Hinch Law

In Peraino v. Winnebago County , after summary judgment was awarded to the defendant, the plaintiff's attorney waiting until the last few minutes before the deadline to file a motion to reconsider.  That deadline landed on 1/3/17.  The attorney apparently attempted to upload the motion at 11:55 pm that day, but ran into issues getting the file to upload, such that it was not processed and date-stamped until 12:03 am on 1/4/17. On appeal, plaintiff's attorney relied on a local rule regarding e-filing technical problems.  There was a discussion about whether a user error was a technical problem within the scope of the local rule (the trial court ruled it was not). Ultimately though the appellate court noted the problem here was a new e-filing spin on a longstanding legal principle.  The 30 day deadline after final judgment lapsed, meaning the court no longer had jurisdiction over the case, and therefore could not provide the relief sought.  Similarly, the p...

What does "cause" mean?  In McManus v. Richards , an orthodontist was buying into a practice group, but four years into the buy-in contract, when she had paid for a 45% interest and was nearing equal partner status with the other orthodontist, she was fired for "cause."  The two doctors had apparently fallen out and the one buying in informed the other of her intent to dissociate from the practice, so she was fired preemptively.  She showed up to the office one morning, and the locks had been changed, computer passwords changed, and she was excluded access to patient records. As we often see with such ownership buy-in arrangements, there was a buy-in contract, but no separate employment contract.  The buy-in contract identified party rights to dissociate, voluntarily or in event of "cause," but "cause" was not defined.  The existing practice owner argued that in this case the word "cause" was merely as defined by the dictionary - ...

This is a continuation of my previous post on the topic of renewable energy project contracts.  The first post focused on contract drafting and review concerns for landowners to note. Again, wind and solar projects in particular have been moving forward through local government approvals lately.  Since my first post, the McLean County Board has, on a 10- 8 vote, followed the recommendation of its Zoning Board of Appeals and approved one wind proposal.  See this recent article from the Bloomington Pantagraph . In this post, I want to focus particularly on one of the contract issues I mentioned last time, as it affects certain third parties - namely, contract provisions regarding liens and lien rights that are within the easement agreement / lease.  These provisions typically indicate that the renewable energy system is personal property and not an improvement to the real property itself, and that as such will be exempt from the Mechanics Lien Act .  Thi...

Illinois appears to be undergoing a resurgence in renewable energy projects, in the form of wind farms and now solar farms.    It's only a month into 2018, and McLean County, Illinois has had several such projects in the news, from at least three different energy companies (both wind and solar).  The Bloomington Pantagraph  newspaper calls it a " renewable energy boom ."  The news has primarily been about local government land use hearings, at which evidence is heard regarding the effects and economic benefits of such projects.  There's some opposition being raised for various reasons, with the economic development of the projects and the big picture benefits of renewable energy raised as supporting arguments.  I'm not here to debate all that. These projects can be critical to landowner farmers and their families as a revenue stream that is not tied to the ups and downs of agricultural markets, but also can be realized without having to give up...

If you own an interest in an Illinois Limited Liability Company (LLC), good news!  Effective yesterday, certain filing fees have been significantly reduced.  See this press release from Secretary of State Jesse White's office for details as to the fee changes. If you have a current LLC, you are required to file Annual Reports with the State, and pay the annual filing fee associated with that.  This fee is being reduced from $250 to $75.  The fee is generally due on the anniversary of forming your LLC, which means the payment due date is different for each LLC.  The Secretary of State typically mails the Annual Report form out a few months in advance of the due date.   If your LLC annual report is due soon, you should doublecheck to ensure that you do not accidentally overpay the fee. For those who may have been holding off on forming a corporation or LLC due to cost concerns, this fee reduction is also great news! To file "Articles of Organizatio...

If your spouse died since 2011, the IRS earlier this year extended the timeframe you have to make a "portability" election by filing a Form 706 Estate Tax Return , until the later of either January 2, 2018 or the second anniversary of the decedent's date of death.  See Revenue Procedure 2017-34 . Here's what that means and why it is important . Remember the "fiscal cliff" issue from a few years back?  The federal estate tax used to have a sunset provision.  When that expired, Congress did not update it right away, but debated what to do, before finally enacting a law that made the estate tax permanent (not sunsetting). The estate tax exclusion, the threshold amount of wealth below which you would not owe any estate tax, was set at $5 million, with an adjustment each year for inflation. (For 2017 that number is $5.49 million, and the IRS has announced it will go up to $5.6 million for 2018.  For ease of reference, I'm going to stick to the round num...

In the recent case In Re: Estate of Lee , the Illinois Appellate Court , Third District, reviewed orders from the trial court requiring an accounting from the trustee, finding contempt for failure to comply by the deadline in the court order for the accounting, ordering the executor to bypass the trustee and make payments direct to the beneficiaries, and removing the trustee.  The appellate court affirmed the court orders, except reversing the contempt ruling and sanctions. The decedent (Sandra) died in 2005, leaving three minor children. She had a will that (in a common estate planning strategy for parents with minor children) included a testamentary trust as the means by which her children would receive their inheritance, and providing that each child would receive 1/3 of the trust assets at the age of 25.  The will appointed an executor (Jennifer) and a trustee (Kathleen) who appears to also have served as guardian (the opinion indicates the children lived with Kathl...