Immigration Court Access

On April 5, 2017, Steven Schulman, Pro Bono Partner at Akin Gump and principal author of the Appleseed Immigration Court Practice Guide, led a training for attorneys on overcoming obstacles in immigration court. The event was hosted by Latham & Watkins, sponsored by Chicago Appleseed, and co-spo...

Changing the Rules on Unpublished Opinions

In early February, Rick Tulsky reported on a dissenting opinion by Illinois Appellate Court Justice Hyman, criticizing the court rules concerning publication of opinions. Appellate and Supreme Court opinions are published when the majority of the court decide they should be published, but non-publis...

Pro Bono Week

Last Wednesday was the second annual Conference on Access to Justice presented by the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Access to Justice. This year’s topic was “Pro Bono: Closing the Justice Gap in Illinois Courts”. In a speech filled with deeply moving anecdotes, Keynote speaker, Bryan Stevens...

Volunteer Court-Watching

Our next training session for volunteer court-watchers, assisting the Judicial Performance Commission of Cook County, is May 26 at our office at 11:00 am. The training lasts a little over an hour and explains both the mechanics of our court-watching program, as well as the goals and procedures of th...

How Court-Watching Supports Our Work

To support its mission of research-based advocacy, Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice operates several court-watching programs. Court-watching serves Appleseed’s dual purposes of research and advocacy particularly well and is a central component of all our research into how the courts are functionin...