Litigation

I recently read an article in Forbes about contesting a will.  It gave five “tips” from a lawyer, but if you read it, two of them are about how expensive this can be, one is how it’s emotional and the other one is that most cases settle. That’s not really great information in my opinion because it really is advice that could be true for most areas of law. So I thought I’d put together a real list of what you should know about contesting a will in Illinois.

1. Let’s start with cost.  Yes it can be expensive, but if the estate is worth enough money and the facts are on your side, we know lawyers who will take the case on a contingency basis which means that they only get paid if they win.  Their fee is typically 1/3 of what they recover.  So how much does an estate have to be worth?  It depends on the case and what your share would be, but in general the lawyers we know who work on a contingency want the eventual payout to them if they win to be at least in the high five figures.  So that would usually mean the estate is worth at least $500,000.00.  The bigger the potential payout, the more likely you are to find a contingency lawyer.

2. Generally speaking, to contest a will you have six months from the date the will is filed with the Court to do so or you can lose your rights to ever contest it.  So you need to act fast and if your relative that you are having a dispute with tells you that they will take care of everything, beware that this could just be a delaying tactic.

3. You can’t contest a will in Illinois because you don’t like that you were left out of it or you were told verbally that you were going to get something that isn’t in the will.  The best claim to a will not being valid is you being able to prove some sort of fraud or that the person who died didn’t know what they were doing when they signed the will.  The classic example is a will that is signed shortly before a death while the person is on medication or showing that they had severe dementia when the will was created and could not have had a lucid moment when they knew what they were doing.

4. If you are successful in getting a will thrown out, the previous valid will replaces it.  If none is available then Illinois intestate laws apply.  In cases of a parent death with no spouse that usually means that everything will get divided up among the children.

5. Contesting a trust is a little different because nothing has to be filed with the Court, but the same principle exists that if you believe the trust was fraudulently created, you have to act fast.

Hopefully this is more relevant to you than the Forbes article. If you have any questions or would like an attorney referral, call us at 312-346-5320 for a free consultation any time.

Debt collection, when has it gone too far? For one debt collector, a fax to the debtor’s employer was the line. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act was put in place to protect people who are being hounded by debt collection agencies. In the past, these collection agencies would not just call the person who owes them money, but also call friends, family members, neighbors and even the employers just as a tactic to shame the debtor into making a payment arrangement or simply trying to collect on the debt.

In this case, a fax was sent to the employer of a debtor after he disputed the debt. The collection agency sent a job verification form via fax, asking for salary and other financial information about  the debtor to his employer, several times. The judge ruled in the debtor’s favor allowing him to sue the debt collector for unfair practices.

According to the FDCPA, debt collectors may not engage in harassing or abusive conduct including communication with a third party other than the credit bureaus concerning collection of the debt. A collection agency must follow several rules or they open themselves up to lawsuits in violation of the FDCPA. These rules include verification of the debt, proper handling of disputes of the debt, and the way they handle themselves on each call. They may not harass or belittle a person who owes money, and threats of legal action cannot be made by anyone but law enforcement officials.

Have you been harassed by a debt collector? Have they called you names or threatened you with jail time or other unreasonable threats? If so, please contact us. We will help you find an attorney in your area who will look out for your best interest. What’s interesting about these cases and great for consumers is that it costs nothing up front to get an attorney to take on your case. All the lawyers we recommend handle these matters on a contingency basis.  If they win the case the Judge will order the debt collector to pay your lawyer fees.

There is a difference between favoritism and harassment in the workplace. Many people don’t understand that simply because their boss is downright mean or offensive, that doesn’t mean you have been a victim of work harassment, or that you would have the ability to bring suit against that employer.

Harassment in the workplace is unbearable. Anyone who has experienced it is aware how hard it is to continue wanting to go to work every day. Harassment in the workplace that is able to be litigated would stem from an instance where a worker was treated differently based solely on his or her race, gender, or age. For instance, if a woman was able to prove that she was not given a promotion because she refused when her boss came on to her, she might have a case. However, if the same boss called the woman a bad name or hurt her feelings in any way, she probably would not have a case.

