Tag Appellate Court

Civil Penalties For FOIA Violations Survive Even After Documents Are Disclosed

Recently, in Staake v. Department of Corrections, 2022 IL App (4th) 210071, the Appellate Court heard a case pertaining to alleged FOIA violations. In 2018, an inmate, Jared Staake, filed two separate FOIA requests with the Illinois Department of Corrections… Continue Reading →

Appellate Court Upholds Application of “Open and Obvious” Danger With Dismissal of Wrongful Death Lawsuit Against the CTA

Last week, the appellate court affirmed the dismissal of a wrongful death lawsuit that was filed against the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) continuing a history of decisions with respect to moving trains presenting an “open and obvious danger.” In Pryor… Continue Reading →

Appellate Court Determines That 28,000 Pages Of Records Is Not Unduly Burdensome Under FOIA

In Greer v. Board of Education of the City of Chicago, 2021 IL App (1st) 200429, the appellate court found that reviewing 28,000 pages of records responsive to a FOIA request was not unduly burdensome. On October 12, 2018, Tyrone… Continue Reading →

School Board Rejects Hearing Officer’s Recommendation and Fires Teacher for Cheating

Jennifer Longanecker was a tenured fifth-grade teacher in the East Moline School District. In 2014, the School Board found that she helped a student cheat on the Illinois Standards Achievement Test. In doing so, the Board reversed a hearing officer’s finding that… Continue Reading →

An Evolving Landscape – Public Bodies’ Responsibility to Pay Prevailing Wage to Laborer Landscapers

Public bodies and those who contract with public bodies should be aware of a recent appellate court decision that addressed two topics with respect to the Prevailing Wage Act – the importance of including specific prevailing wage language into contracts… Continue Reading →

Legal Challenge to Waste Transfer Station Siting Fails

In Will County v. Village of Rockdale, 2018 Il App (3d) 160463 (July 5, 2018), the Illinois Appellate Court affirmed grant of waste transfer station siting, holding that a Village had jurisdiction over the matter, an amendment to the siting… Continue Reading →

Appellate Court Finds ComEd Annexation Agreement Invalid

Annexation may occur in a variety of ways.  Voluntary annexation occurs where a landowner files a petition to be annexed.  Alternatively, a municipality may proceed with involuntary annexation where certain statutory requirements are met, such as where a property is… Continue Reading →

Sometimes a Felon Can Run for a School Board

Not all felonies are created equal, nor does a felony conviction necessarily prevent one from holding public office (at least in one suburban county school district).  People ex. rel. Nkyia Ervin v. Dean Barnett, 2018 Ill.App. 172639 (1st Dist.). Enter… Continue Reading →

FOIA Does Not Require a Public Body to Answer Questions or Create Records

In Martinez v. Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, 2018 WL 1308730 (March 12, 2018), Martinez submitted a FOIA request to the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office seeking “each instance in which information obtained using a cell site simulator … was… Continue Reading →

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