by social distancing, occupation limits, etc. as it satisfies the Civil Authority Clause.

If this sounds like your situation at hand, your next step would be to file a lawsuit. This is a complicated process on its own without insurance companies actively working towards tricking business owners out of viable lawsuits. Insurance companies are known to be dishonest and greedy. They are currently taking advantage of the undefined aspects of COVID cases at the expense of their policy holders.

These cases can be worth hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars.
It is highly recommended that your next step is to contact an attorney. Attorneys are pricey but it is important to note that your claim would be contingency based. That means your lawyer shares the risk of a payout with you. They won’t get paid unless you do, and they get paid more only if you do. You can call us for a free consultation with any questions at 312-346-5320.

Most of us drivers out on the roads of Illinois drive a bit over the speed limit from time to time. We occasionally even feel that sense of dread when we see those blue and red police car lights flash behind us. We pull over, preparing to receive a ticket or hope that it’s not us that they are going after.

People often ask us, “Do I need to hire a traffic attorney for my speeding ticket?” Well, that all depends on the answer to this question: How many miles above the speed limit were you going?

Let’s take a look at the speeding laws in Illinois:
• 1 to 25 miles per hour over the speed limit – Usually pay a fine and get court supervision. Often you can get this result without an attorney.
• 26 to 34 miles per hour over the speed limit – known as aggravated speeding. It is a criminal offense, a Class B misdemeanor. It carries up to six months in jail and a maximum of $1,500 in fines.
• 35 or more miles per hour over the speed limit – known as reckless driving. It is a criminal offense, a Class A misdemeanor. It carries up to one year in jail and a maximum of $2,500 in fines.
• It is also possible that with aggravated speeding or reckless driving, you will lose your license.

Loss of your drivers license, a huge fine, and possible jail time? That’s a scenario you obviously want to avoid. We do recommend to almost everyone who contacts us and has been charged with aggravated speeding or reckless driving to hire an attorney to represent them. Judges respect and listen to attorneys who know the rules and procedures of a courtroom. It is common for a good attorney to get the criminal charges knocked down to regular speeding. That means it would be like a traffic ticket where you would pay a smaller fine and get court supervision. You would avoid jail time and avoid losing your drivers license.

We know reputable, experienced traffic attorneys who get good results for their clients. You can contact us any time at 312-346-5320 to get a recommendation of an attorney. The lawyers we recommend have a track record of success and have successfully had these serious charges lowered or dismissed outright in the past.

We are Illinois lawyers who since 2001 have helped people find the right lawyer for their case and as a resource for people who want to ask an attorney questions for free. Please call us at 312-346-5320 to speak with a lawyer any time.

A caller to our office was upset because she had called a bunch of different law firms and nobody wanted to take her medical malpractice lawsuit. Rather than discuss what was wrong with her case, I thought it would be helpful to tell you what attorneys are typically looking for in order to take on a medical malpractice lawsuit. Note that despite public perception, these are very hard cases to bring and win so the best firms are very selective when it comes to taking on clients.

  1. Is it clear that you are a victim of negligence? Having a bad result with a doctor, nurse, etc. is not enough to bring a lawsuit. You have to show that they violated the acceptable standard of care and that what happened to you wasn’t just a risk of your situation. For example, getting an infection after surgery is usually a risk of a medical procedure. Not monitoring the heart rate of a baby about to be delivered is usually negligence.
  2. What is the long term outcome? A sad but true fact is that a doctor can screw up badly, but if you are going to make a great recovery or nothing bad actually happens to you, there likely isn’t a case. This is because a key factor in Illinois medical malpractice lawsuits is what are your damages? It’s very expensive to bring a lawsuit (often $200,000.00 or more) so if you don’t have life altering injuries such as death, paralysis, brain damage, permanent disability, etc., then it can cost more to take the case on than it’s worth. Lawyers also look for things like long term economic loss because you can’t work any more or cost for having to receive significant future medical care or help.
  3. Do you have any co-morbidities? A common defense to malpractice lawsuits is that the person was so sick that this was an expected outcome or their poor health increased the chances of a bad result. It may not sound nice, but it’s true. For example, if you weigh 550 pounds and have blood flow issues that you feel a doctor didn’t diagnose, the insurance company for the doctor will argue that they couldn’t have done much to change your outcome. If you have stage 4 cancer with a six-month life expectancy, if a doctor doesn’t properly diagnose a blood clot your damages would likely be limited due to your short life expectancy.
  4. What is your age? The honest truth is that the older you are, the harder it is to get a lawyer to take on a medical malpractice lawsuit. It’s not impossible, but very hard to find. You could be the healthiest 85 year old in the world, but even then your life expectancy is very short. That limits what any case could be worth. So as with the other examples, if the lawyer thinks they might spend more than they can win, they won’t take the case on.
  5. How much time do you have left to sue? Generally speaking, the closer you are to the statute of limitations for filing a lawsuit, the harder it will be to find an attorney. It takes six months to a year to pull most cases together. If a law firm takes on a case right before the deadline to file, they risk not identifying the right defendants and exposing themselves to legal malpractice.
  6. Have other reputable law firms reviewed the case and declined to take it? We’ve taken and won cases that other lawyers have rejected, but if a really good law firm has reviewed your case and declined to get involved, most law firms would be hesitant to get involved. It’s expensive to have these cases reviewed which again makes lawyers very selective.