Favoritism in the workplace is also very difficult to deal with. Everyone has that one person who the boss absolutely loves, regardless of what he or she does. It can make the workplace uncomfortable, but unless it is able to be proven, again based on race, gender, or age, there is little to nothing that can be done about it.

If there is favoritism happening in your office, one resource maybe your employee handbook. If the rules for promotion and pay raises are addressed in the handbook, you may be able to speak to your supervisor about the issue at hand. If your supervisor still breaks the rules in your employee handbook, you may be able to bring a breach of contract case against the employer. These cases are very difficult to prove, but in some situations, they have been successfully tried.

If your boss has made sexist, or racist comments, or has denied you a promotion or raise due to your age, you might have a case to pursue. Discrimination and sexual harassment in the workplace is 100% illegal.

If you are unable to distinguish if what you are experiencing is harassment and illegal or favoritism, give us a call for a free consultation to go over the specifics of your case.

You can be sued for negligence if you get into a car accident while driving your own children; IF the circumstances all line up and a judge agrees. One father found this out the hard way. He was driving the children back from what was supposed to be a Boy Scouts of America camping trip. When bad weather came about, the trip was cancelled. Many in the group hunkered down for the night through the storm, and left in the early morning after cleaning the camping site.

In this circumstance, an unregistered volunteer of the Boy Scouts of America drove only his own children back to the location and guidelines the group had in place. Along the way, he drove of the side of the road, and his Buick flipped. His two children were injured. His younger son thankfully walked away with only lacerations. His older son however was not as lucky. He suffered a severe spinal cord injury and a broken ankle. He will have motor and sensory effects for the rest of his life due to the accident.

To make this case even more heart wrenching, the person who filed the lawsuit is not only the children’s mother, but also the wife of the driver. She chose to blame the father for the accident, believing it was driving while fatigued that caused the accident. She also chose to blame Boy Scouts of America, its local affiliate, the Three Fires Council, and Naperville Presbyterian Church. She sued and the negligence suit was later settled out of court for $11 million dollars. One attorney involved in the case stated that the leadership of the entire event had a responsibility to ensure no one left the site in a fatigued state. That responsibility was not upheld.

The guilt involved in any accident involving your own child is unbearable, but to then have to go through the horrors of court with the finger of negligence pointing at you in unimaginable. Needless to say, the wife has since divorced her tired driving husband, and has taken the children with her. Both children are now doing well, the oldest son is looking forward to graduation.

The reality of this case is that although the husband was named as a defendant, it was only because the Boy Scouts and the Church were the real lawsuit targets. So don’t expect to see a lot of similar kid vs. parent type cases in the future without a big defendant to be a part of the case too. In general a kid can’t sue a parent for this type of accident, but this case was an exception to the rule.

I was involved in a case that stemmed from a terrible act of negligence by a doctor. It was obvious when the case started that the doctor screwed up and there was no apparent defense. The family of the patient lost a great person who was loved by many. They weren’t looking for a lottery ticket, but wanted compensation for their loss and to ensure that measures were put in to place to prevent this from happening to anyone else.

The case took almost four years and right before the trial was about to start, the first settlement offer was made. Previously the insurance company said that no offer would be made. The first offer wasn’t good enough, neither was the second. But after a little back and forth the parties settled for a fair sum. Each side spent thousands of hours and hundreds of thousands in legal costs to get to this point. Nothing really changed from day one and the amount that was settled for was basically the bottom line from when this tragic accident happened.

So why do so many cases settle right before trial?

