Posted on December 26, 2017 in Personal Injury

As a recent article in Slate highlights, the number of serious and deadly car accidents in the country has risen in the last decade despite the fact that automobiles are getting “smarter” and that technology has only continued to improve. Indeed, as the article notes, the 8 percent rise in motor vehicle crash fatalities in 2015 was the “largest in 50 years,” and by 2016 the number had risen again to more than 40,000 annual traffic fatalities. While technology within automobiles might not be able to prevent crashes in some circumstances, it can provide us with more information about the reasons that car accidents happen. That kind of knowledge may help DuPage County drivers to avoid serious and fatal crashes.

“Naturalistic Driving Studies” and the Role of Technology in Car Crash Knowledge

In 2008, a study conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan sought to use different kinds of technology to determine the actual causes of car crashes by installing devices in thousands of vehicles to produce “naturalistic driving studies.” The study caught on with other researchers and commentators interested in getting to the root of the specific causes of auto accidents. To be clear, such studies “are now equipping cars with accelerometers, sonar, sensors that track river inputs, and lots of video cameras.” Drivers who participate in the study agree to do so, and to drive with vehicles equipped with the tools we just mentioned.

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 Posted on December 23, 2017 in Family Law

Often times, couples cannot reach a complete agreement regarding their divorce but would like to avoid filing for a contested divorce. When this occurs, seeking mediation can help them reach an agreement and lessen the burden of the divorce process.

Mediation involves a couple working with a neutral third party mediator to discuss and resolve divorce-related issues. If you and your spouse are unable to reach a divorce agreement, you should consider mediation in order to reap the following five benefits.

1. Greater Privacy. By choosing mediation, you will be able to work out all of your divorce-related issues behind closed doors instead of in an open courtroom. If you would like to make sure your conversations and negotiations are private, seeking mediation is a good idea because anything that is said during mediation cannot be repeated in court.
2. Faster Resolution. With mediation, you can focus on reaching an agreement on matters related to parenting time and division of assets at a pace that you and your soon-to-be ex-spouse decide on. You can schedule appointments with the mediator at times that are convenient for both of you rather than having to consider the judge’s calendar.

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 Posted on December 20, 2017 in Family Law

The Illinois General Assembly passed House Bill 2537, which will alter the way spousal maintenance payments work in Illinois. According to the existing law, which went into effect in 2015, several factors should be used in order to determine whether maintenance is appropriate.

In the event that maintenance is appropriate, the court will use statutory formulas to figure out how much maintenance will be awarded and the duration of the payments. Let us take a closer look at how the Illinois spousal maintenance law will change when it goes into effect in 2018.

Raised Income Threshold

When the combined income of a couple is less than $250,000, the current Illinois spousal maintenance law directs courts to determine maintenance amount and duration using statutory formulas. Once the new law goes into effect, the income threshold will change from $250,000 to $500,000. Therefore, the new law will apply statutory formulas to couples with higher incomes.

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 Posted on December 19, 2017 in Immigration

In the recent months since the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) began to crack down hard on all those lacking status, the plight of the United States’ immigration courts has come into sharp relief. A shortage of judges has led many to be unaware of the answer to the simple question of what an immigration judge even does—his or her function is quite different than the run-of-the-mill criminal or civil court judge. It can potentially change your approach to your removal case if you understand the true role of an appointed immigration judge.

Origins and Loyalties

Immigration judges are appointed by the Attorney General, who is the head of the Justice Department. The Justice Department is also the federal agency which houses the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), which oversees immigration matters at the basic and intermediate levels—immigration judges and the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) are both governed by EOIR rules.

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 Posted on December 19, 2017 in Personal Injury

How often do accidents involving all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) occur in DuPage County? When and where do most of these collisions occur, and are certain age groups at greater risk of being involved in a crash?

Motor vehicles come in many different forms, from large trucks to motorcycles. According to the Cornell Legal Information Institute (LII), almost all vehicles that are self-propelled and capable of transporting at least one person are considered motor vehicles as long as they can exceed 25 miles per hour on paved surfaces and have safety features designed for “safe and practical street or highway use.”

Given these terms, is an ATV a motor vehicle? While it might not be safe beyond off-road use, many DuPage County residents make the mistake of assuming ATVs are safe to drive at high speeds on public roads, and crashes occur.

