BIPA Amendment Making Waves in Litigation Trends
The landscape of biometric privacy in Illinois is poised for a significant shift following the recent amendment to the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). On August 4, 2024, Governor JB Pritzker signed S.B. 2979 into law introducing a crucial modification that could have far-reaching implications for businesses and the ongoing wave of biometric privacy litigation.
Understanding BIPA: A Background
Guest Blogger: Attorney Tracy Ries
For parents going through a divorce, the right-now priority is to retain matrimonial attorneys to negotiate or litigate a plan to divide up assets, determine alimony and child support payments, and haggle over children’s residency and visitation schedules.
And it’s understandable that’s the top focus from a legal standpoint. But assuming you and your soon-to-be former spouse have, at some point, put into place estate planning documents—wills, trusts, powers-of-attorney, life insurance policies or anything else—you will want to revisit those ASAP.
Aret Smart Contracts Smart?
Imagine if the paper on which your business’ contracts are written could somehow come to life and automatically send payments to your collectors—and receive payments from your debtors—at the appropriate times, as different provisions of said contract are triggered.
That’s more or less how electronic smart contracts, self-enforcing pieces of computer code set up to execute on the blockchain, more efficiently streamline certain processes. While sometimes legally enforceable, they have their drawbacks and will probably never completely replace traditional legal contracts.
If the robots start taking over, you can’t necessarily expect the government to protect you.
That isn’t to say the public sector isn’t paying attention. President Biden and Vice President Harris met recently with CEO’s of Microsoft, Alphabet Google’s and other leading artificial intelligence companies and pushed the message that AI products—particularly the generative AI found in trending apps like ChatGPT—must have safety protocols built in place before they’re released.
Among the current and potential risks that Biden, who is himself a ChatGPT user, warned about include those to individuals, society at large, and the country’s national security—ranging from violations of privacy, to skewed decisions about employment, to misinformation campaigns, to outright scams.
2023 Business Outlook
2022 started out with the hope of a recovery from the pandemic but ended with a recession. With the advent of 2023 we are left to ponder on what is ahead for businesses in 2023.
It’s the Recession, Stupid: The war in Ukraine has affected the world economy which was struggling with recovery after the pandemic. Interest rates have increased which has adversely affected the real estate market and businesses which are facing higher operating costs and higher costs for loans. We may see more businesses shut down because of the increased costs or an inability to pay off their loans. It is doubtful that we will seen interest rates rise to the levels we saw in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. I recall thinking I was fortunate to get a mortgage rate of 13.5% on my first home purchase in 1979! Businesses will need to carefully monitor their cash flow and receivables.
Buyer of Nontraditional Legal Services, Beware
All kinds of business forms are offered online, and many of them for free. Stand-alone paralegal services are offering various sorts of assistance to small businesses for significantly less than lawyers generally charge. Accounting and bookkeeping services that organize businesses are increasingly positioning themselves as trusted enterprise advisers in ways that potentially can spill over into law-related issues. And the cost of litigation continues to grow.
It’s thus understandable at some level that small business owners, who operate on modest margins in many cases, would ponder how much they need to continue to rely on their traditional partners in the legal world for the same level of services they typically have in the past and look to the web find alternatives to the services of a lawyer.
Wills Can Be Signed Electronically
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, wills needed to be signed in person and witnesses (including notaries) needed to be on hand to see the will creator’s actually sign the will.
When the pandemic got underway, Illinois Governor Pritzker signed an Emergency Order declaring that for health and safety related reasons, wills could be signed electronically and that notaries public and other witnesses could view the signing from afar, provided they had a dependable audio and video connection.
Attorneys Misty Cygan and Geo Bellas can help your get business off to a good start.
We’ve run a series of posts recently about the steps involved in launching a business. These have covered issues like deciding what type of business you want to start and what your business model will be; putting together a business plan and identifying sources of capital investment; and naming and registering your business.
This final post will flesh out how forging a beneficial relationship with a law firm that delivers services in a punctual, professional and affordable manner is key to the endgame of getting started with your new venture.
Cyber Security Insurance
UPDATED AUGUST 23, 2020 – A federal judge in Kansas has ruled that three Missouri restaurants can proceed with their claims against Cincinnati Insurance Company alleging that the policies also covered “physical loss,” which the insurers failed to define in the policies. The insurance company’s argument is that the policies provide coverage “only for income losses tied to physical damages to property, not to economic loss caused by governmental or other efforts to protect the public from disease.” In other words, they cover direct physical damages or losses from events like storms or fires. This argument was rejected by the federal district court judge.
August 10, 2020 – The sudden expansion of remote work arrangements in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis has created a buffet of opportunities for would-be cyber criminals. And the newly reconfigured, decentralized satellite workplaces in people’s homes look to be with us for some time. In addition to protecting themselves from the network vulnerabilities created by these off-site offices, businesses need to undertake a thorough review of their cyber insurance policies to ensure that if a malicious actor causes them harm, they are protected on the fiscal front.
As Chicago area business litigation lawyers this is a question we frequently are asked.
Electronic Signatures are Enforceable under Illinois Laws.
E-Signatures are permissible and valid in Illinois under the Illinois Electronic Commerce Security Act (the ECSA).
Chicago Business Attorney Blog