There are actually a lot of reasons. In no particular order:
– While the insurance company/defendant may know they are at fault, they don’t know who will be suing them. By making you give a deposition, they may learn that you’d make a terrible witness at trial or that your loved one was a terrible person. Maybe they’ll learn that you didn’t have much of a relationship with them or that you are a drug addict or convicted child molester. Most of these things aren’t probable, but before you give away millions, you want to find out.
– You or whoever is bringing the lawsuit could die. That would potentially reduce the value of the case. If a man dies and leaves behind a wife, but no kids, if she passes away, the impact of the loss isn’t as great. Sounds morbid, but this is how insurance companies think.
– They earn interest on the money they aren’t paying you.
– New facts could emerge that make what seems like a slam dunk case turn in to just a so-so case. They are looking for any reason to deny your claim and if they don’t go through the discovery process they’ll never know what defense they could have had. We were involved with a case of a woman who was rear-ended by a semi truck driver. Seems like a sure thing, right? Well their expert alleged that her break lights weren’t working and since this happened at night, it created a possible defense.
– People who are scared of trial might jump at a low ball offer. If your case is worth $10 million and they offer you $4 million a year before trial, you won’t feel as anxious because there is plenty of time to negotiate. On the other hand, if opening statements are tomorrow morning and then you have to testify, you might want that sure thing and avoid the agony of being on a witness stand. At least that’s their theory.
– The insurance company doesn’t want people to think these cases are easy. If they don’t make the plaintiff’s attorneys spend their own money and have something at risk then they will bring every possible lawsuit that they can.

Of course there are plenty of other reasons too and not every case takes this long. Just know that if it happens to you, you are not alone or experiencing anything unique. To you it’s rightfully a serious matter. To the insurance people it’s a game or about risk analysis.

Your cell phone rings, you look over and see the dreaded “unknown caller” show up on caller ID. Thanks to a recently written opinion, those phone calls to your cellphone will no longer be allowed at all. In addition, it enables the go ahead to pursue class action lawsuits against those companies who break the law.

Back in 1991, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act was put into place (TCPA). The TCPA made it illegal for people to receive robo calls to their landline phone numbers without prior consent. However, as a stipulation, the FCC regulations allow for tax-exempt organizations such as political surveys, etc. to continue making those prerecorded calls. In 1991, the use of cell phones was slim to none. According to InfoPlease.com (http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0933563.html) there were only 7,557,148 cell phone subscribers in 1991 opposed to the current approximately 262 Million users. Needless to say, the call to apply this law to cell phones wasn’t needed in 1991 the way it has been needed today.

Currently, there is a huge population of Americans who no longer have a landline home phone, and primarily use their cell phones. In the recently handed down opinion, the FCC exemptions do not apply, but the rules for a landline do apply for a cell phone.

This all was brought to light thanks to the more than one million people who received telephone calls from people claiming to be Political Opinion of America, in an attempt to show their non-exempt status. During these calls, people were offered a free cruise. They would only have to pay for the taxes and port fees and gratuity. However, if they wanted an upgraded cruise experience, they simply needed to tour a timeshare facility. After listening to the recorded calls, it is evident that this had nothing to do with Political Opinions and everything to do with soliciting new business for a timeshare company.

There are certain factors to the TCPA everyone should be aware of. One of which is that it is prohibited to auto dial, or prerecord non-emergency calls to cell phones unless the caller has prior consent from the person receiving the call. TCPA violations can be a big deal. Violations provide damages of $500 per violation, and if it can be proven that the violation was willful or knowingly done, the damages awarded could be up to 3 times the original amount. Meaning, these calls simply are not allowed to your cell phone without prior consent.

If you believe you have a TCPA violation there are a few things to keep in mind, the burden of proof will lie on you to prove your lack of prior express consent. Other infractions include excessive phone calls (more than four calls a day from the same debt collector), the use of an auto dialer or computer dialer, calling you at work or revealing a debt to a third party are all part of violations.

If you believe you have a TCPA violation, the best thing to do is speak to a competent attorney to discuss your options. If you’d like our help in finding an attorney with a track record of success in these cases, call us at (312) 346-5320 or fill out our form on our website.

If you are in a car accident in Illinois that is clearly not your fault, you might be stunned when the insurance company for the other party or even for you, denies your case without reason. It shouldn’t happen, but does all the time.

The paraphrased question I get all the time is “How can the insurance company deny my claim?” Let’s look at some of the most popular reasons.