Remember of course that every case is different and not every law firm has the same standards. In other words, it doesn’t hurt to ask. If you’d like to speak to an attorney for free, please contact us any time.

We are passionate about advocating for the rights of everyone. Why anyone would care who you want to sleep with or what gender you identify with is beyond me. And fortunately the laws of Illinois agree and offer protections for people who are discriminated against based on things such as their sexual orientation.

Most discrimination lawsuits happen from bad behavior in the workplace. That makes sense because you are at the job probably more than any other location you go to. So there is a lot more time and opportunity for bad behavior to occur. That said, discrimination also happens at places of business that you go to such as restaurants, stores, etc.

The key point in these cases is to know that you can treat someone poorly who is LGBTQ, you just can’t treat them poorly because they are LGBTQ. Does that makes sense? Let me give you a good example.

A lesbian woman contacted us some time ago for legal guidance. She wanted to sue a bar that she felt discriminated against her because of her sexual orientation. When I asked what happened, it turned out that the first time she went into the bar, she recognized one of the workers as someone she had a bad Tinder date with. They ended up blocking each other on that app.

As the story went further, it turns out that this caller confronted that bad date and also shared the story with some of her co-workers at the bar. The next time she came in, a manager asked her to leave and told her she was barred from the establishment because she was making the employees feel uncomfortable.

The caller felt that the employees were uncomfortable because she was a lesbian. Objectively it felt like they were uncomfortable because of her personality and behavior, not her sexual partner preference.

The situation would have been way different if she was in the bar on a date with another woman and they kissed and got asked to leave. It would also be way different if the bar manager or anyone else said anything negative about her sexual preference.

You need actual evidence to win these cases, not a feeling. You can always file a complaint with the Illinois Department of Human Rights or if in Chicago, the Commission on Human Relations. But to get a lawyer involved, you have to have objectively strong facts.

If you feel you were discriminated against and want our opinion on that, please call us any time at 312-346-5320 to talk to a lawyer for free and in confidence.

We are experienced Chicago attorneys who help with sexual abuse cases everywhere in Illinois. Call us at 312-346-5320 for a free, confidential consult with an attorney.

We often see sexual abuse cases in Illinois where one person has authority over the other, so they are able to pressure them into various sexual acts. It’s gross. The abuser may convince themselves in their mind that the sex is consensual, but it almost never is.

While all of these are bad, I’m not sure it gets much worse than a prison employee doing it to an inmate. They may have the ultimate power imbalance as they can make life hell for a prisoner.

That’s what happened to a female inmate at the Logan Correctional Center in Logan Illinois. She was assigned to a counselor who she had to visit weekly and work with on making phone calls and getting job assignments.

The counselor would use that time to coerce her into sex acts and also would make sexual comments to her when she was on the phone with her daughter. She was transferred to a different housing unit which was supposed to mean she’d get a new counselor, but he made it so she stayed with him. He also told her that his friend who was a supervisor at the prison gave him advice how to avoid punishment if he got accused of sexual abuse.

Finally through her own efforts and persistence she was able to get a new counselor and the abuse stopped. During this time the prison received reports that abuse might be happening but didn’t stop it. It wasn’t until an IDOC employee made a complaint about the counselor that a real investigation happened. As a result the abused prisoner got sent to Decatur which resulted in her being farther from her family and unable to finish schooling she started.

