Contact me at markploftus@aol.com

Saw an interesting little blurb in the 2/5/04 Chicago Reader. Seems that the Chicago Kent College of Law decided to do a little undercover work and sent some law students over to the landlord/tenant courtrooms. News wasn't good. Students found that the average hearing ran about 1 minute 44 seconds. Frankly, that isn't the disturbing part. The students also noted that the judges didn't require landlords to meet their burden of proof and rarely even gave the tenants an opportunity to state their defense. The students noted that in only 27% of the cases were the tenants even asked if they had a defense.

I've seen some of those courtrooms in action. Frankly, most of the time the tenants don't have a defense - they haven't paid the rent and are just looking to get a little extra time before they get thrown out of the apartment. So the students may have been a little zealous in reaching those conclusions. The more troubling part is the fact that the landlords weren't being required to prove their cases. Maybe the publicity will generate closer observation of those courtrooms.

Over the last two weeks I have filed a couple of new retaliatory discharge cases and will likely be filing another one in the near future. And recently spoke with another client about a potential wrongful termination case. Despite what I hear about our "jobless recovery" seems like employers are getting nastier and more brazen in how the mistreat their employees. In my experience the level of hostility shown toward employees increases as the economy spirals downward. Employers in effect say, "Screw him, let him try and find another job", knowing there aren't many out there. And I keep reading about additional layoffs in the Chicagoland area every day. So don't believe everything you hear from the Republicans about how the economy is coming back. That's not what I'm hearing from the folks who are coming in to see me.