The Top 10 Most Frequently Accessed Supreme Court Cases from Lexis

Ever wonder what whee some of the most important cases in the history of the American legal system ranked as far as being accessed? LexisNexis answers that question with it's release of the top 10 most frequently accessed U.S. Supreme Court decisions. Read the Top 10 and access free case law plus more top cases on lexisone.com

CRJ 230 - Court Procedures and Evidence, ONLINE for Fall 2009

Enroll in CRJ 230, Court Procedures and Evidence, Online for Fall semester 2009.

Facilitated by Professor Tom Higgins, this is a must have course for Paralegal, Criminal Justice and Crime Scene students and one that will pay dividends far into their chosen careers.

Students who have taken this course have said:

“This course is a MUST take course for every Paralegal program student. Great course!”
-Paralegal Student

“Professor Higgins’ helps Crime Scene students connect the law to all the things Professor DeFranco teaches us in the lab” -Crime Scene Student

“This course brings the ‘law’ of ‘law enforcement’ to life” -Criminal Justice Student

Seats are limited. Call or See your advisor or contact Professor Higgins to Enroll Today!

Donate to St. Jude

The hotter it is the more we train, the more we train the better we run, the better we run the more miles we cover, the more miles we cover the more people become aware of St. Jude, the more people who become aware of St. Jude the more money we raise for St. Jude, the St. Jude kids and the St. Jude families, the more money we raise the more cures the doctors find . . . DONATE to St. Jude TODAY

Great Criminal Law CLE Program

I attended the Peoria County Bar Association Criminal Law CLE on June 14th. This was by far one of the better programs I have attended in recent years.

The highlight of the program and the portion that was probably something that all new lawyers should pay attention to, especially those anticipating small or solo private practice in any area but especially criminal defense, was Tim Penn's presentation. It was a classic session by a master of his field and a lawyer who has proved you can be a solid and respected practioner, make money and enjoy life.

If you need the CLE hours watch for the program to be made available on DVD. It's well worth your time and expense.

Don't pull your hair out. The ICC Web is down, Blackboard access available from main campus

Don't pull you hair out. It's not your computer. Apparently a cable was cut in downtown Peoria and the result is that ICC is cut off from the WWW until it's fixed. I am told you can access Blackboard from the main campus.

I can't speak for other faculty but I will extend the next discussion deadline for this week in my courses for the total time period of the outage, which hopefully won't be more than a few more hours.

I will update here with the total time of the outage once the repairs are complete.

In the interim, thanks for your patience. The only thing any of us can do under the circumstances is checking back periodically to determine if we are back "online".

UPDATE: We are back online. Downtime was about 4 hours. I'll be extending up discussion due date/time for tomorrow (6/17/09) to Noon.

ICC Public Services Faculty and Students invited to "Salute to Fire and Police Day" at Chiefs game July 12th

On Sunday, July 12th, the Peoria Chiefs will be hosting our "Salute to Fire and Police Day". The 2:00pm game against the Fort Wayne TinCaps will feature an afternoon of fun and quality baseball. Gates will open at 1:00pm. Throughout the afternoon, entertainment will be themed toward saluting local police and fire
departments.

ICC Public Services Faculty and Students are invited to attend at the special box seat price of $7 per ticket. As an added bonus, all kids ages 12 and under receive a voucher for a free hotdog, soda and bag of chips.

To get tickets or find out more information, you must contact:

Mike Schulte, Guest Services
Peoria Chiefs Baseball Club
(309) 680-4000 ext. 4093 or michaels@chiefsnet.com

The ICC Paralegal Programs made the Paper this morning: Colleges see influx for paralegal job track - Peoria, IL - pjstar.com

Colleges see influx for paralegal job track - Peoria, IL - pjstar.com

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The Glass Castle: A Memoir makes Professor Higgins' Summer Must Read List

In The Glass Castle, Jeanette Walls chronicles her upbringing by her parents, Rose Mary, her frustrated-artist mother and Rex, her brilliant but alcoholic father. I don't even know where to start. Jeanette Walls survived a life of a thousand case studies and more incidents than most police officers or lawyers could recall from people they encounter in a 30 year career. She is a very good writer and the presentation is through the sort of short but complete chapters that are conducive to summer reading.

Read this book but beware, like the last one I suggested, you pick it up and you won't want to put it down.

Support Professor Higgins in the Tri-County St. Jude Run

Support Professor Higgins and the Tri-County St. Jude Run.
Go to his St. Jude Run page to read more and make a donation that will directly assist and affect the lives of local St. Jude kids and families.

New Facebook Twist on ex parte communications

I am certain someone will raise this recent news item during our summer Ethics course. It appears that a judge and lawyer "friended" one another on Facebook during a trial and what happened next caused the judge some unwanted scrutiny. Read more on the Law.com Legal Blog Watch

Must Read Book added to Professor Higgins' Summer Reading List: Three Little Words: A Memoir

I bypassed my second summer read, Michael Connelly's The Overlook (don't worry Michael, I'm reading it now) to read Three Little Words: A Memoir, by Ashley Rhodes-Courter.

At first I wasn't sure I wanted to read this book. Personal experiences, both in childhood, life in general and 25 years working with the justice system aside, this wasn't the type of "let me brain be entertained" book I would open on the beach. But I did and you should do the same.

You can read reviews from the web and form your own opinions about whether or not you want to read the book. (see Amazon's page on the book for just a few). I am kicking around adding this book as an extra credit option in my Family Law course. It sums up so much of our final few weeks of parentage, neglect, adoption etc.

Otherwise, all I'll say is that if you open it plan on being distracted from most other things until you finish the book.