ISBA Director of Legislative Affairs Jim Covington reviews bills in Springfield of interest to ISBA members. This week he covers House Bill 5544 (Attorney's fees representing children), House Bill 5823 (Heath Care Services Lien Act), Senate Bill 2569 (Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act), Senate Bill 3626 (Integrative Family Therapy), Senate Bill 3549 (Child-support enforcement) and Senate Bill 3552 (Personal-property exemptions). More information on each bill is available below the video.

Attorney’s fees representing children. House Bill 5544 (Tracy, R-Quincy) makes five changes to affecting attorney’s fees for representing a child in family law cases. (1) Caps fees at $150 an hour with an annual increase or decrease that is tied to the Consumer Price Index. (2) Forfeits payment of fees accrued during a 90-day period if an attorney doesn’t file the already required invoice of services every 90 days. (3) Prohibits billing for preparing the invoice of services. (4) Prohibits the court from awarding fees that are not properly itemized. (5) Removes from current law the bankruptcy exemption for these fees.

Health Care Services Lien Act. House Bill 5823 (Thapedi, D-Chicago) makes four changes to the Health Care Services Lien Act. (1) Limits the lien of a health care provider to the rates established by the health insurance plan or public funds that are available to pay the medical bills. (2) Proportionately reduces subrogation claims or liens for medical expenses in the same proportion that the claimant’s recovery is reduced because of comparative fault or uncollectability of the full value of the full claim because of limited liability insurance or from any other cause. (3) Requires a lienholder to bear the pro rata share of the claimant’s attorney’s fees and litigation expenses for collecting the health-care provider’s lien and be barred from suing the patient for the unpaid balance. (4) Allows petitions to adjudicate rights under this Act to be served on interested adverse parties by personal service, substitute service, or registered or certified mail.

Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act. Senate Bill 2569 (Mulroe, D-Chicago) does two things in dissolution or child support cases. (1) Requires notice and imposes time limits before a litigant can claim dissipation of marital or nonmarital assets. Requires notice of intent to claim dissipation to be filed no later than 60 days before trial or 30 days after discovery closes, whichever is later. The notice must include an identification of the property dissipated and the date, dates, or periods of time during which the marriage began undergoing an irretrievable breakdown and when the dissipation occurred. No dissipation may be considered if it occurred five years before the filing of the petition for dissolution of marriage or three years after the party claiming dissipation knew or should have known of the dissipation. (2) Specifically grants the court the right to order one or both parties to make reasonable payments for health needs not covered by insurance, child-care, education, and extracurricular activities in addition to statutory child support.

Integrative Family Therapy. Senate Bill 3626 (Munoz, D-Chicago) authorizes a trial court to order the parties and the minor children to participate in “integrative family therapy” in a dissolution proceeding or post-judgment proceeding involving children. The trigger for the judge is the presence of substantial and ongoing conflict about custody or visitation putting the children at risk to develop a pathological condition or conditions such as depression, anxiety, and personality disorder.

Child-support enforcement. Senate Bill 3549 (Dillard, R-Westmont) authorizes a court to require a self-employed person who is found in contempt for failing to pay child support to (a) provide monthly financial statements from the business or the self-employment; (b) seek employment and report to the court information about his or her employment search; or (c) report to the Department of Employment Security for job-search services to find employment that will be subject to child support withholding.

Personal-property exemptions. Senate Bill 3552 (Sandack, R-Lombard) creates an exemption to include trusts that name as the primary beneficiary the spouse of the insured or the child, parent, or other person who is dependent on the insured.