Jonathan Bilyk News
Court filing: IL government hiring monitor says Pritzker moves have 'impeded' state government hiring reform progress
A court-appointed monitor of Illinois' government hiring practices says Gov. Pritzker has 'diminished' her ability to communicate with state personnel, harming efforts to complete a reform plan.
'This should keep you up at night': $550M Facebook settlement could spark yet more IL biometrics class actions
Attorneys urge employers to beware of lawsuits, address company policies and push Illinois officials to 'seek changes' to the state's Biometric Information Privacy Act.
Facebook will pay $550M to settle Illinois photo tag class action brought by Edelson, other firms
Facebook has agreed to pay $550 million to settle one of the first and largest class actions launched under an Illinois biometrics privacy law.
Report says employment lawsuits down, but class action success rate highest ever; Cost businesses billions
Plaintiffs' lawyers are securing class action nods at 80% clip, and settlements are still totaling hundreds of millions of dollars, a report from Seyfarth Shaw says
McDonald's scores key wins in 'joint employer' legal battle, but war continues in attempt to unionize franchise shops
McDonald's scores key wins in 'joint employer' legal battle, but war continues in attempt to unionize franchise shops
Appeals brief: Judge wrongly cut short taxpayer suit vs IL over constitutionality of $14B bond issues
An Illinois state appeals court has been asked to decide if a judge in Springfield improperly ducked the question of whether state lawmakers illegally borrowed billions of dollars to pay down bills, when such actions may be forbidden by the Illinois state constitution.
Cook County judge: Walmart, other employers can't look to IL constitution for protection from biometrics class actions
Illinois’ state constitution offers no escape valve for employers facing a blizzard of class action lawsuits under the state's biometrics privacy law, a Cook County judge ruled, rejecting an attempt by Walmart to sidestep one of those lawsuits.
Appeals panel: IL constitution doesn't force cities to keep paying retiree health insurance, even if benefit paid to current workers
Neither Illinois’ state constitution nor its insurance laws force cities to pay for retirees’ health insurance premiums, just because the city pays a portion of premiums for current employees.
'Political questions': Judges duck thorny IL constitutional issues, but how much free rein should IL pols have?
Judges in Illinois have allowed the state government and Cook County avoid challenges to their spending power under the state constitution. But should they have?
Survey says: Illinois has worst legal system in U.S.; Chicago courts 'least fair'
The environment in courts in Cook County and Madison County have earned IL the bottom spot, according to the survey from the Institute for Legal Reform
Judge denies suit over IL debt, says court can't rule if lawmakers violated state constitution's 'specific purpose' rule
A judge in Springfield has refused to permit a lawsuit to continue which asserted the state’s constitution never intended to allow the state government from using debt, issued under the state’s bonding authority, to pay for operating expenses. The plaintiff in the case has vowed to appeal, saying the judge reached a wrong and hasty conclusion on the questions at the heart of the dispute.
Lawyer in porn shakedown scheme sentenced to 5 years; Courts across country were scammed, including St. Clair
A former Chicago lawyer, one of the principals at Prenda Law and one of the masterminds behind a scheme to secure millions of dollars in settlements as part of a shakedown targeted at those downloading online porn, has been sentenced to five years in prison.
Supreme Court declines to let Illinois caregivers seek order forcing union to refund fees
WASHINGTON , D.C. -- The U.S. Supreme Court has turned down an effort by a group of non-union home caregivers to persuade the high court to order unions to refund millions of dollars in fees that they collected from the caregivers under an Illinois state law declared unconstitutional.
IL Supreme Court douses class action vs Walgreens for charging Chicago bottled water tax on more than bottled water
llinois’ highest state court has bottled up a class action vs Walgreens, as justices said a man can’t claim the retail pharmacy chain defrauded him by charging Chicago's bottled water tax on his Perrier and LaCroix.
SCOTUS gives win to GSK in appeal of $3M verdict over Chicago lawyer's suicide, Paxil drug labeling
The widow of a lawyer who took his own life, allegedly after taking the generic equivalent of widely prescribed antidepressant drug, Paxil, will not get a chance to undo a federal appeals court’s decision to toss out a federal jury’s findings that GSK, the maker of Paxil, owes her $3 million because it allegedly didn’t push federal regulators hard enough to revise the drug’s warning label.
IL Supreme Court: No actual harm needed to sue businesses for scanning fingerprints, other biometric IDs
The Illinois Supreme Court says an Illinois privacy law doesn’t require plaintiffs to prove they were actually harmed before suing businesses and others who scan and store their fingerprints or other so-called biometric identifiers. And the decision will give a green light to dozens of class action lawsuits already pending against businesses of all sizes in the state’s courts, with even more likely to follow.
Appeals court: No rehearing for class action vs SEIU to obtain $32M refund of illegal fees
A federal appeals panel in Chicago has rejected the request by a group of home caregivers for a new hearing to reconsider the courts’ prior decisions denying them the opportunity to bring a class action to recover nearly $32 million they accuse a union of unconstitutionally taking from them under a state law invalidated by a U.S. Supreme Court decision.
Ald. Burke indicted over alleged attempted shake down; Property tax appeal law firm at heart of charges
Powerful Chicago Ald. Ed Burke was indicted Thursday on a charge of attempting to shake down the owner of a Chicago fast food restaurant seeking to renovate their establishment. And at the center of the charge stands Burke's law firm, which has built a huge business specializing in appealing property tax assessments.
People suing Google over facial geometry scans of photos must prove real harm, not just 'feel aggrieved': Judge
Saying the plaintiffs bringing the action must show how they were actually harmed, a Chicago federal judge has closed the window on a class action lawsuit accusing Google of violating an Illinois privacy law by automatically creating and storing face scans of people in photos uploaded to its Google Photos service.
State lawsuit over Sterigenics emissions cites state permit as evidence of 'hazard'; Undercuts permit process?
The Illinois Attorney General's Office and DuPage County State's Attorney have partnered to sue Sterigenics over its alleged emissions of ethylene oxide. However, the state lawsuit has come despite no contention from anyone that Sterigenics violated the terms of its permit, issued by the state. Some worry about the message such a 'bizarre' course of action by the state may send to its businesses, many of whom have similar permits of their own.