She sued in Federal Court and won a judgment of $19.3 million. And she deserves every penny. It’s disgusting how she treated. And by the way, she was sexually abused for years. Somehow the counselor has not been arrested yet.

A similar power imbalance exists with cops and prosecutors. There is a suburban State’s Attorney who was arrested for coercing a criminal defendant into sexual favors to avoid a case going forward. There have been many cases where cops have induced sexual acts in return for not getting arrested.

We have helped many people file lawsuits in these situations and are always happy to help because it does feel we are really getting justice in those cases. We help everywhere in Illinois and if you want a free, confidential consultation, call us at 312-346-5320.

If you get into a car accident, especially if you are rear-ended and don’t see it coming, it’s not uncommon to feel mostly OK immediately after it happens. If your buddy is unexpectedly whipped around, it will usually create a rush of adrenaline in your system. This often will prevent you from noticing any pain.

It’s not uncommon at all to wake up a day or two after an accident and then have back or neck pain. In fact, we probably see that more than we do see people have back and neck pain right away unless they hit their head on the window or have an airbag injury.

In these situations, you likely would not have received medical care right after the accident. So the question we get a lot is, “When is too late to go see a doctor.”

The correct answer is never. Your health is most important so whenever you start feeling poorly you should see a doctor whether it’s related to an accident or not.

But as far as the case itself goes, the correct answer is that the longer you wait, the harder it is to prove your injuries are related to the accident. I’ve noticed in uptick of people who have tried to “tough it out” and end up going months without getting any medical care beyond taking Advil.

If you were hit by a car in June and don’t see a doctor for back pain until October, it’s really hard to prove that your back problems are related to that accident. At the very least it creates a really good defense for the insurance company. I say that, because during the time in between the accident and the first appointment, you are living life, working, walking around, etc. It’s assumed that if you are able to do those things that you are fine. And it indicates that something else might have happened to cause you to seek care.

For us, we encourage people to get treatment ASAP and if anyone goes more than a month without doing that after the accident, we would be hesitant to get involved. On the other hand, if you went a doctor a couple of days after an accident and don’t return for 4-6 weeks, we can make a better argument that your need for treatment is still related to getting hit.

The bottom line is that the sooner you treat the better. I hate going to the doctor too and the US health care system is kind of a joke. But if you create a gap in treatment you are also creating a defense for the insurance company. And they love to deny cases for any reason they can.

We get so many great questions from people who are looking for an Illinois attorney to speak to for free. Some of those questions we turn into a blog post. Others we save up and put in one big post every few months. Here are some of the interesting questions we’ve received recently. If you have a question you can call us any time at 312-346-5320.

What is the lawyer fee on medical malpractice lawsuits in Illinois? Is it different for trial vs. settlements?

It’s 1/3 of what is recovered. That is an Illinois state law. An attorney can’t charge you more if the case goes to trial.

Can I get more alimony if my spouse cheated?

Illinois is a no fault divorce state. While sub-consciously a Judge might think about awful things your spouse did like cheating, there is no law that punishes them for doing it and it certainly won’t increase your maintenance (alimony).

Is it true you can’t expunge a felony?

No, this is not true. In Illinois, you can expunge or seal some felony convictions, but not all. You may be eligible to expunge or seal a Class 4 felony conviction if it is your first offense and you have completed all the terms of your sentence. You may also be eligible to expunge or seal certain non-violent Class 3 and Class 4 felony convictions. More serious violent crimes typically can not be expunged. Every case is different and you should call to see if you are eligible. Note that if you were charged, but not convicted, that arrest can be expunged or sealed.

I got fired with no warning or notice. Is that legal?

Assuming you aren’t in a union or don’t have an employment contract, the answer is yes. Illinois is an at will employment state which means you can be let go any time, for any reason, without warning, unless it’s for an illegal reason. Unfair or unjust isn’t illegal.

I’m worried I’m going to get fired. If that happens does my company have to give me a severance?

They don’t. It happens often for good will and to get you to waive your rights to sue them for anything. But it’s not required by law. That said, if there’s any indication that you are being let go illegally, we often can get one for you.

If I’m worried about treatment of my grandma in a nursing home, but she’s not injured, is there anything I can do?

Yes. Call the Illinois Department on Aging. They will investigate bad treatment in those care facilities.

Why can’t I be defended on a contingency basis? What if I win the case and get sanctions or lawyer fees awarded to me?

This doesn’t happen because there’s no realistic expectation that you are going to be recovering money when you are being sued.

