Posted on April 04, 2018 in Personal Injury

Car crashes and truck accidents occur more often than they need to in DuPage County and on the highways running throughout the Chicago suburbs. And even when accidents cannot be prevented entirely, there are many ways that the severity of those collisions and the resulting injuries could be lessened.

However, according to a recent article in the Illinois News Network, there is not a lot of public support for making changes to the state’s safe driving laws. The Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety recently released a 2018 report on safe driving laws, but Illinois residents largely do not want to see any of these changes implemented.

Recommendations for Safe Driving Laws in Illinois

What does the report recommend in terms of changes to Illinois law when it comes to preventing auto accidents and increasing highway safety? Highlights include the following:

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 Posted on April 02, 2018 in Family Law

Divorcing parents have the right to collaborate and come up with a parenting plan that works for both of them. If they cannot come to an agreement, a judge will look at what is in the best interests of the children and design a parenting plan.

In many divorces, the goal is to give both parents close to equal parenting time. This way, each parent can play an active role in their children’s lives and children can be raised by both of their parents. Parenting time is granted to both parents unless there is some type of child endangerment issue.

Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for one parent to try to withhold parenting time from their ex-spouse. Let us dive deeper into what it means to withhold parenting time and what your options are when your ex takes away from your time with your children.

How Is Parenting Time Withheld?

There are several ways one parent may withhold parenting time from their ex spouse. A parent may drop off or return their children late or fail to bring their children to the other parent when they are supposed to.

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 Posted on March 30, 2018 in Immigration

In this day and age, immigration enforcement has taken on an angle that many see as cruel. Media in the U.S. and in other countries have spoken up regarding the behavior of Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE), and immigrant rights groups in the country are making certain that the issue remains at the forefront of discussion.

However, in the midst of the actions being taken against both documented and undocumented immigrants, it is imperative to remember that immigrants, especially the undocumented, have rights. You are entitled to due process, even if you are in ICE custody.

Due Process Rights Are Clear ...

Despite the protestations of talk radio and certain media and government outlets, many rights have been held to apply to the undocumented, mostly through jurisprudence rather than legislation. For example, the Supreme Court case of Plyler v. Doe (1982) grants all children the right to attend public school, regardless of immigration status, and the ruling in Almeida-Sanchez v. U.S. (1973) applies all First Amendment protections, including freedom of assembly, to the undocumented.

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 Posted on March 27, 2018 in Personal Injury

Automated vehicle technologies are designed to reduce serious and fatal car accidents, but do they actually work? We are not referring here to fully automated vehicles, but rather to technologies that already are in a high percentage of cars on the road, such as adaptive cruise control or a lane-departure warning system.

According to a recent article in The Drive, automation that removes human error from driving could one day help decrease accidents that killed more than 40,000 Americans last year. However, that statement assumes that drivers in DuPage County and throughout the country not only are willing to use automated technology, but that they also understand how it works and are using it properly.

Otherwise, according to a study conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), automated technology could end up having no impact at all on the rate of motor vehicle collisions. What do you need to know about the benefits and limitations of automated vehicle technology?

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 Posted on March 26, 2018 in Family Law

The majority of divorcing couples understand the purpose of child support and spousal support. However, only few have heard of and are familiar with unallocated support. Unallocated support can benefit both parties and is an effective way to settle support issues in some divorce cases.

Unallocated Support Defined

An unallocated support payment combines child support and spousal support. It is a viable option when the spouse paying the support has a substantial income and the spouse receiving it has minimal to no income.

Currently, the Internal Revenue Service or IRS allows the spouse paying this type of support to treat the entire amount as spousal support. This allows their entire payment to be tax-deductible because spousal support, not child support is tax deductible. In addition, the IRS requires the spouse receiving unallocated support to pay income taxes on the entire amount they receive.

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 Posted on March 22, 2018 in Immigration

With false and misinformed claims regarding family immigration in the news on a seemingly constant basis in recent weeks and months, it is imperative that accurate information find its way to the forefront of the discussion. With malicious claims of “chain migration” being commonplace, it matters that everyone who needs true information about family migration be able to access it.

MYTH: If you are a naturalized U.S. citizen, you can sponsor any member of your family to immigrate.

TRUTH: This is false. Family-based immigration is restricted in that a naturalized citizen may only sponsor his or her spouse, children, and if he or she is over age 21, his or her siblings and parents. However, the mere ability to sponsor someone does not mean that your family member’s path to legal status in the U.S. will be somehow faster than anyone else’s; it conveys no real advantage, given that every documented immigrant must go through the same process. Also, a sponsor does not mean that a person’s application will be vetted any less stringently than someone’s application for asylum or an employment-based application for status, despite more misleading and inaccurate claims being perpetuated by media and government officials.

