WE ENCOURAGE ALL MEMBERS AND ATTENDEES TO BRING THEIR WAR STORIES, CURRENT CONUNDRUMS, QUESTIONS, AND THE LIKE. 

TAKE THIS OPPORTUNITY TO INTRODUCE WHO YOU ARE, WHAT TYPES OF LAW YOU PRACTICE, AND PROVIDE SOME TIPS TO OTHERS (WHO DON'T HANDLE THEM) ON HOW TO RECOGNIZE THOSE TYPES OF MATTERS.

THIS IS YOUR MEETING SO MAKE THE MOST OF IT!

THE CHICAGO BAR ASSOCIATION

Committee Meeting Announcement            

Earn FREE IL MCLE from Your Desktop with New Webcast Committee Meeting Option!

View a live webcast of a CBA or YLS committee meeting and earn Illinois MCLE credit - without leaving your office or home and at no extra cost. Members will have access to up to 6 live committee webcasts a day.  View the upcoming webcast schedule now at www.chicagobar.org (click on Webcasts). Please Note: Only live webcasts of committee meetings qualify for IL MCLE and remember to login prior to the meeting start time to receive credit.

THE CHICAGO BAR ASSOCIATION

Committee Meeting Announcement            

Earn FREE IL MCLE from Your Desktop with New Webcast Committee Meeting Option!

View a live webcast of a CBA or YLS committee meeting and earn Illinois MCLE credit - without leaving your office or home and at no extra cost. Members will have access to up to 6 live committee webcasts a day.  View the upcoming webcast schedule now at www.chicagobar.org (click on Webcasts). Please Note: Only live webcasts of committee meetings qualify for IL MCLE and remember to login prior to the meeting start time to receive credit.

I am very proud to announce that the Chicago Bar Association Solo and Small Practitioner Committee is having its monthly meeting Tuesday February 7th at 12:15 p.m. at the Chicago Bar Association, 321 South Plymouth Court.  The meeting will also be webcast.

As I am both co-Chair of the Committee and also one of the panelists, I am delighted to share what I know and excited to learn from Ken and Dan.

Please attend and also note that this month if you bring a guest, you qualify for free CLE credit and enter to win a Lettuce Entertain You gift card.

The entire announcement is below.

THE CHICAGO BAR ASSOCIATION

Committee Meeting Announcement            

Earn FREE IL MCLE from Your Desktop with New Webcast Committee Meeting Option!

View a live webcast of a CBA or YLS committee meeting and earn Illinois MCLE credit - without leaving your office or home and at no extra cost. Members will have access to up to 6 live committee webcasts a day.  View the upcoming webcast schedule now at www.chicagobar.org (click on Webcasts). Please Note: Only live webcasts of committee meetings qualify for IL MCLE and remember to login prior to the meeting start time to receive credit.

Invite your colleagues to attend a February committee meeting and they will earn free Illinois MCLE credit (if applicable, free credit limited to two meetings) and you can earn a chance to win a id=mce_marker00 Lettuce Entertain You Gift Card! 

I am super-excited that the Chicago Bar Association Committee of which I am co-Chair, is hosting three truly wonderful and unique judges for our annual Judge's Roundtable this Tuesday December 6th at 12:15 p.m. at the Chicago Bar Association.

These three are all interesting personalities with diverse backgrounds and experiences.  I have seen all three speak at various times and have appeared in front of two of them and think it is worthwhile for anyone to come listen to them.

All the pertinent information is below.  Hope to see everyone there!

There IS a webcast of this meeting too.

THE CHICAGO BAR ASSOCIATION

Committee Meeting Announcement

Earn FREE IL MCLE from Your Desktop with New Webcast Committee Meeting Option!

View a live webcast of a CBA or YLS committee meeting and earn Illinois MCLE credit - without leaving your office or home and at no extra cost. Members will have access to up to 6 live committee webcasts a day. View the upcoming webcast schedule now at www.chicagobar.org (click on Webcasts). Please Note: Only live webcasts of committee meetings qualify for IL MCLE and remember to login prior to the meeting start time to receive credit.

THE CHICAGO BAR ASSOCIATION

Committee Meeting Announcement

Earn FREE IL MCLE from Your Desktop with New Webcast Committee Meeting Option!

View a live webcast of a CBA or YLS committee meeting and earn Illinois MCLE credit - without leaving your office or home and at no extra cost. Members will have access to up to 6 live committee webcasts a day. View the upcoming webcast schedule now at www.chicagobar.org (click on Webcasts). Please Note: Only live webcasts of committee meetings qualify for IL MCLE and remember to login prior to the meeting start time to receive credit.

For those of you who do not know, this is my second year as the co-Chair of the Chicago Bar Association Solo and Small Practitioner Committee.

We are very excited to have our first meeting of this calendar year kick off with such a great topic and great speaker! 