Thousands of ATV Crashes on Paved Public Roads

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 Posted on December 17, 2017 in Family Law

The way you spend your parenting time when your child is a toddler will be far different than when your child is a teenager. Since parenting time changes with different ages, it is important to understand how to make the best use of your time throughout every stage of your child’s life. Let’s take a closer look at how you can expect to spend your parenting time when your child is a toddler, in elementary school, and teenager.

Toddler

When your child is young, your parenting time may be spent teaching them how to speak and read. You may consider reading, playing educational games, or taking them to activities that allow them to socialize and meet other children. By doing so, you will prepare them for kindergarten.

During this stage in your child’s life, you will need to provide them with the most attention as they may not yet know the difference between right and wrong and are too young to stay out of dangerous situations.

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 Posted on December 12, 2017 in Immigration

An increasing number of people are traveling now than what used to be the case years ago; more people are enjoying other cultures and the people within them. Sometimes, love matches will result. If this does happen to you, you may be able to bring your future spouse to live in the United States with you, assuming you are able to obtain the right visa. While some people marry while abroad and then apply for a family-based immigrant visa, others bring their fiance(e) to the U.S. using a K visa.

What is a K Visa?

A K visa is a specific type of non-immigrant (not immigrant) visa intended for use by people whose entire purpose of coming to the United States on this particular trip is to marry a U.S. citizen. Many couples confuse the K visa with permanent residency, which can cause issues—holders of green cards may travel to and from the U.S. with relative impunity, but this is not the case with any kind of nonimmigrant visa (generally, nonimmigrant visa holders are restricted either to a finite number of entries or to a very short validity period for the visa itself).

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 Posted on December 12, 2017 in Personal Injury

When most DuPage County residents think about car accident risks, they consider some of the more common reasons that motor vehicle collisions take place. For instance, aggressive driving, distracted driving, and impaired driving often make the top of the list for frequent causes of traffic collisions. But what about car accidents that do not result from a driver’s reckless or careless behavior, but rather from a medical emergency?

According to a recent report from CNBC, safety technology upgrades in automobiles may soon be able to detect when a person is having a heart attack and thus may be able to prevent a severe or fatal crash.

Cars Reacting to Drivers’ Medical Emergencies

As the report explains, automobile manufacturers have been developing new forms of safety technology for decades, and “a new wave of safety technology is on the way—allowing cars to react to medical emergencies.” To be sure, both Ford and Toyota have begun work on developing “health sensors” that could be paired with “autonomous driving technology so that vehicles will be able to pull off the road and call for help if they determine a passenger is having either cardiac trouble or a diabetic event.”

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 Posted on December 05, 2017 in Immigration

There is perhaps no group more in immigration news in recent months than unaccompanied minors, especially those coming from Latin America. In the past few years, ever since an explosion of gang violence in Central and South America, a steady flood of unaccompanied minors has come to the border between the United States and Mexico, seeking asylum or other forms of relief. However, many have found not relief, but suffering of a different kind.

Migration Statistics Show Trends

The Migration Policy Institute (MPI) states that while children from all over the world immigrate or seek asylum in the United States, as many as 75 percent of them have been boys from El Salvador, Mexico, and Honduras, at least since 2009. There are multiple reasons for this, none of which have to do with any kind of gang-related or otherwise malicious motives, as has sometimes been alleged.

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 Posted on December 05, 2017 in Personal Injury

Do graduated licenses help to reduce teen car accident deaths in DuPage County and throughout the state of Illinois? According to a recent article in the chtribune, since 2007—shortly before the state instituted its graduated license program—rates of teen car crash deaths have declined by more than 50 percent. That data comes from the Illinois Secretary of State office, and experts cite the graduated license program as the reason for fewer traffic fatalities involving teen drivers in the state.

What should you know about current teen car accident fatalities and the graduated license requirements under Illinois law?

Teen Motor Vehicle Death Rates Decline By Half in the Last Decade

In 2008, Illinois began requiring teens to abide by graduated licensing laws. According to a recent statement from Secretary of State Jesse White, the graduated license program should receive much of the credit for the stark reduction in teen motor vehicle deaths over the last 10 years.

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