I found this nugget buried in Cook County Board President’s Toni Preckwinkle’s FY12 budget proposal:

Parking fees will be instituted at County facilities. Paid parking will be expanded to include the Criminal Court Building at 26th and California and suburban district courthouses at a fee of $4.75 per day or $65 per month.  This is initiative is expected to generate $4 million in revenue.

It’s obviously just ‘proposed’ at this point but I bet this has a decent chance of sticking. So start mapping out your public transportation options, find those alternative free residential parking options (I can’t picture too many other than maybe near the Rolling Meadows courthouse), or raise your fees.

This isn’t unprecedented…I don’t get to the Collar Counties too much but my recollection is that Will and Lake Counties charge for parking while Du Page does not. Others?

On the off chance the court system doesn’t publicize this effectively…CLICK HERE.

Why?

Because of the farmer’s market at Daley Plaza of course…

This is a potentially exciting development, particularly since the last bit of technology “reform” that impacted our Cook County practice was when the parentage courts recently disallowed private attorneys from using the copy machines down at the Daley Center concourse level. Seriously, the “technological progress” was a return to carbon paper. I was going to post a photo of the signage but didn’t feel right about snapping a picture in the courtroom.

But I digress…

The original article was in the 4/22/11 Law Bulletin (full article is password protected), a couple excerpts:

The program, known as e-filing, has been a pilot project for the Law Division’s individual commercial calendar for two years. The service will expand to the rest of the Law Division next month, so trial lawyers can use a credit card to file suits and motions from a computer for an extra cost of $4.95 plus 4 percent of the total filing fee.

Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy A. Brown said she hopes the system will solve a common complaint heard in the Daley Center that court files are sometimes missing or incomplete. But with e-filing, documents will always be available electronically.

“That was a problem that I’ve worked on diligently and just trying to reduce that problem on a manual basis,” Brown said. “But I realized that you can’t watch everybody that’s pulling a file to see if they’re taking something out. And people just do it all the time.”

“And then you have the files going into so many different hands; folks in the judiciary and they decide they want to hold onto something. That’s basically unsolvable. It’s always going to be something. This is the only answer,” Brown said…

Every Law Division case type will be available for e-filing except for building condemnations. Pending approval from Chief Judge Timothy C. Evans and the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts, e-filing is scheduled to launch in the Chancery Division in July; all civil cases in the municipal districts in September; the Domestic Relations Division and Child Support Division in December and the County Division in February.

Checkout some useful webinars from the Circuit Clerk’s Website. As many of you know very limited e-filing has been active for certain law division cases for the last 6+ months and this announcement seems to be the final expansion of e-filing throughout the court system.

If you’re like me and spend an inordinate amount of time down at the Richard J. Daley Center, then you’re surely also like me in that you spend a lot of time waiting for an elevator. Now the larger issue is courtroom scheduling and the question of why must say 90% of all cases be set for the 9-10am time slot and what’s the need for status court dates at all? But I suppose the functionality of the Daley elevator banks themselves could use an upgrade too.

I saw this little nugget buried at the bottom of this piece from the Sun-Times regarding President Preckwinkle’s recently unveiled capital plan:

The overall capital plan, which ultimately must be approved by a vote of county commissioners, also includes:

† A new $92 million diagnostic and residential treatment unit for prisoners at the Cook County Jail.

† A $50.2 million expansion of the garage at the current Stroger Hospital to add 1,760 spaces. The current garage has 1,340 spaces.

† A $10 million upgrade of the elevators at the Daley Center courthouse complex.

For the life of me I can’t find any further specifics or coverage of these Daley Center proposed elevator upgrades. No press releases nor any video clips from a press conference. This does require Cook County Board approval so hopefully greater detail will come around the time of that debate/vote.

I’ve never really had judicial aspirations but I do get into Cook County courtrooms quite often (**Disclaimer:  I am not a candidate for any of the current associate judge vacancies). Sunday’s Tribune had a nice overview piece about how associate judges are selected, (Mike) Madigan letters offer glimpse of clout in Cook County judge selection.

Even to a practicing attorney the associate judge selection process has always been veiled in a bit of secrecy. I recall attending a ‘lunch with a judge’ seminar some years back and knew generally that the associates are elected by the circuit judges and that there’s a good deal of politicking involved.

The article fundamentally attempts to tie good old political clout to the selection process, with a focus on letters that Speaker Madigan has sent to circuit court judges over the last several elections (here, here, here, here, and here). From the piece…

Since 2003, Madigan has recommended 37 lawyers to become associate judges, and 25 were selected outright, according to documents obtained by the Tribune and interviews. Several more made it to the bench through appointments.

About half of those on Madigan’s list made political donations to his daughter, Attorney General Lisa Madigan, the state’s highest law enforcement official. Campaign contributions are common among lawyers vying for judgeships and are typically not large — but enough to indicate the donor recognizes the value of political participation.

I’ll be honest using the general “Combine” culture that exists in Illinois as the measuring standard I found the article rather tame. And the 2 judges that I hold in my highest regard in Cook County are actually Associates judges too.