Is it legal to spank my kids?

It’s not and why would you want to do that? It’s physical child abuse. You are a giant person to them. You might think it’s a good idea because it happened to you, but I promise you it’s not. And it could lead to a DCFS investigation and/or criminal charges.

Growing up I loved to rent and watch movies back when you went to Blockbuster or the town video store to actually rent a movie. I loved “Animal House” but now that I’m older I can see that while it was hilarious, there is also a really disturbing rape situation going on. I also enjoyed “Porky’s” and saw it a lot, but now that I’m an adult I see that there was a lot problematic with that movie too.

But the king of movies I didn’t realize had issues is “Revenge Of The Nerds.” I watched it again recently and couldn’t believe the number of felonies that it showed, most of which were committed by the “good guy” nerds. As an Illinois attorney who has helped thousands of people with Illinois criminal charges, I could make a career off of defending all of these cases.

The most obvious one is when nerd Lewis has sex with Betty by stealing the mask of her boyfriend Jefferson. It doesn’t seem like a big deal to a 13-year-old boy watching it because she ends up liking it and making him her boyfriend. But it’s clearly rape. I can’t imagine that scene getting made in a movie today. That is the worst one, but there are others:

  • Booger talks about going to the high school to look for jail bait.
  • The Tri Lambdas Film the sorority girls without their consent.
  • The Tri Lambdas watch the naked women with Wormser, the child who is in college. That’s sexual exploitation of a minor.
  • They then sell pictures of the nude women to others on campus. That could be felony revenge porn under Illinois law.
  • The Nerds put liquid heat on the jockstraps of the football players. It’s a funny scene, but also breaking and entering, potentially use of chemical weapons or battery.
  • The Nerds do a panty raid on the sorority. There were so many crimes there including sexual battery, theft, and criminal trespass.

Of course, the jocks committed a lot of crimes too. They include:

  • Ogre throwing a pledge off a balcony. It could be considered attempted murder.
  • The coach and police seem to commit insurance fraud when discussing the fire in their fraternity.
  • There are attempts at bestiality.
  • The Alpha Betas tar and feather Louis which looks like aggravated battery to me.
  • They unleash pigs on the Nerd house which includes many crimes including animal cruelty.

There were random crimes such as:

  • The old woman who hits on young Wormser.
  • The school having them get drunk while riding tricycles.
  • Football coach John Goodman encourages arson and threatens the dean with violence.

Now I’m not a no-fun person and I don’t take offense to this movie or take it seriously. It’s part of being a lawyer that you see things in a different light at times based on what we do every day for work. And holy hell, did I not realize that Revenge Of The Nerds is as much a criminal movie as it is a comedy.

This was almost a one word blog post. The answer is no. But I’ve heard stories of this happening so often in the last year that I thought it was worth expanding on.

When you hire a lawyer (or doctor, psychologist, probably real estate agent, many other professions) to represent you in a case, there is a natural power imbalance. You might be attracted to them. You might like them. You might want to have sex with them or date them. That doesn’t change the fact that the relationship is imbalanced.

Illinois attorney ethical rules are crystal clear that a lawyer can not have any romantic encounters with a client. In fact, if you are representing a client and begin to feel romantic toward them, if you want to date them you have to terminate the attorney/client relationship before that can happen.

We were involved in one case where the client was attracted to her lawyer and began a sexual relationship with him. After a while she felt that he was manipulating her into sex with issues related to her case and personal things that he knew about her. Eventually she felt she couldn’t say no because she had no more money to hire a lawyer and she was worried he’d drop her if she turned him down.

In many situations the sex is taking place in the lawyer’s office. That’s a sure sign that they know what they are doing is wrong. And even if it’s a more proper venue, I assure you that the lawyer knows what they are doing is wrong.

If this happened to you, there are two things you should do:

  1. File a complaint with the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission, iardc.org which is the disciplinary body for lawyers. If your attorney does this they should lose their license to practice law.
  2. Call us or another law firm to file a lawsuit against the attorney. There action is a version of sexual assault. It would not be a surprise to see a lawsuit result in a settlement or verdict in the six or seven figures depending on the case facts.

If this happened to you, we would be happy to talk to you about if for free and in confidence. There is never a fee on these cases unless we are successful. Please note that there are time limits for filing suit, so time is of the essence. If you’d like to speak with an experienced Illinois attorney, please call us at 312-346-5320.