Posted on January 11, 2018 in Immigration

After the Halloween attack in New York, in which Uzbek national Sayfullo Saipov killed eight people by driving a truck onto a sidewalk, the president had harsh words for the program that brought him to the United States. The diversity visa lottery has existed for only about 30 years, but it has aided immeasurable amounts of immigrants, including many who have come to the United States and opened businesses, thus creating more jobs for U.S. citizens. Still, myths persist about what it is and what it is not.

Is it a Green Light for So-Called Undesirables?

Even before Saipov’s attack, there have been numerous pieces of misinformation circulating about the diversity visa lottery and its recipients. Perhaps the most pernicious is that the lottery is simply another way for low-skilled people to enter the United States. Contrary to popular perception, however, the countries that send the most potential immigrants to the U.S. are actually excluded from the diversity visa lottery. Because their countries almost always exceed their immigration quotas each year, citizens of countries like India, Mexico and the People’s Republic of China are not permitted to apply. The diversity lottery is intended to assist those who hail from a country with low immigration totals that may not otherwise receive a visa—for example, Saipov was an Uzbek citizen, and Uzbekistan’s immigration totals are routinely quite low.

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 Posted on January 10, 2018 in Family Law

A divorce does not have to lead to a courtroom battle filled with emotions. With collaborative divorce, divorcing couples can avoid this and work together to come to an agreement. In recent years, this type of divorce has become more common. In fact, it’s been recognized by the Illinois Collaborative Process Act which will go into effect on January 1st, 2018 and was passed to promote the use of the collaborative process to settle more cases in Illinois. Let’s take a closer look at the meaning of the Collaborative Process Act.

The Collaborative Process Act Defined

A collaborative divorce involves spouses working together with their lawyers to come to a resolution on outstanding issues that need to be settled. The Collaborative Process Act states the following:

• Marriage, divorce, legal separation, annulment, property distribution, child support, spousal maintenance, parenting time, and other family or domestic issues can be resolved through the collaborative process.

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 Posted on January 09, 2018 in Personal Injury

Whether you commute regularly from your home in DuPage County to your job in downtown Chicago, or if you only use your car for recreational purposes or for getting around your own neighborhood, car accidents can happen quickly and without warning. While there are many steps we all can take in order to prevent accidents from happening in the first place, drivers can additionally purchase vehicles that have well-designed safety features in order to both prevent crashes and limit injuries in the event that a collision does occur.

According to a recent article in The New York Times, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) newly released its list for “Top Safety Pick” and “Top Safety Pick Plus.” What should you learn about the vehicles that made the list in order to avoid a car accident and serious injuries?

Fewer Automobiles Made the 2018 List

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 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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