That meeting is September 6th at 12:15 p.m. at the Chicago Bar Association--the entire meeting announcement is copied below.

With new ethical rules in effect, it behooves every lawyer to obtain FREE MCLE ETHICS CREDIT by attending our meeting.

But wait, there's more...

...by attending you will get to meet great people, many of whom also practice in a solo or small firm, and who can offer much support to you in your networking, practice development, mentoring, case referrals, and offer a social outlet to boot.

While I will be unable to attend that meeting, I hope many of you attend and hope to see all of you at our next meeting, October 6th, which will feature an attorney who advises small firms on how to avoid ARDC complaints and stay in compliance.

Today's Chicago Tribune Article on the dangerous "fire pot" consumer products raises some of the usual questions about consumer safety, the role of the civil legal system, and whether injuries are tolerated or preventable, and at what cost.

While this author knows of several local lawyers handling these types of cases currently, it is not so much just these particular products or their inherent dangers that come to mind, but rather the many products that, while regulated by government safety agencies, are still dangerous and injurious.

No one expects a perfectly safe world and the perfectly safe consumer product probably does not exist.  When I was young, I know I certainly found dangers in seemingly safe products (lighting plastic garbage cans on fire with matches can cause fire!).  Kids swallow seemingly innocuous erasers, rugs can be used as sliding bases and cause people to fall into glass tables.  Things happen.  It's not always some product manufacturer's fault.

But, many products are produced knowing they can be dangerous yet are kept on the market due to analysis that the cost of paying damages outweighs the potential profits.

That's a dirty little secret no one wants to admit.

These citronella fire pots keep bugs away, allow many suburban and urban families to enjoy the outdoor summer evenings, and generally make life "better."

Unfortunately, as designed, they can tip over and cause horrible injuries.  The gel used in the pots described in the article can explode. 

In short, they can be dangerous if used more or less as intended.

While I have worked for the past two decades plus protecting consumers and other ordinary people from the dangers created most often by laissez faire corporations, there is no way that every dangerous product should be banned or that every manufacturer should be held responsible.  However, depending upon the knowledge of possible injury and other data, it does seem to point to the manufacturers of these products being well-aware of the potential for danger and injury. 

Fortunately, the civil legal system, allows for compensation when inhernently dangerous products are placed in the public stream and for producing them negligently.

Hopefully, this will lead to safer products and more attention to potential dangers before someone else sustains these injuries.

This story indicates the pros and cons of social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, and the like. 

Apparently, Casey Anthony's attorneys and a consultant analyzed more than 40,000 strongly-held opinions gleaned from social media forums to craft ways to tweak and tailor their trial strategy.

A lesson for trial attorneys everywhere in all types of cases is to listen to the "noise" on social media to determine what the jury will focus on or find ojectionable.

We all know juries tend to focus on the arcane, the odd, the irrelevant as often as they focus on the evidence.  Or they filter the evidence through these irrelevant factoids, perceptions, and opinions, or things they've heard.  It might not be "right," but it is the reality of the system.

Now it's time for trial attorneys to use "social media mining" to our advantage.  Like it or not, it's here to stay.

So why should you, a lawyer who wouldn't touch workers' compensation with a ten foot pole, care about the fact that Governor Quinn will sign into law the workers' comp reform bill tomorrow?

1.  It will make your potential clients even less able than before to maneuver the system.  Doctor choice is now limited, new standards apply, and even experienced practitioners are at odds on exactly what the new law contains and requires.  Specifically, employers now can establish PPO plans for workers' comp separate from their regular PPO plans.  If one exists, the employer can compel the employee to choose from among their stable of doctors.  If the employee wishes to go elsewhere, this "uses up" one of his or her two doctor choices.  IN other words, if you or a lawyer who handles comp is not able to advise the client IMMEDIATELY of this, a choice that is fatal or at least damaging to the case (and potentially the client's health) could be made rather early on!

2. AMA Standards are now introduced and required to be relied upon to determine disability.  Because the AMA Guidelines apply to "impairment" and the Workers' Compensation Act applies to "disability" and the AMA agrees that these two terms are NOT INTERCHANGEABLE, what this means for the value of cases is anyone's guess.

3.  Carpal tunnel cases (which usually involve females, due to the fact that the female carpal tunnel near the wrist is roughly half the size that of men), are now limited.  If you have a client with a repetitive motion job, you need to get them to someone who understands these changes early on.

I have always made the analogy that personal injury is much like baseball, with odd rules and jargon while workers' comp is like cricket.  It may look vaguely familiar, but unless you know it, do it all the time, and really "get it," you are absolutely speaking a foreign language.  Simply put, you do not want to try to understand comp anymore than you should go try to figure out tax law or intellectual property on a whim.  It's a highly specialized and odd area.  You don't play in this area--it does you and your clients a disservice, especially now.

Keep in mind that most of the provisions of this law are in place upon signature to all accidents occurring from that day forward!