When Will the Legal Community Return To Normal?

Both attorneys and clients have reached the boiling point with their government’s failed response regarding the dismal shutdown of our courts, agencies, and municipalities. Obviously, during a pandemic there will be changes in the way some systems operate. This does not mean that the government can simply stop doing their job. There is a fundamental duty of the government to provide the services that taxpayers fund on a consistent and reliable basis. Our government employees are still being paid. Private businesses are still operating, finding work from home work-arounds for employees. It should not be beyond the capacity of the most powerful country in the world to be able to do the same, if not better.

            We are a small law office in Oak Lawn, IL. We handle a number of practice areas including Estate Planning, Social Security Disability, Family Law, and Guardianship. What makes us unique is that we work with the government in almost all of their levels. What is so surprising is just how poorly our governments response has been on all levels of administration. Let me provide some examples of the frustration we have had to undertake in the last few months. We will start with your local government.

In Oak Lawn, like many municipalities, when you wish to transfer a property via sale, estate distribution, or changing of title, you must receive a transfer stamp. This type of stamp allows the municipalities to ensure there is not an outstanding balance on municipal services prior to a transfer. The job of the clerk in this type of stamp is simple. Run the property index number against the municipal billing and determine if there is an outstanding balance. If there is a balance, inform the citizen client so that the balance can be paid. If there is not balance, stamp the form and return it to the firm. There is no need for in person interaction in this setup. Attorneys can fax or email the form to the village, and the village can email or mail the stamp back. There is no reason the clerk couldn’t perform this duty from their home. My office has sent the forms to the village three weeks ago for a client who needs this transfer of title on an emergency basis. No one at the village responds to phone calls, returns phone messages, or processes the transfer stamps. This type government service is the simplest style of transformation under new Covid-19 protocol. This failure of the local government to process stamps places their citizens at risk of failure to be able to transfer property, insure property, or defeat Estate Planning Goals. There are hundreds of thousands of dollars at stake for the citizens, and Oak Lawns response is that they are shut down to help prevent the spread of the virus.

How is the state/county government responding? In Cook County, the recorder of deeds office did not begin to accept mail in deeds until May 5^th. The courts are closed except for criminal arraignments or whatever the sitting judge decides is an emergency. Properties that are in probate cannot be distributed. Custody schedules for children cannot be finalized. If you lost your job, good luck getting your child support modified, not considered an emergency. Is there a child who needs guardianship because the parent is unfit, the court doesn’t see that as an emergency.

We can give credit to the Social Security Administration for their efforts to maintain a working government system while protecting their staff and the applicants. Social Security took two weeks reorganize the employees to be able to work from home. They set provisions for hearings to be performed telephonically. All those attending the hearing, including judges, attorneys, expert witnesses, and claimants all conference call with the hearing monitor to ensure people can receive the benefits. Most disability applications take over a year to receive a favorable decision. The delays that Covid-19 would create would place a further hardship on disabled Americans. Many of whom are losing their homes from being without work from there disabilities. The judge’s clerks are more available than ever to answer questions and update exhibits. This is a perfect example of a government agency shifting course to accommodate their “customers” needs, while keeping their staff and the public safe.

There are real world consequences to the government failing to do their job. Most government agencies, courts, and municipalities are failing in finding alternative ways to serve the public. We deserve better service from our government, they should be following Social Security’s model of continuing to provide their services in a safe and efficient manner. Remember, with the election season looming, you are paying for these services through your taxes, you should be receiving the benefits. If private entities have to adjust, you should expect no less from your public officials.

Rule of Law | Great Chicago Area Law Blogs

As you know by now, I am an attorney in the Chicago land area. I have my office in Oak Lawn, Illinois. I have realized that you may not be aware of my other blogs. This blog is a general blog about the law, legal situations, and some of my personal life. I also write blogs about specific areas of law. I thought it would be nice to provide links to those specific blogs so that you could get specific information about areas of law that may apply to you. Below, are links to each of my additional blogs. My goal is to blog twice a week. You may wonder why there is not that many postings here. The reason is, that the twice a week blogging is spread out between all of these blogs. Enjoy reading them and as always, if you have any questions please feel free to write in.

Chicago Social Security Disability

Chicago Business Collections

Illinois Business Formation

Chicago Estate Plan Blog

Illinois Immigration

Enjoy these blogs, I hope you get a good deal of information out of them.  These blogs deal exclusively with the area of law their title lists.

Law Office of Jonathan W. Cole | The Office is Complete

It has now been a month that I have had access to my new law office and I have been very busy preparing it. There are so many small details that need to be worked out in a law office. Everything in the office I have done myself, of course with the help of family as well. I had no "professionals" in the office to do anything. There are two reasons I did this. First and foremost, I am sure that everything is done right. There was no cutting corners, no cheap way out. I know that if something is in the office, it is properly installed and properly working. The second reason is cost. The money that I save on the cost of preparing the office, I can pass along to clients. I am extremely happy with the way the office has turned out. Everything from the colors of the office, to my logo, to the cable have been put in properly. I would briefly like to comment on a few things that are special about my office that may not be a part of another law firm.

Technology - In order to ensure that the private information of my clients stays private, I have installed cat-5 line throughout the office. By having personal high speed line in the office, no private data is transferred wirelessly. This reduces the ability of both the government and thieves to snatch clients confidential information from the air. Additionally, my wireless network is uniquely set up with a cisco small business router. The advantage of this router is that the MAC address of any device that is allowed on the network must be manually entered by me. This prevents back hacking or a close proximity wireless attack. Additionally, my server itself is password protected to prevent any prying eyes who may be in my office to "stumble across" client data from my networked computers. In addition to these safeguards, there are a few additional technology safeguards, which will remain secret, that also help client information stay confidential.

Location - I looked for a long time before selecting the location of 5013 W 95th Street, Oak Lawn, IL 60453 for my location. There were a number of factors involved in selecting an office. First, my office had to provide me easy access to public transportation downtown. I am located one block away from the Metra train for Oak Lawn. This train will bring me downtown in no time, so that I can handle a client matter and be back at the office. This ease will reduce the transportation costs on my clients and allow me to get more work done throughout the day. Next, the location needed to have ample parking for clients to access the office. Additionally, the parking had to be close enough to the office to be accessible to those who are handicapped. My next consideration was ease to public transportation. I already spoke about my ease to the train, but just across the street is a bus stop for all West Bound buses on 95th St. Additionally, there is a bus stop for East Bound buses at the end of the block. This will give my clients easy access to my office. The final consideration was a location that would be convenientent for clients to come to. My location is close to a number of restaurants, an accountant, bakery, cleaners, and bank. Clients can easily stop by the office and get the rest of the errands done for they day the need. These reasons were all factored into the equation and my current office was the best fit.

 I have blabbed on enough for this post. Please feel free to leave questions or comments in the section below. If you have any legal questions, please call my law office or leave a message through my website by clicking on Oak Lawn Attorney. Thanks for reading and good luck on your legal problem.

 Jonathan W. Cole