On July 18, 2023 the Illinois Supreme Court handed down its long anticipated ruling in Rowe v. Raoul, 2023 IL 129248. Siding with the Appellants in this matter, the Illinois Supreme Court has rejected the constitutional objections to Public Acts 101-652 and 102-1104. Cash bail will be eliminated in Illinois effective…
The Jencks Act The origins of this Act are in a 1957 U.S. Supreme Court case called Jencks v. United States, 353 U.S. 657 (1957). Clinton Jencks, a labor activist and union leader, was charged and convicted of filing a false “Affidavit of Non-Communist Union Officer” with the National Labor…
On December 31, 2022 the Illinois Supreme Court stayed implementation of the Pretrial Fairness Act pending appeal from the Kankakee Circuit Court Order entered on December 28 which severed those portions of the Safe-T Act. On October 31, the Illinois Supreme Court entered an order consolidating all of the pending…
On June 27 of this year, the United States Supreme Court took another step toward erasing drivers’ constitutional right against warrantless searches and seizures. In Mitchell v. Wisconsin, 588 U.S. _____(2019), a plurality of the Court issued an opinion which created a whole new category of “exigent circumstances” searches. Perhaps…
In Central Illinois the Lovelace case was big news. Some of you may have even followed it closely as it made its way through the courts and Mr. Lovelace hired different attorneys. In 2014 in Adams County, Illinois, Mr. Curtis T. Lovelace, a local lawyer, was charged with First Degree…
If you have ever heard someone in central Illinois complain about the State dismissing a criminal complaint against them and then still seizing their property on basis that the property was illegally obtained – believe them. It happens, or it used to happen, with some regularity before the law was…
Illinois has finally (effective January 1, 2018) reformed its law regarding the setting of bail in criminal cases. The goal of this reform is to curtail the practice of holding defendants in custody for lengthy periods of time simply because they cannot afford to come up with the money to…
Criminal justice reform is a hot topic of late, and thankfully, the Illinois legislature has finally come to the conclusion that if you truly want an individual to be able to fully rehabilitate and re-integrate into society, you have to give them a chance to ‘restore their good name.’ With…
DUI is one of the most common criminal offenses we see. DUI arrest knows no socio-economic boundaries and can have a serious impact on the life of those who are found to guilty. In fact, even if the individual is not guilty of the crime the suspension of his/her license…
We are criminal defense attorneys and DUI lawyers located in Springfield, Illinois and serve clients all over central Illinois. Frequently we have clients who have never needed the services of an attorney before or who feel that they have been under-served by an attorney they have had in the past. …