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Arrested at North Coast Music Festival?

The annual North Coast Music Festival takes place over Labor Day weekend in Union Park, in Chicago, Il. This year’s festival takes place from 8/31 to 9/2 and features dozens of bands over 3 days including daily headliners Miguel, DJ Snake, and Jamiroquai.

You can expect a large police presence whenever there is such a large crowd of music fans gathered for multiple days. In years past, people get crazy, and police will be out making arrests and writing criminal and civil citations. Both Chicago police on scene and State police other local police will be looking for concert travelers with out of town plates or musical signage on their cars.

Police are absolutely known to stop out of state cars or vehicles with North Coast Music Festival or other band stickers indicating they are traveling to the show. They will pull you over and attempt to justify a search for drugs or other contraband.

[Read more…]

Criticism for Chicago Police & Mayor Emanuel for “Arresting Everybody”

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle is taking heat for comments directed at Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy. Not one to mince words, Preckwinkle said last week that the two were “too focused on arrests as a solution to rising violence and not enough on improving a ‘miserable’ public school system and beefing up youth programs,” according to the Chicago Tribune. [Read more…]

Questions About New Illinois Drunk Driving Law

Even Illinois county prosecutors have questions and concerns about the implementation of Illinois’ tough new drunk driving laws, that goes into effect in January ’09.

In this article, prosecutors are openly skeptical about whether or not this requirement for Breath Alchohol Ignition Interlock Devices, will curtail people from driving. The BAIID doesn’t allow a person’s car to start unless they blow into a device – essentially a rolling breathalyzer – and pass the test.

One of the primary concerns is whether this law will actually reduced incidents of drunk driving. Will the people who are the most dangerous and most likely to continue to drive after drinking actually abide by the restriction? A person could either simply not get the device installed (and obviously not have a valid license) or could still borrow a vehicle from another person.

The Interlock system creates a large bureaucracy with the motor trade insurance around this law – and a significant profit center for BAIID installers and manufacterers, so it would be nice if everyone was confident it would help.

An additional concern raised by the DUI prosecutors in the article is the cost structure. Many courts have difficultly collecting fines and fees after DUI convictions as it is. There are numerous court fees and payments, including probation costs, that the court tries to collect.

Is this just setting poor and working class people up to fail? If a person absolutely has to drive to keep a job, does that mean he or she get an IID and skip paying court fees, that could result in a probation violation? Or do you skip the ignition interlock, and drive without one, risking a new criminal charge for that offense?

These concerns are legitimate, and everyone should be confident that the benefits of this new law will outweigh the costs and difficulties for the Illinois courts and our citizens.

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Charged with drunk driving? For a free consultation on Illinois new DUI laws, please contact us today.

Illinois Expungment Seminars Gaining Popularity

Expungement is a common legal procedure that clears a criminal record of someone with an old conviction. Typically, the rules for expungement require that 2 years pass after a misdemeanor conviction and all related court obligations are met. If you were merely arrested and/or had your case dismissed, you may be eligible to have those events expunged much more quickly.

Many Colleges, civic organizations, and job placement agencies now hold seminars on how to complete Expungement paperwork. The reason for the increased demand? – Cheap and easy background checks on the internet make anyone’s criminal record simple to find. And a criminal charge in your past can prevent you from getting a job, or impact your life in many other ways. Even an arrest without a conviction can show up and cause you difficulty.

The paperwork for expungement isn’t terribly complicated, but the process can be lengthy and confusing. Your request must be reviewed by a number of law enforcement agencies, and approved by a judge. Also, many offenses, such as drunk driving, sexual offenses, and most felonies are ineligible to be expunged.

If you need help with an expungement in Illinois, please contact our criminal attorneys.

Techology to Improve Traffic Ticket Information and Increase Penalties

Under a new program sponsored by the DuPage Circuit Court Clerk’s office, courts in all 102 Illinois Counties will have an opportunity to improve sharing traffic ticket violation data, and increase violator penalties and enforcement.

More police departments across the state of Illinois are issuing and filing traffic ticket, speeding tickets, and other moving violations electronically. With this new shared database, all jurisdictions connected online to the system could have access to current ticket data within a day of issue.

This becomes an important enforcement tool, since when if A Circuit Court Clerk’s office is not aware of all of a violators traffic citations, he might be given a lesser penalty for which he is technically not eligible.

For example, a common traffic ticket disposition under Illinois law is known as Court Supervision. A traffic offender who challenges a ticket and is offered court supervision, or who agrees to a traffic safety course is given a chance for that ticket to be kept off his public record if no other violations occur within a certain time period.

However, a person is only eligible for Court Supervision once per year. But if a Court is not aware of other tickets, it may be offered in cases where the person is ineligible. This new system is designed to stop this from happening.

If you are facing a traffic ticket in Illinois, please contact us for a consultation on your legal options.