The HCBullet: The blog of the Attorneys at HCB

No Malicious Prosecution Found Where Totality of the Circumstances Gave Detectives An Objectively Reasonable Belief To Support Probable Cause

January 2, 2018

The First District Appellate Court upheld summary judgment in favor of defendant police officers in a malicious prosecution case, Burrell v. Village of Sauk Village, et al., 2017 IL App (1st) 163392. Plaintiff claimed that police did not have probable cause to arrest and prosecute him for the murder of his one-month-old niece after a…

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Summary Judgment Granted in Employment Discrimination Case Brought Under the IHRA.

January 2, 2018

On December 20, 2018, Livingston County Circuit Court Judge Matthew Fitton granted summary judgment in favor Livingston County in an employment discrimination case, Kahinde v. County of Livingston, Case No. 16 L 7, brought under the Illinois Human Rights Act.  The plaintiff was a county information technology director who claimed that he was fired because of…

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Supreme Court to Decide What Police Must Show to Defeat First Amendment Retaliatory Arrest Claim

December 19, 2017

Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear Lozman v. City of Riviera Beach, Florida. Lozman presents a conflict between a longstanding principle of Fourth Amendment law and an equally venerable strain of First Amendment law. This conflict has divided lower courts and is critical to police and municipalities in today’s environment of heightened…

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Court Rules Jail Medical Staff Did Not Act With Deliberate Indifference

December 5, 2017

U.S. District Court Judge Sue E. Meyerscough granted summary judgment in favor of Vermillion County Jail and jail nurses in Jones v. Hartshorn, et al., No. 15-cv-2032. Inmate Walter Jones claimed that defendants were deliberately indifferent to a litany of medical conditions while he was detained at the jail in 2011 and 2013. Judge Myerscough…

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Seventh Circuit Limits the Scope of the Civil Rights Act in Property Tax Matters

December 5, 2017

Because of the breadth and scope of the federal Civil Rights Act, citizens frequently attempt to assert constitutional claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for all sorts of wrongs – even mundane matters which would appear at first blush not to involve a citizen’s constitutional rights. There are many reasons why citizens attempt to invoke §…

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