DCBA Brief's From the Editor
December 2005
By John Pcolinski, Jr.
Random thoughts from your editor:
This month’s cover photo is of Judge Ann Jorgensen who will be DuPage County’s first woman chief judge by the time this edition is printed. I have been privileged to appear before Judge Jorgensen and to have practiced in this county for her entire career as a judge. Her reputation as a judge is one of a bright but humble hard worker. I can also report that she is a good sport as I was present for the photo shoot. Although there was some good natured grumbling that she "locks people up for a living" and that she wanted to make sure the photo was not as unflattering as one of her former partner=s which graced the cover of The Brief many years ago, she was very patient. I expect that the next three years will only augment her reputation—she plans to keep part of her call in addition to assuming the duties of Chief Judge. Congratulations and best of luck Judge Jorgensen.
President Chuck Roberts has some thoughts this month on the unlicensed practice of law. We currently are handling an estate in our office where the decedent had executed a "form will" which he purchased from one of those service providers. Of course, it was woefully inadequate even for a person who had a relatively modest estate. As a consequence, his heirs will receive less money in the end and his children will have less protection for their inheritance because he was provided a document which failed to address very simple issues that a competent attorney would have been able to alert him to. I suspect that the providers of these documents are actually making more work for attorneys who will have to become involved at some point merely to fix the problems created by a lack of adequate advice in the first instance.
This month we have articles on Creative problem solving for mediators and negotiators, the Federal Circuit’s decision in NTP, Inc. v. Research in Motion, Ltd., the current state of Illinois law for children riding in automobiles and on motorcycles, and a Fourth District decision on the enforceability of mandatory arbitration clauses which is headed for hearing before the Illinois Supreme Court. We also have a review of a book written by the daughter of a long-time member of our association (Vince Biskupic), Joan Biskupic. Vince is and should be proud. As always, I want to thank my lead articles editor, Ted Donner for an excellent job. I also want to thank Robert Potter III for providing his photography services on a pro bono basis. It is not the first time he has helped our association and it is very much appreciated.
John Pcolinski, Jr., Editor
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