Editor’s Note: Jack Leyhane over at For What It’s Worth has some additional useful commentary on the article/subject from someone more intimately involved with the Associate judgeship application process.

Well I guess the long-rumored transfer of the downtown Chicago parentage/child support court to Daley Center from 32 W. Randolph is actually happening. I had an order entered today where the next court date isn’t until March 2011 and the clerk has a form stamp directing this next court dates to the concourse level of Daley.

Today marks 8 years since I joined some 1,500 of my closest friends down at McCormick Place in getting sworn-in as an active Illinois attorney. It wasn’t the most memorable of experiences with such a large group…I rose from my seat, took the attorney oath and that was about it. Although I do recall a nice dim sum lunch in Chinatown with my parents after the swearing-in ceremony.

I wouldn’t say that “time flies when you’re having fun” applies here but the last 8 years of my professional life have included many high points and surely have been instructive and filled with constant learning. And frankly much of “Lawyerland” is pretty whacked!

So without further adieu, here are my 8 observations from 8 years as an Illinois attorney:

There are too many unhappy lawyers. I suppose this might be something like the chicken and the egg, meaning, what came first becoming a lawyer or the unhappiness but either way it can’t be too healthy. The work we do is serious work but too many lawyers take themselves way too seriously. If you’re working in a practice area that’s not meaningful to you, change; if you think being generally belligerent and treating everyone badly helps your clients’ cases you’re WRONG!

I observe too many lawyers who prey on clients during life’s darkest times. This bothers me greatly and motivates me to be different. Specific to my practice I see this a lot in divorce matters…the “simple” divorce that turns into a $30,000 lawyer debt. I had one of my contempt defense appointed cases recently for a young guy who had some clear mental illness and some of his past lawyers had just strung him along to the tune of many thousands of dollars in legal fees in a case where clearly he wasn’t going to be winning custody and there wasn’t much of a marital estate. BE DIFFERENT!

Client education & massaging client expectations may be the most important things I do. Plus, incessantly pushing clients to solve their own problems, particularly in domestic relations matters. Steering client expectations toward reality is probably the greatest wisdom that comes from my vast 8 years of experience. As with most things, you as a lawyer aren’t evaluated by some perfect/objective standard rather you’re evaluated against the client’s lawyer expectations (make sure they’re realistic).

The Circuit Court of Cook County’s antiquated technology = Injustice. I commented to my wife at dinner last night that if you want to experience information technology circa 1985 just walk into a Cook County Courthouse (seriously, where else would you see carbon paper?). I was looking at an archived 1985 divorce court file in Daley 1113 yesterday and it didn’t look any different than the 2010 version. But the fundamental problem is that the antiquated technology leads to unjust results as I’ve written about here & here.

What’s the deal with “Status Reports”? For anyone outside Cook County, Illinois, “Status Reports” are the most popular type of court date where ostensibly you’re coming to court to update the judge on the current status of the case. Plus, these are almost all set at 9:30 a.m. Problem #1 is that most judges I’m before don’t keep track of each case’s “status” themselves so what’s the point? A handful of judges are starting to have a computer up on the bench to keep detailed notes much like the minutes of a board meeting so at least their “status” is being measured. And there’s 8 hours between 830am & 430pm (hours courthouses are open) so why are 90% of cases set at 930am? The elevators at the Daley Center between 920am-1020am are the most needlessly stress-inducing part of my law practice.

Getting rid of a physical/permanent office (and associated costs) and going solo were my best decisions. These are 2 things I probably could not have envisioned 8 years ago that, currently, I’d have a hard time returning to their alternatives (single bricks/mortar location & being someone else’s employee). I’ve made the statement many times that the worst decision I’ve made as a solo practitioner was over-spending on office space…that’s still true. Using Regus for our client meetings allows me & them great flexibility and I’m never commuting somewhere simply for me to work at an office. And building a business is simply very satisfying (not easy, but satisfying).

Client payment security is my most critical issue. I was going to say something about too often allowing myself to compete on price and the negatives associated with that decision (which is generally a no-no). But even when I have likely charged a rate too low, I can make a nice living from the clients who are paying like clockwork. The practice killer is inconsistent income & I must solve this problem. Our early payment option to clients has been effective in 2010…clients get a 5% discount when they pay by a certain date. I think the other solutions to “client payment security” are using “Evergreen Retainers” (never allowing a client to have a zero retainer balance) and securing client payment plans (when necessary) firmly with a credit or debit card.

I need HELP with the business of law. Both law schools and bar associations are deficient. There is the occasional good program regarding “Law Practice Management” but there’s never adequate discussion about MONEY & PROFIT. I brought just north of zero business experience to my law practice when I began in April ’05. So I’ve finally retained an outside lawyer/business coach for year 9 & beyond.

I’m not thrilled with the candidate choices but this is a critical election tomorrow here in the Land of Lincoln considering our government’s dire financial circumstances. And don’t forget to checkout Jack Leyhane’s For What It’s Worth blog for the best coverage of local judicial elections.

Nothing quite says Chicagoland fall like warm temperatures, pretty leaves changing colors, and my first jaunt to lovely Markham in 7 years…happy Friday!