– This is how insurance companies make money. They have done studies that in a nutshell say that if they can wrongfully deny three out of ten claims and get away with it, it will save them hundreds of millions of dollars. So when you’ve been rear-ended at a stoplight they will tell you with a straight face that it was your fault somehow. If they frustrate you in to doing nothing, they win. And that’s their plan.
– They are a sub-standard insurance company. You’ve seen the awful TV commercials where companies promise you insurance no matter how bad your driving record is. These operations are as terrible as some of their drivers. They won’t return phone calls, they’ll tell you insurance was cancelled when it wasn’t, they’ll offer only pennies on the dollar, etc. You almost have to sue when they are involved because otherwise they take the approach that it doesn’t cost them money to ignore the case.
– You don’t have an injury or it’s really minor. It’s actually harder to get a settlement when there is only property damage to a car than when there’s a major injury. The insurance company knows that lawyers in Illinois who handle car accident cases work on a contingency basis (meaning they only get paid if they win), they won’t usually get involved in very minor or car damage cases only. That’s quite honestly because there is not much money to be made in those situations.
– You were at fault. Sometimes you think you did nothing wrong, but the truth is there are facts which show you were at least 50% at fault such as turning left in front of a car that is speeding toward you. If there is any reason to deny your case even the good insurance companies will do so.
– Y<strong>our coverage has lapsed or the other driver wasn’t insured. It could be that the other party was at fault, but they weren’t covered under the vehicle that they were driving. Remember, these lawsuits and claims are against the driver who is at fault so you might be forced to sue them directly.

There are other reasons of course like your file getting lost or them waiting on a police report, but these are the big ones. If you’d like to ask us questions about a car accident or want an attorney referral, call us for a free consult at (800) 517-1614 or fill out our contact form and we’ll call you. We help everywhere in Illinois.

President Obama and the Department of Labor have officially made a new overtime rule that will change the way employers will be able to pay their employees. The Labor Department has not made a rule or increase like this since 2004. This new rule means a huge bump in income for millions of people, and will go into effect starting December 1st.

For years, your boss could claim you were a “manager” and get away with paying you meager wages, as well as forcing you to work ungodly hours. Retail “managers” in particular were getting the raw deal. Some retail managers were working 60+ hours a week and only making a salary of $30,000 or less because as a “manager” the employer didn’t have to pay overtime. The rule for over a decade was if a “manager” made at least $23,660 per year as a salary, the employer could benefit from not having to pay time and a half for each hour worked over 40 in any given week. This new rule boasts the minimum requirement to $47,456 or more.

What this new rule means is that if you make a lower middle class or in some places average or below salary of $47,456 or below, you will be entitled to receive time and a half pay for each hour you work over 40 in a given week.

There are few ways an employer may try to weasel out of abiding by this new rule. One way would be cutting or limiting your hours to the regular 40 hours per week maximum or less. An employer may use this new rule as a reason to cut employees to part time as to not have to provide health care or other benefits as well. Another way an employer might try to skate away from this new rule, depending on how much your salary is, would be to bump your salary up to the $47,476+ amount to avoid paying time and a half. If an employer did that, they could still classify you as a “manager” and you would still be subject to working 40+ hours a week as required; with no overtime pay. However, depending on your job duties, that may not apply either.

The other major changes in the rule include the following: for those who receive a bonus or commission, the employer can use up to 10% of those bonuses and commissions to satisfy the minimum salary of $47,476. An example would be if your annual salary is $40,000, but you receive two bonuses per year of $5000 each, your salary + bonus would equal $50,000, which is over the salary threshold, making you not eligible to receive overtime pay. Also included in the major changes of the rule, requires future automatic updates to the salary threshold to occur every three years beginning in 2020.

Because of the drastic change, it is recommended for employees who are classified as salaried, making under $47,456 to keep meticulous records of their time worked. For some who haven’t had to punch a time card, this could be a drastic change. However, in the end those records could mean the difference between winning and losing a pay dispute with the labor board over unpaid overtime wages.

The world that we live in today is surrounded by advertising. From the billboards on the freeway to the internet; even my child’s school newsletter had advertising in it. It’s something we can’t get away from. With some form of advertising lurking around every corner you turn, how do you know what is real and what is not? What can you do if you think you have been a victim of false advertising?

False Advertising is defined as, “Any advertising or promotion that misrepresents the nature, characteristics, qualities or geographic origin of goods, services or commercial activities” (Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C.A. § 1125(a)). Failure to disclose, flawed and insignificant research, and product disparagement are the three main acts companies can carry out to make themselves liable to a possible false advertising lawsuit. What does this mean in actual English? Basically, it is illegal for any company to state false, misleading or deceptive statements about their products.

