When your spouse gets arrested, especially if it is the first time, your first reaction may be one of confusion and you may have many questions. Are they guilty? What are the consequences if they are convicted? What does this mean for my family? And - perhaps more pressing - what do I do now? Taking quick, effective action is essential for protecting your spouse and ensuring they get the criminal defense they need. Here are some important first steps to take when someone you love has been arrested for committing a crime in Will County. 

Encourage Your Spouse to Remain Silent

People who have been arrested often believe that they can explain themselves out of a situation and that the arresting officer or jail employees will be reasonable if the arrestee is friendly and polite. Unfortunately, this is just not true - and everything your spouse says may be used against them later on. As soon as you speak to your spouse, encourage them to stay quiet and only talk to an attorney about their case. 

Post Bail

There are many reasons to get your spouse out of jail quickly, even if you are upset with them. The more time your spouse spends in jail, the greater the chance that they could say something that might hurt their case. Jails can record inmates in many different situations, including when you meet with them. Do not talk about your spouse’s case on the phone or in person at the jail. To post bail for your spouse, you will need to go to the Will County Adult Detention Facility’s Bond Lobby and pay for bail using cash or credit card.  

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Nursing home residents are elderly and often frail, requiring extensive care and assistance. Families who have loved ones in nursing homes have to take a leap of faith, putting their trust in the staff and management at a residential care facility which family members often know very little about. The truth is that nursing home residents often face abuse and neglect. Tragic stories of abuse and neglect are frequently on the news, and understaffing is often responsible for the worst outcomes for nursing home patients. 

Bedsores are one of the most common consequences of nursing home understaffing. While you may not be able to monitor your loved one in their nursing home all the time, if your parent or grandparent has bedsores and you have a hunch that they may not be getting the care they need, take action right away. 

How Do Bedsores Develop? 

Simply put, bedsores happen when someone is sitting or lying for too long in the same position. A person’s body weight puts pressure on whichever part of their body is touching a bed or a wheelchair, and when that person cannot move often enough, blood supply is cut off to the compressed part of the body and sores can develop. Bedsores are classified into four stages: 

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Everybody makes mistakes, but sometimes our mistakes have a major impact on our life. Getting caught driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs in Illinois carries serious consequences in Illinois, including the suspension of your driver’s license. However, living without a driver’s license makes working and running everyday errands complicated and difficult. If you have had your driver’s license suspended because of a DUI, you probably want to get your license reinstated so you can get your driving privileges back as soon as possible; fortunately, an experienced driver’s license reinstatement attorney can help. 

Attending a Hearing

You have done your community service, paid your fines, and maybe even spent some time in jail. You should be able to pay a small fee and get your license reinstated, right? Not so fast - thanks to the Illinois Secretary of State’s office, which wants to ensure that giving your driving privileges back would not endanger public safety. First, you need to attend a special hearing to prove you would not be a threat to other drivers. Depending on the severity of your DUI charges, your hearing will either be “formal” or “informal.” 

Informal hearings can be done in select locations on a walk-in basis. This hearing is supervised by a hearing officer who can issue a restricted driving permit or fully reinstate your driving privileges, but you will not get your decision right away - it will come in the mail after the hearing officer submits the necessary documentation to the Springfield office. 

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Drinking and driving is a major cause of fatal car accidents, even when only one car is involved. The state of Illinois, therefore, takes people driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol very seriously, and certain DUI charges may even be prosecuted as a felony DUI. Criminal DUI charges can impact your employment prospects, driving privileges, and relationships for long into the future; if you have recently been charged with a DUI in Will County, Illinois, you may be wondering what the likely consequences are. 

First and Second DUI Charges

If there are no other additional charges, such as property theft or vehicular homicide, a person’s first and second DUI charge will usually be a Class A misdemeanor. While a misdemeanor may sound less serious than a felony, Class A misdemeanors are the most serious type of misdemeanor charge and carry serious consequences, including up to a year in jail and up to $2,500 in fines. A judge can also order probation, court supervision, a breath alcohol ignition interlock device, and counseling for DUI charges. 

Felony DUI Charges

After two convictions for driving under the influence, subsequent DUIs can be charged as felonies. However, other behaviors can make even a first or second DUI a felony charge, including: 

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When someone is seriously injured or has ongoing health issues, their ability to go to work every day can be threatened. Unfortunately, injury and illness can result in job loss and the disastrous consequences that come with it - unpaid bills, food insecurity, and even homelessness. Fortunately, there are options to replace your income if you are unable to work due to serious illness or injury: Social Security Disability (SSD) and workers’ compensation benefits. Although these are similar, they are not the same and it is important to understand the difference between the two, especially if you sustained a work-related injury that has kept you from earning a paycheck. 

What is Workers’ Compensation? 

Nearly all Illinois employers are required to have workers’ compensation insurance, which allows employees to receive benefits after a workplace-related injury or illness. The upside to workers’ compensation benefits is that, in most cases, workers are eligible for workers’ compensation benefits even if they were at fault for the injury or illness. The downside is that workers’ compensation usually shields employers from lawsuits after an employee has been injured or made ill through no fault of their own. Workers’ compensation can cover medical expenses, lost wages, and sometimes even job training if the employee is unable to return to their former profession. 

What are Social Security Disability Benefits? 

While workers’ compensation benefits protect employees who are injured on the job, SSD is meant to cover long-term injuries and illnesses that are debilitating enough to keep someone out of work no matter how the person was injured or became ill. SSD benefits are provided by a federal program, rather than a state program; to qualify, a SSD recipient must be unable to do work they did before their injury or illness, and unable to perform any other type of work. SSD benefits are difficult to receive because the definition of disability is quite strict, but having an attorney with experience handling SSD denials and appeals can help you successfully obtain benefits, even if you have unsuccessfully applied in the past. You may even be able to obtain both SSD and workers’ compensation benefits at the same time. 

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