Illinois is changing how it penalizes nursing homes that fail to meet minimum staffing requirements. Beginning with the July 1 through September 30, 2026, reporting quarter, the Illinois Department of Public Health will calculate staffing compliance quarterly and impose escalating financial penalties on facilities that fall below required staffing levels. The changes also create a 10% deviation threshold and address penalties for specific staffing categories.

For families, the bigger issue is whether understaffing puts a resident at risk. Too few caregivers can contribute to falls, bedsores, medication errors, dehydration, and other preventable injuries. A regulatory penalty is separate from a…
Continue Reading Illinois Changes How Nursing Homes Will Be Penalized for Staffing Shortfalls

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Key points:

  • Study of roughly 37,000 U.S. lawyers finds 47.5% screen high for work-related burnout; 41.1% said legal profession has been detrimental to their mental health
  • Many lawyers reported experiencing depression (21.6%), anxiety (20.4%), stress (18.9%), hazardous drinking (42%), and work-life conflict (35.9%)
  • Respondents call for profession to do more, saying barriers like confidentiality concerns (53.3%) and fear of reputational/career harm (49.2%) prevent them from seeking help
  • Study says it is the largest multi-jurisdiction lawyer mental health survey to date, updating 10-year benchmark data from ABA/Hazelden-Betty Ford Foundation

A recent study of roughly 37,000 licensed lawyers across…
Continue Reading Study Finds More Than 40% of Lawyers Say Legal Profession Has Been ‘Detrimental to Their Mental Health’

When Illinois expanded protections for genetic and biomarker information under the Illinois Genetic Information Privacy Act (GIPA), effective January 1, 2027, observers assumed the law was aimed at genetic testing and medical privacy. However, a close reading of the amendments through SB2886 is forcing some Illinois employers to ask: Did Illinois inadvertently prohibit workplace drug testing?
Continue Reading Did Illinois Recently Ban Workplace Drug Testing?

Medical malpractice cases in Illinois follow a considerably more demanding and complex legal process than most other types of personal injury claims typically require of an injured party. Here are answers to the most common questions clients ask most often about the specific procedural requirements that genuinely make these particular cases different from the rest.
Why Does Illinois Require an Affidavit of Merit?
Under 735 ILCS 5/2-622, anyone filing a formal medical malpractice complaint anywhere in Illinois must attach a formal affidavit confirming that a qualified health professional actually reviewed the entire case in detail and found a reasonable and…
Continue Reading The Affidavit Every Claim Needs First

As your parent gets older, you may notice issues that can raise concerns about whether they are taking care of their health and their finances correctly. A parent may fail to pay bills, miss doctor appointments, or experience confusion, and you may become worried about whether their daily needs are being addressed or whether they may encounter financial problems. As you determine what steps you may need to take to address your parent’s needs, you will need to consider a variety of legal and financial concerns.
When an aging parent needs more help, one of the most important steps to…
Continue Reading Your Aging Parent Needs More Help. What Legal and Financial Steps Come Next?

Sexner Injury Lawyers LLC, trabajando con coabogados como parte del equipo legal que representó a una adolescente que sufrió lesiones permanentes devastadoras después de ser atropellada por un autobús escolar en Bartlett High School, ayudó a obtener un acuerdo de $50 millones en su nombre.
El acuerdo surgió de un accidente ocurrido el 18 de octubre de 2024 que involucró a una joven que tenía 14 años en ese momento. Ella sufrió lesiones catastróficas cuando cayó junto a un autobús escolar en movimiento en el área de recogida de estudiantes de la escuela y fue atropellada por el neumático trasero…
Continue Reading Acuerdo de $50 Millones por Accidente de Autobús Escolar para Adolescente Lesionada en Bartlett High School

Sexner Injury Lawyers LLC, working with co-counsel as part of the legal team representing a teenage girl who suffered devastating permanent injuries after being run over by a school bus at Bartlett High School, has helped secure a $50 million settlement on her behalf.
The settlement arose from an October 18, 2024 accident involving a young woman, who was 14 years old at the time. She suffered catastrophic injuries when she fell beside a moving school bus in the high school’s afternoon pickup area and was run over by its right rear tire.
School District U-46’s Board of Education approved…
Continue Reading Sexner Injury Lawyers LLC Legal Team Helps Secure $50 Million School Bus Accident Settlement

What happened? Governor Pritzker established the Illinois AI Cabinet on September 22, 2026. The Cabinet’s mandate includes AI liability, cybersecurity, privacy, contracts, data centers, and whether existing legal remedies are sufficient when AI causes harm.
Who should pay attention? Any Illinois business that uses AI tools in its operations, including hiring software, customer service automation, marketing platforms, contract review tools, data analytics, and scheduling systems.
What should you do right now? You do not need to wait for the Cabinet to issue recommendations to start protecting yourself. The legal risks around AI use are already real under existing Illinois and…
Continue Reading Illinois Just Created an AI Cabinet. What Does That Mean for Businesses Using AI?