Sales people are out to “close the deal.” In doing so, sometimes they use high-pressure sales tactics or even “bait and switch” advertising both of which can also be examples of false advertising. For instance, you see an advertisement for a new printer and the store is also offering a cartridge of ink with any printer purchase. Yet, when you arrive to purchase the printer, they are out of the “free” ink cartridges, causing you to have to purchase the ink cartridge at a much higher price after all. This may be a “bait and switch/while supplies last” scam.

Kellogg’s Kashi Brand recently got in trouble to the tune of $4 million in Florida and an additional $5 million in California, for claiming their product was “All Natural” when in fact their products contained GMOs. Class action lawsuits were filed in each state, and to resolve these lawsuits, Kellogg’s Kashi Brand settled. Red Bull will no longer “Give You Wings” after a class action lawsuit was filed for false advertising in New York. $13 million dollars went to unhappy customers of Red Bull who claimed they saw no difference in their concentration or reaction speeds as the advertisements stated. In another case of false advertising, a lawsuit filed in California against Chipotle is still pending; the woman who filed the lawsuit says that Chipotle was not accurate in their advertising “non-GMO ingredients”

Lawyers in Chicago who we work with on cases have sued Subway for their “foot long” not really being 12 inches or tire irons being advertised at 41 inches but really being 39 inches.

If you think you might be a victim of false advertising, there are a few things a good attorney will ask prior to accepting your case. Do you have a copy of the original advertisement? Whether the advertisement was in a newspaper, magazine, on the internet or TV it is important to have an original printed or recorded copy. When possible, pictures of the product or damage caused by the companies false advertisement is helpful. Lastly, do you know of other people who were harmed by the product or companies claims? If so you may be able to file a class action lawsuit.

There is no up front cost to hire an attorney to pursue one of these cases. If you think a business is ripping their clients off and would like to talk to a lawyer about false advertising, call us any time at (800) 517-1614 or fill out our contact form to the right of this page.

See also: Find a Class Action Lawyer in Chicago Illinois

In the US, there is a wage war going on that affects not just women workers in a traditional setting but also, have you noticed what is going on in the world of soccer? While soccer may not be “as big” of a sport as football or even baseball, soccer fans are always loyal. Those loyal fans are standing up and taking notice of something “off” and downright screwed up that is happening; the massive wage gap between the US men’s and US women’s teams. That gap being so large, the women’s soccer team has filed a wage discrimination action against the US Soccer Federation with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

In their complaint, Hope Solo, Carli Lloyd, Alex Morgan, Megan Rapino and Becky Sauerbrunn cite figures from the USSF’s 2015 financial reports, which show easily that the women’s team brought in more than $20 million dollars more in revenue than the men did. Not to mention these facts:

• On average, women soccer players earn as little as 40% of the amount earned by male soccer players
• The women’s soccer team has claimed three World Cup championships
• The women’s soccer team has claimed four Olympic championships.
• Women’s soccer team is currently ranked #1, was briefly #2 before regaining the top position.
• Men’s team has qualified for the World Cup five times, but has never won.
• Men’s team has gone to the Olympics but has never won.
• Men’s soccer team is currently ranked #30 and hasn’t been above #4 since 2006.

For friendlies against teams not in the FIFA top 25, women get $1,350 for a win, men get $9,375.00. If you make the World Cup roster, women get $15,000.00, men get $68,750.00. The men get bonuses for just getting points in the World Cup and the women get nothing. The women got $75,000.00 a piece for winning the last World Cup. If the men were ever to do the same, they’d get almost $400,000.00 a person.

Putting those statistics and numbers in to perspective, I have to agree with Hope Solo who said, “Men’s players get paid more to just show up than we get paid to win major championships.”
US Soccer officials have claimed the numbers used in the EEOC complaint aren’t accurate. In addition, they claim that the collective bargaining agreement is still effective, as well as stating that women have included provisions that the men don’t have, like maternity leave. Whereas, the USWNT has shown through the USSF’s annual general meeting minutes that they are expecting much higher revenue this year, and even higher in 2017. The collective bargaining agreement expired in 2012 at which point both parties signed a memorandum of understanding. The USWNT is now seeking to dissolve that memorandum while USSF says it is in fact a binding contract. The women have put themselves into position at a prime time in soccer history. The Olympics are right around the corner to be followed by a victory tour that could bring in a projected $8 million dollars in revenue, as well as US soccer certainly doesn’t want to be tarnished while preparing for the 2026 World Cup bid.

