As of Friday, 12/22/06, ED Burnette was walking around telling all the lawyers in the office that up to 210 attorneys should start looking for other work due to his proposal to cut the office budget by 17 percent. Other department heads told the County Board President that the 17 percent cuts were unrealistic and unreasonable. [...]
No one knows at this point what the result of the layoff talk will be in our Office. As many of you know, Ed Burnette has told members in various site meetings that he tendered a 2007 budget to the County Board that includes possible layoffs. Here is what we know at this point: Burnette [...]
The First District recently held that the trial court erred in not grant a defendant’s request for an insanity jury instruction. People v. Dwight, 2006 Ill.App.Lexis 1045 (1st Dist.). In Dwight, the defendant was charged with armed robbery. The victim testified that the defendant approached her while she was seated in her car, originally asked [...]
Big News! The Cook County Board passed an ordinance on Tuesday, October 17, which secures the rights of assistant Cook County public defenders to bargain collectively through our Union. For the first time since the birth of our Union, our bargaining rights are formally protected.This ordinance is a big victory, coming after many years of [...]
As reported by the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin on August 17, 2006, the median public defender makes about $13,000 more than the median prosecutor. As this article reported, almost two thirds of our Office now earn over $70,000, while only about a third of prosecutors earn over $70,000. There are likely several reasons for this [...]
As you all probably know by now, Illinois for the first time will require mandatory legal education for all attorneys. What does this mean to you: you will need to attend 20 hours of CLE at seminars that are accredited for MCLE purposes. The Executive Board attempted to negotiate with the Public Defender to formulate [...]
