This blog post was written by HeplerBroom Summer Associate Chioma Chukwu-Smith. Partner Elizabeth Dyer Kellett also contributed to the post. In J.S.T. Corp. v. Foxconn Interconnect Tech. Ltd., 965 F.3d 571 (7th Cir. 2020), Plaintiff J.S.T. Corporation (“J.S.T.”) sued Defendants TE Connectivity Corporation (“TEC”) and Foxconn Interconnect (“Foxconn”) for misappropriation of trade secrets and unjust enrichment arising out of Defendants’ alleged acquisition of Plaintiff’s 183-pin connector designs from a third-party. The district court dismissed Plaintiffs’…

This blog post was written by HeplerBroom Summer Associate Andrew E. Gilkerson. Partner Elizabeth Dyer Kellett also contributed to the post. Last year, Illinois lawmakers passed legislation to increase the gas tax and the statewide minimum wage annually. This year the gas tax increased only a fraction of a cent (from $0.38 per gallon to $0.387 per gallon). The statewide minimum wage increased from $9.25 to $10 per hour. Although these increases were planned, they…

Recently, Alameda County Superior Court in California conducted a jury trial on a products liability claim for asbestos exposures. The jury selection process was carried out electronically via Zoom, and the entire trial was conducted virtually. Several issues were raised about conducting the trial remotely, including judge, jurors, witness, and/or counsel speaking without muting and jurors being inattentive (e.g., handling other tasks while the trial was being conducted). Nonetheless, the trial went forward and the…

As Missouri gears up for medical marijuana to possibly become available this month (with one licensed dispensary already doing a “dry run”), the nation has been slowly addressing the legality of marijuana. Just last month, the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (“MORE”) Act was slated to be on the House floor, only to be delayed by urgent COVID-19 measures. This bill would remove marijuana from the list of scheduled substances under the Controlled…

This blog post was written by HeplerBroom Summer Associate Patricia L. Pfeiffer. Partner Elizabeth Dyer Kellett also contributed to the post. Under Illinois statute 735 ILCS 5/2-1001(a)(2), every party to a case has an absolute right for one substitution of judge. As long as the judge has not made rulings on any substantial issues in the case, the trial court has no discretion to deny such a motion. In Simpson v. Knoblauch, 2020 IL App…

This blog post was written by HeplerBroom Summer Associate Weston T. Stoddard. Partner Elizabeth Dyer Kellett also contributed to the post. In People v. Gliniewicz, 2020 IL App (2d) 190412, the Illinois Court of Appeals, Second District reversed the Lake County Circuit Court and held that Defendant, Melody Gliniewicz, voluntarily waived any marital privilege that would have applied to electronic communications that were recovered on her deceased husband’s phone. Gliniewicz, 2020 IL App…

HeplerBroom boasts several of Illinois’ premier environmental-law lawyers, and recently those colleagues were asked to prepare an amicus brief on behalf of the Illinois Environmental Regulatory Group in an appeal pending in the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, Prairie Rivers Network v. Dynegy Midwest Generation LLC, No. 18-3644. The matter involves the non-profit Network’s assertion that Dynegy’s Vermillion, Illinois, power station was releasing contaminants into groundwater. Specifically at issue is the Clean Water Act’s forbidding…