It should be noted that the men’s soccer team is behind the women’s fight for equal pay 100%. Many players have come forward supporting the women to fight for their right to equal pay. Even the men can see how unfair the women have been treated and they are not afraid to voice their opinions.
Will the women keep fighting? Will they “strike” and boycott right before this summer’s Olympics? Or will they come to an agreement both sides will accept? This will certainly be a case to watch as the sides go back and forth.

You wouldn’t wish sexual abuse on your worst enemy. It can destroy a life and really multiple lives because it can cause major intimacy issues.

In cases where you are fondled without consent, it takes an extra brave person to come forward because that usually means there is no DNA evidence. So it becomes a she-said/he-said situation which is hard to get an arrest on and also hard to win a civil suit.

That said, when one person comes forward it gives others the courage to come forward too. We saw this in action after we were contacted by a woman who was fondled by her Will County doctor. We referred her to a top attorney in Chicago for molestation and sexual abuse lawsuits. And it was certainly courage because this doctor was/is very popular in his community and had lots of supporters even when more damning facts became known. It was in a way similar to the people who continued to stand behind Bill Cosby even when woman after woman came forward against him.

When she came forward and the case got some publicity, that gave four other women the courage to also come forward. As a result the doctor was arrested, pleaded guilty and had his license to practice medicine taken away.

The best thing that a lawsuit can do is to prevent a bad thing from happening again. That is what this lawsuit did. It inspired others and got justice. The women did get a settlement, but it wasn’t anything life altering. The most amazing part of this case was that the doctor is no longer able to prey on other women who are his patients.

So while I certainly understand that it’s not easy to come forward in these situations, please know that if you do, you won’t be able to undo the harm that was done to yourself, but you may be able to save others. While that alone doesn’t make you feel better, we have found that it goes a long way to helping you move on with your life and feel a sense of closure. That is a result that no monetary amount can provide. If you’d like to have a confidential call with one of our attorneys, call us at (312) 345-5320 or you can fill out our online form.

See also: Civil lawsuits after a rape in Illinois

We have a philosophy when it comes to recommending an attorney.  Actually we have a few.  But the overall one is that we try to recommend an attorney who gives you the best chance of success.  These are attorneys who we would recommend to family members or friends.  This for us means experienced attorneys who deliver great customer service and have a narrow practice focus.

That last part is the key.  If your lawyer is handling car accidents and divorce and DUI’s and real estate closings, they are what is called a general practice lawyer. They are allowed to do that and those types of attorneys are pretty useful in small towns where there aren’t a lot of options.  In a bigger city or even a medium size city though, there are a ton of great options for most types of cases and you’d really be making a mistake if you hired a jack of all trades type attorney or law firm.  Not just in Chicago, but anywhere in the Chicago area, Rockford, Champaign, Peoria, Belleville, etc. For almost any legal situation you can find a lawyer who has a narrow practice focus and that gives you the best chance of a good result.

Not only does this type of attorney help you win your case, but it also greatly decreases the likelihood that they will commit legal malpractice and you’ll have to sue them.  I recently took a continuing legal educational course on the subject and it turns out that almost every instance of legal malpractice in Illinois comes when lawyers dabble in areas of law that they really don’t have an expertise in. Again, an attorney is allowed to take any case which walks through the door, but that doesn’t mean that they should.

There are so many little exceptions to all areas of law and new cases coming out all of the time that it’s practically impossible to be up to date with all developments in a way that is in the best interests of your clients.  Lawyers love money though so instead of referring cases out or declining to get involved they take a short sided view which is in their best interest only, or so they think. The most common legal malpractice case we come across is a lawyer who dabbles in personal injury and misses the statute of limitations for filing a lawsuit in time.  They assume those cases are easy, discover that they are not and then end up getting sued.

