Particularly for small firm attorneys and also domestic relations attorneys practicing in Cook County.
First, there’s the change to the Illinois Code of Civil Procedure (735 ILCS 5/2-1101) regarding an attorneys ability to issue subpoenas (formerly only done by the circuit court clerk). The change simply adds an Illinois attorney to the group of persons who can issue subpoenas. I suppose all you need to change is instead of the circuit clerk signing/witnessing your subpoena forms now just put your name and perhaps your ARDC # at the botton. I haven’t tried this yet, wonder if some companies might not know of the law change and balk at this…it does “feel” more official coming from the government with the raised seal.
Second, the entire section 13 of the local rules for Cook County governing domestic relations cases were just revamped. As an aside, I’m amazed at how little discussion/publicity this has received…I wouldn’t have heard of this but for the fact I attended a speech by the presiding judge of the division a few weeks back. But how would others know? I think these sorts of things get coverage in the Law Bulletin but who reads that every day. One of the key changes I like is providing for use of a Parenting Coordinator in rule 13.10. These are useful in high conflict cases where there aren’t particularly large and substantive differences between parents regarding visitation and parenting but the two parties are completely incapable of interacting together. A “Parenting Coordinator” is a lawyer-mediator who each parent can contact about minor issues of visitation scheduling rather than involving the court. Hopefully some good, qualified, and affordable attorneys will take on this role.