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 Posted on March 19, 2018 in Personal Injury

Are most drowsy driving accidents in DuPage County caused by college students who do not recognize the harms associated with fatigued driving? According to a recent report from Reuters, a new study suggests that while driving drowsy is as dangerous as driving while intoxicated, college students may see it as unavoidable and not a legal risk.

Recently, we discussed a new AAA study that shows drowsy driving crashes might happen even more frequently than researchers and safety advocates previously believed. Now, according to this study, undergraduate students potentially should be targeted for education surrounding drowsy driving motor vehicle accident risks.

Undergraduate Students May Be Riskier Drivers

When we think about particular age groups at risk of serious car crashes, we often think of teen drivers who are very inexperienced behind the wheel. However, as the recent study suggests, college-aged drivers may actually pose a greater risk for fatigued driving collisions than those in other age groups. The lead author of the study, Dr. Kenneth Beck, emphasizes that driving while drowsy is becoming frequently more recognized as "a source of crashes and deaths on highways.” Dr. Beck is a Professor of Behavioral and Community Health at the University of Maryland School of Public Health.

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 Posted on March 19, 2018 in Family Law

While most people are familiar with divorce, many are unaware of annulment. An annulment states that a marriage never legally happened. Although it is more difficult to qualify for an annulment than a divorce, an annulment makes sense in some situations. Let’s take a closer look at what an annulment is and how it differs from a divorce.

Annulment Qualifications

Anyone may file for divorce. Annulments, however, are only an option for couples that meet certain criteria. Your marriage may qualify for annulment if:

• You or your spouse could not consent to the marriage due to a mental disability, alcohol, drugs, or fraud.
• You or your spouse did not have the ability to engage in sexual intercourse during the marriage.
• Your or your spouse were under 18 years of age and there was no parental consent at the time of your marriage.
• Your marriage was not legal because you or your spouse was already married or you are relatives.

There is also a time limit for when you can request an annulment. This time limit depends on your particular circumstances.

• If you or your spouse did not consent to marriage because of mental disability, alcohol or drugs, you have 90 days from the time this was discovered to file for an annulment.
• A parent has the right to file for an annulment of their minor child’s marriage any time before they turn 18.
• If you or your spouse did not have the ability to engage in sexual intercourse and this was not known at the time of marriage, you have one year to file for an annulment.
• If you or your spouse were involved in multiple marriages, there is no time limit for an annulment.

How Annulment Differs From Divorce

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 Posted on March 15, 2018 in Immigration

There are two different ways a person can be ruled deportable, and determining the one that applies to an individual depends on his or her location. For instance, the determination will be different if someone is in the U.S. already, versus if he or she is still waiting to enter.

Inadmissibility

When someone is talked about as being inadmissible, it means that he or she is not officially in the United States, and he or she will not be permitted to enter— the individual meets a certain ground of inadmissibility. For example, any foreign national who has a history of immigration violations is likely to be ruled inadmissible (in other words, unable to be admitted).

There are numerous factors that an immigration officer will consider before reaching a finding of inadmissibility; however, if you are ruled to be inadmissible, this is not an appealable decision—in most cases, you will simply have to begin the process over again and hope for better luck.

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 Posted on March 13, 2018 in Personal Injury

Auto accidents in DuPage County can have many different causes, including distracted driving, aggressive driving, and drunk driving. While more reports have been assessing the links between drowsy driving and car crashes in Illinois and throughout the country, a recent news release from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety discusses a study that suggests fatigued driving is to blame for far more collisions than we previously believed.

Whether you commute home to DuPage County from your office in Chicago after a long day of work or regularly take family road trips, it is important to understand the risks of drowsy driving and to learn more about the recent AAA study.

Study Uses Footage of Drivers to Gauge Sleepiness Behind the Wheel

In what the AAA Foundation is describing as “the most in-depth drowsy driving research ever conducted in the U.S.,” researchers used a new method to expose the rates of drowsy driving collisions in the country. Drowsy driving—unlike drunk driving, for instance—is notoriously hard to detect in the aftermath of a crash. Indeed, according to the UCLA Sleep Disorders Center, we know that drowsy driving causes at least 100,000 crashes every year in which at least 40,000 people get hurt and 1,500 suffer fatal injuries. Yet as the Center underscores, a majority of drowsy driving crashes likely are “not properly counted.” Why is this? The answer is relatively simple: “it is hard to know for sure when someone is too tired to drive.”

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