Many were shocked at the size of the legal fees and costs ordered paid by Kane County Judge Kevin Busch in the trial the Orville Brettman and Ersel Schuster lost against the hit piece mailing Illinois Integrity Fund and Jack Franks.
The legal costs and fees levied against
- Orville Brettman
- Ersel Schuster
were $80,198.67.
However, they may not have to pay most.
The reason is laid out in information supplied by Illinois Legal Aid.
Read the contents of an article entitled, “Money and Property Exempt from Legal Judgments”:
Money and property that cannot be taken to satisfy a judgment
Illinois and Federal laws place limits on the collection of a judgment. Exempt money or property cannot be taken from your client for payment of a debt. Your client can be sued and a judgment entered against them, but if their money or property comes from any of the sources listed below, that money or property cannot legally be taken from them to pay the judgment. The purpose of the exemption law is to allow consumers to keep the necessities of life…
Personal property exemptions
- For each family member, necessary clothing, a bible, school books, and family pictures;
- One motor vehicle in which interest does not exceed $2,400;
- Wildcard Exemption: Your client’s equity interest, not to exceed $4,000 in value, in any other property.
- The Wildcard Exemption is a stackable exemption. Your client can use the $4,000 wildcard to add exemption value to other personal property exemptions. For example, your client can add the wildcard exemption of $4,000 to the car exemption of $2,400 and have a car worth $6,400.
- Only the equity interest in the property is counted towards the $4,000 limit. For example, If your client has a car worth $10,000 and she still owes $6,000 on the car, her equity interest is $4,000. She can use the car exemption of $2,400 and her wildcard exemption of $1,600 to protect the car.
- $1,500 worth of implements, professional books or tools for a trade;
- Health aids prescribed by a physician;
- Money from the sale of an exempt property. However, the property is not exempt if the property was purchased with the intent of converting a non-exempt property into exempt property or with the intent to defraud creditors.
- Assets in a retirement plan or public employee pension plan
Real property
- Homestead Exemption: $15,000 of equity in a house, mobile home, condominium, building or lot of land occupied as a residence by the debtor is exempt. Each couple who jointly owns a home would have a $30,000 homestead exemption since each could exempt $15,000.
- If a property is owned in tenancy by the entirety, the property is exempt if only one spouse is liable for the judgment.
- Sale proceeds are exempt 1 year from the sale of the homestead.
- Exemption after death or desertion. The homestead exemption shall continue after the death of their spouse, so long as your client continues to occupy such homestead. It shall continue for children until the youngest child becomes 18 years of age. If the spouse deserts your client, the exemption shall continue in favor of the one occupying the premises as a residence.
Income exemptions
- Public Aid and General Assistance:
- Aid to the Aged, Blind or Disabled (AABD)
- Aid to Families with Dependent Children (TANF)
- General Assistance (GA)
- Earned Income Tax Credit (EIC), In re Royal, 397 B.R. 88 (Bankr. N.D. Ill. 2008); In re Brockhouse, 220 B.R. 623 (Bankr. C.D.Ill. 1998); In re Fish, 224 B.R. 82 (Bankr.S.D. ILL. 1998)
- Child Tax Credit, In re Vasquez, No. 13-32174 (Bankr.N.D.Ill.2014).
- Social Security
- Supplemental Security Income
- Health or Disability Insurance from an insurance company or your client’s employer
- Retirement plan or public employee pension payments
- Veteran’s Administration Benefits (all V.A. benefits are exempt, except benefits subject to specific claims by the United States government)
- Worker’s Compensation
- Unemployment Compensation
- Alimony, Support, and Maintenance (exempt only to the extent that they are needed for personal support and the support of dependents)
- Black Lung Benefits
Payments
The following payments are exempt:
- Crime Victim’s Award
- Wrongful Death Award of a person who supported your client
- Life Insurance payments payable to your client as a result of someone’s death to whom your client was dependent to the extent reasonably necessary for her support
- Payment of up to $15,000 for personal injury to your client or an individual whom your client was a dependent
= = = = =
Most people the age of Brettman and Schuster have income from pensions, IRA’s and/or Social Security.
They may have a home owned with their spouse or live in an apartment.
They probably own a car.
There are othr exemptions that my apply.
There are many exemptions to collection that are recognized under Illinois law.
It is up to the judgment debtors to declare those exemptions, and they may be challenged by the judgment creditors.
While many people have the ability to assert some of the exemptions noted in this article, few are completely exempt from collection.
This post claims that the judgment for fees may be “de minimus,” but that is not correct.
The judgment amount will not change, and will only increase (post-judgment interest is 9% in Illinois).
The judgment debtors may assert exemptions from collection, but that does not mean that they will emerge from this unscathed.
Cal still doesn’t get how the left operates.
The whole suit was to chill anybody from daring to sue our overlords like Franks. (I know calling them overlords will be shouted down here and by Franks’ shills here as anti-Semitic, but they are overlords. Too bad)
And they will cost Orville and Fran all kinds of time and attornies’ fees fighting various garnishment and asset discovery actions.
The overlords care nothing about the actual money.
It’s all ‘pound of flesh’ stuff just like Shakespeare wrote in “Merchant of Venice” a play that cannot be presented in NYC for the last 50 years.
I wonder why?
The funny thing is what the Overlords-Integrity Fund did in the first place is the vile thing, sending a mass mailing of falsehoods and lies under the guise of a do-gooder, yet our corrupt court system rewards the Overlords and punishes the victims.
That’s why the whole thing will blow up in the overlords’ faces down the line.
Decent People will only take so much.
Pay up Orville!
**The whole suit was to chill anybody from daring to sue our overlords like Franks.**
Aren’t Brettman and Schuster the folks that initiated the lawsuit?
Alabama, he’s talking about the iL integrity fund’s suit against Brettman & Schuster. Try and keep up!
I have never laughed so hard in my life.
Really, you think indigent protections will help good Ol’ Orv and Ersie.
That is rich.
Good luck, when you read the next paragraph in the law.
Cut a deal and call it a day.
Jebus.
why is the judge protecting a criminal enterprise?
What is the next paragraph?
De minimis means trivial or inconsequential.
The fees are not de minimis.
Collection means a citation to the debtors, their banks, anyone who holds or owes them, requiring them to set out assets under oath.
I believe that Brettman and Schuster have an appeal pending on this matter.
I wouldn’t surprised if this judgement got tossed out.
The anti-SLAPP law wasn’t passed for the purpose of protecting people who put out anonymous mailings that were made in violation of Illinois campaign finance laws.
Hey Billy Bob, anti SLAPP is about the Defendant not the Petitioner.
Another piece of hilarious legal pontification done on this blog.
You literally almost got it right, (but you had a 50/50 chance)
The fix was in on this case the minute Franks’ Father, Herbie, made a few phone calls.
Why was the case such a hot potato a Lake County beak was brought in to officiate the legal farce and miscarriage of justice under Franks Law?
The Judge was from Kane County.