What good is a statutory right to cure a breach if a supplier can bypass it simply by waiting another thirty days? Coors Distributing’s lawsuits against Crown/Constellation and Mark Anthony Brands bring that question into focus. CDC alleges the suppliers are ending decades-long relationships without cause and seeks injunctions while the disputes proceed toward arbitration. Law 360 and Beer Business Daily have both covered the facts. But wholesalers in Colorado and around the country cannot afford to ignore the rationale and silliness behind the supplier argument that Colorado created an exception to franchise protections that destroys all value if a…
Continue Reading Can a Beer Supplier Take Decades of Goodwill for Free? Coors’ 90-Day Fight

Can a prenup protect a family farm in Illinois? It can help a couple clarify what will happen to farmland and farm business interests during their marriage and if the marriage ends. For a family planning to pass the farm to the next generation, those expectations matter. The agreement should also fit with the farm’s business documents and the family’s estate plan.
This conversation can feel uncomfortable at first. It may help to start with a practical question: What does each person understand about the farm today, and what do they expect to build together?
What Can an Illinois Prenup …
Continue Reading Can a Prenup Protect a Family Farm in Illinois?

Who inherits the family farm in Illinois when one child farms and the others don’t? The child who works the land does not automatically inherit it. Without a plan, Illinois inheritance law may determine who receives an interest in the farm, while leaving the family to sort out who will operate it. That can be difficult when one child’s livelihood depends on land the other children also expect to inherit.
A workable farm succession plan starts with two questions: Who should own the farm, and who should have the right to farm it? The answers do not always have to…
Continue Reading Who Inherits the Family Farm in Illinois When One Child Farms and the Others Don’t?

Accident News | Englewood, Il

Two people were injured, including one critically, in a shooting on a Chicago Transit Authority bus in the Englewood neighborhood on the city’s South Side Wednesday afternoon.

According to Chicago police, the shooting happened around 4:40 p.m. as a 65-year-old woman and a 57-year-old man were riding the bus in the 300 block of West 63rd Street. Both were struck by gunfire from an unknown suspect.

Police scanner reports suggested that a fight may have occurred before the shooting, but CPD has not confirmed whether a confrontation led to the incident. Both victims were taken…
Continue Reading 2 Injured, 1 Critically, in Shooting on CTA Bus in Englewood

Back by listener request, we’re taking a brief recess to revisit one of our classic episodes on Statements of Economic Interests for local government officials and candidates. Ancel Glink’s Daniel J. Bolin and Keri-Lyn J. Krafthefer break down the Illinois Governmental Ethics Act reporting questions, clear up common misconceptions about disclosable assets and debts, and offer practical guidance for local officials and employees.
Candidates running in the 2027 consolidated elections must file an SOEI and submit their receipt alongside nomination papers during the candidate petition filing period. While incumbent officials may have filed an annual statement earlier this year in…
Continue Reading Recess: Statement of Economic Interests

Question: 
Our firm is a twelve-lawyer litigation firm in Chicago. We have six equity partners and six associates in the firm. One of our partners is 85 and the others are 78, 72, 69, 58, and 52 respectively. We have no succession plan in place, and we have done nothing for prepare for eventual transition. Any suggestions on where and how we should start?
Response:
You need to begin to have some serious discussions with your senior partners as to their retirement goals and timelines and determine how close together their exits will be. Can the remaining three partners hold…
Continue Reading Law Firm Succession Planning in a Multi-Partner Firm – Where to Begin?

A dispensary management company should take the day-to-day off the owner’s plate: buying, staffing, cash, promotions, compliance routines and reporting. The owner keeps the handful of decisions that belong to owners. If you own one store or three, and you are still the person who approves every order and chases every drawer, that is the job you are trying to hand off. Below is how we run it at our own store, what usually breaks when operators try to build it alone, and what to insist on before you let anyone run yours.
Thomas Howard owns and operates Pekin’s Local …
Continue Reading Dispensary Management Company: 5 Proven Jobs It Should Own