In fact, I can only recall one case in the almost 20 years I’ve been an attorney where a lawyer who has a great track record blew the time limits for suing and that apparently was due to a clerical error by their staff.  Most experienced firms though have a docketing system with multiple layers of protection which prevent those types of errors from ever happening.  That’s a hard system to have in place when you try to handle everything that walks through the door.  And there aren’t enough hours in the day to learn all the nuances to every practice area.

So we can’t guarantee you a result and no attorney wins every case. If they say they do, they are lying.  We can though help you find the best attorney for you.  And that won’t be a lawyer who will take any case which walks through the door.  If you did hire a lawyer who screwed up, call us.  We’d be happy to help you find someone to sue them.  The only way these firms are going to learn to stop dabbling will be if they get punished for their mistakes.

In Cook County, the main courthouse is the Daley Center. It is the home to most of the civil matters and some traffic cases as well. It is considered the first district courthouse of Cook County.

The Daley Center is at 50 W. Washington St. in Chicago. The following is a list of some of the cases that take place there:

1. All Cook County probate matters, including wills of deceased, estates of deceased, estates of disabled adults, estates of minors and wards of the state, guardianship of minors, and guardianship of disabled adults are taken care of at the Daley Center in Room 1202.
2. Claims made in excess of $30,000 are heard in Room 801 of the Daley Center. These are considered Law Division cases. The type of cases heard include: personal injury, property damage, breach of contract, commercial litigation, and all tax related matters.

Other types of cases include personal injury/wrongful death, legal malpractice, libel/slander, and miscellaneous remedies, including replevin, condemnation, Unemployment Compensation review, Workers’ Compensation review and administrative review.

The Suburban Districts also accept Law Division filings and, in certain cases, hear Law Division cases in excess of $100,000.00.

The Civil Division, located on the 6th floor of the Daley Center, hears actions when the amount of the claim is less than $30,000. The types of cases heard include: contract, property damage, personal injury, eviction, replevin, county use tax forfeiture, attachment and garnishment actions. Civil Division cases are also heard in each of the Suburban Districts.

The Small Claims Court section of the Civil Division resolves disputes between parties where the amount at issue does not exceed $1,500. The party may act as their own attorney.

1. Other matters, referred to as matters in equity, are heard in the Chancery Division of the Daley Center in Room 802. These matters include injunctions, class actions, mortgage foreclosures, names changes, declaratory judgments, partnership and corporate dissolution, mechanic’s liens, statutory and administrative review, trust and trusteeships, and breaches of fiduciary duties.

The Daley Center also handles proceedings dealing with taxes, mental health, adoptions, and elections in the County Division which is located in Room 1202.

1. The Daley Center has a Criminal Department located in Room 1006. This department is the Keeper of Records for all Misdemeanor Criminal cases in the First Municipal District. Records of all criminal court proceedings on Misdemeanor case that occur in the city of Chicago can be found here.

The Criminal Department provides access to First District Misdemeanor files for public viewing. It also provides Certified Copies of documents in the files and expungement and sealing services for Criminal Misdemeanor files. Actual criminal cases are not heard at the Daley Center.

1. The Daley Center also hears domestic relations cases in Room 802. The Domestic Relations Division hears petitions for dissolution, invalidity of marriage, joint simplified dissolution of marriage, custody and visitation, legal separation and all civil orders of protection and post decree issues.
2. District 1 also has a Child Support Division that is located in Room 200 at 28 N. Clark St in Chicago. It maintains permanent records of court ordered child support payments to custodial parents. There is also a Child Protection Division that has original jurisdiction over cases filed under the Juvenile Court Act involving abused, neglected, and dependent minors. Child protection also hears cases involving private guardianship and termination of parental rights. The Juvenile Child Protection Division is located at 2245 West Ogden Avenue in Chicago.
3. The Daley Center also has a Traffic Division which is responsible for the maintenance of records and collection of fines for all cases involving City of Chicago moving violations. They do not hear matters related to parking tickets. The Traffic Division for the First Municipal District handles only tickets issued within the geographic boundaries of the City of Chicago.

If you have any questions about the Daley Center or want our help in finding an experienced attorney for cases there, please call us at (312) 346-5320.