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I thought I’d share a little tale from a recent courtroom hearing experience I had that worked out great for my client but not so great for the other guy (or woman in this particular case). And not as a matter of immodesty but rather because I could see something like this happening to me and it’s a good reminder of the importance of doing at least a little client preparation before your next court hearing. Because I know with me, there are 2-3 hearing types that I do ALL THE TIME (contempt defense, child support modification, dissolution of marriage prove-up) but my clients don’t.

My issue last week was a parentage case for retroactive child support and there was potentially some $30,000 at stake. Simply, this was a case where the mother of 2 children filed for child support some 8 years after the children were born and the Parentage Act potentially allows for retroactive child support to be awarded for that time period between the date of filing and the date of the birth of the children, so in this case some 8 years. That’s a lot of $$$ at some $1,000 per month in child support.

Well, one of the factors that a court must weigh in deciding these retroactive cases is:

(5) The extent to which the father would be prejudiced by the delay in bringing the action (750 ILCS 45/14(b)).


OK, so if you’re not an Illinois domestic relations attorney you might be asking yourself, and why do I care? CLIENT HEARING PREPARATION.

The lawyers representing the mother in my case repeatedly asked her whether her delay in bringing this case would “prejudice” the father (my client). And she repeatedly answered, YES! And there were several reasons why the judge in my case ruled in the father’s favor but the “prejudice” factor was one of the 2 primary reasons the judge cited. And why did the mother say that, yes, the father would be prejudiced? SHE DIDN’T KNOW THE MEANING OF THE WORD PREJUDICE! Something just a bit of CLIENT HEARING PREPARATION may have taken care of.

I really enjoyed my 830am pre-trial conference this morning over at 32 W. Randolph (and I’m not talking about the specifics of the case). I’d like to see waaayyyy more of these in Cook County. I can’t recall an 830am case set in Cook County EVER before. In a previous life I used to appear on occasion at an 830 arbitration call out in Wheaton. It’s a splendid scheduling move on so many levels…

• For me the lawyer it’s almost like adding an additional billable hour to my day. Because when my court days starts at the typical 930 it’s kind of like I’m killing time on non-substantive work the first hour of my day just waiting to walk over to court. And of course it’s nice to spread out those 5ish cases set at 930am.

• For judges and court administration, wouldn’t things flow better just by moving 50% of those 930am cases to 830am/845am?

Real nuggets from my travels around the Cook, 12th, 16th, 18th, and 19th circuits…

*Lawyers and restrooms. Heard this one sitting in a domestic relations courtroom recently, not my case but sounded like a pre-decree dissolution of marriage. The respective spouses’ attorneys were really arguing about which spouse should be allowed to use which bathroom on the second floor of the marital residence which is currently being shared. Though I found this give-and-take amusing as I sat in the jury box waiting for my case to be called I thought, this really shouldn’t happen. This isn’t always possible but generally I would suggest that lawyer must impose his will on situations about things he simply won’t do. I remember having a dissolution early in my career with an older attorney and his comment being, I’m not fighting over the furniture…good point.

*Lawyers sponsored by Dorothy. Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown that is…I was on the Website today and noticed lawyer advertisements on the front page. Good marketing opportunity? Quite possibly, I’d like to hear some experiences.

*Time/money wasted on civil status hearings…that’s almost criminal. Granted this is very antidotal, primarily because I’ve probably represented 500 people in various civil legal matters over the last 8 years and am currently a part of my very first criminal matter down at 26th and California, but I’m just asking, why can we simply call a judge’s coordinator to continue cases down at the criminal court yet the dreaded “status hearing” remains oh so popular in civil land?

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.