Posted on January 04, 2018 in Immigration

In August 2017, Governor Bruce Rauner signed the Illinois TRUST Act, which is the strongest state-level bulwark against profiling by immigration officials yet passed into law as of this writing. It also codifies limited cooperation with U.S. immigration agencies as state policy, at least in terms of honoring detainers issued by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). While this grants immigrants protection, it also drags the state into a potential fight with the U.S. Justice Department, which could have consequences.

DOJ Objections

The main crux of the Justice Department’s objections is that they believe the Act appears to “restrict the sending of information regarding immigration status.” While states have a reasonable degree of latitude in setting their own immigration rules, they must, of course, comply with federal law. However, the law regarding complying with ICE detainers is not cut and dried. While law enforcement agencies must comply with a warrant or with an in-person request to hand over a person in most circumstances, an ICE detainer is a mere request to law enforcement.

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 Posted on January 03, 2018 in Personal Injury

We often hear about the risks of drowsy driving when it comes to truck accidents in DuPage County and throughout the country. More specifically, given that semi-truck drivers tend to be on the road for long stretches of time, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has specific hours of service regulations designed to ensure that a truck driver is not behind the wheel for more than a certain number of consecutive hours during any single drive. Those regulations require truckers to take rest breaks at certain points in order to prevent truck crashes.

Yet the hours of service regulations do not take into account the hours a truck driver might spend behind the wheel in his or her own vehicle in order to reach the workplace—the location where the truck driver actually picks up the 18-wheeler and begins driving for pay. Can this commute time contribute to drowsy driving accidents?

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 Posted on December 31, 2017 in Family Law

Student loans are common for anyone with a higher education. Since many people have high amounts of student loan debt that takes them decades to pay off, the issue of student loan debt often arises in the divorce process. If you are going through a divorce, you may be wondering how student loan debt will be divided and whether it will remain with the spouse who incurred it.

The truth is student loan debt is treated just like any other debt in a divorce. Therefore, if the debt was incurred before you got married, it is “separate” and becomes the responsibility of the spouse who borrowed the money.

However, if the student loan debt was incurred during your marriage, it is known as marital debt like a mortgage, car loan, credit card debt, and personal loan. In the event your student loan debt is marital debt, you and your spouse will likely both have repay it.

If you are in the situation where your student loan debt was incurred during your marriage, you should know there are certain factors that the courts will use to determine how the debt will be divided and whether it will be divided in the first place. Some of these factors include:

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 Posted on December 28, 2017 in Immigration

The United States has granted an immigration status called Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for nearly two decades, beginning in 1990 with the Immigration Act. However, in early 2017, the U.S. State Department sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees the program, and advised that certain groups “no longer need[ed] to be shielded from deportation” in the Secretary’s estimation. While this is not an official revocation of status, it paves the way for what will likely become a revocation. This means that some living under TPS will need to quickly depart lest they face future immigration consequences.

Who Has TPS?

Temporary Protected Status is granted at the discretion of the Secretary of Homeland Security to those nationals who hail from countries where conditions make it impossible to safely return at the time the status is granted—usually due to ongoing war or natural disasters. The status is usually revoked when conditions in the country are deemed to have sufficiently improved. For example, TPS was granted to Rwandans following the 1994 genocide in their country, and was rescinded in 1997 after the country’s political system had stabilized and it was deemed safe to allow nationals to return.

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 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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