Domestic Violence Court in Cook County: Innovation Without Integration

Domestic Violence , , ,

Written by Elizabeth Harris, University of Michigan, and Elizabeth Monkus, Senior Attorney & Project Director at Chicago Appleseed.

Cook County’s Domestic Violence Division was created in 2010 to make the domestic violence courthouse—opened in 2005—more responsive to survivors of domestic violence. By placing all cases for remedies under the Illinois Domestic Violence Act in one Division within its own courthouse, at 555 West Harrison, the court aimed to make safety, efficiency, and survivor-centered justice a reality. The establishment of the Domestic Violence Division was an innovative solution to the confusing array of court divisions, court buildings and overlapping processes for getting an order of protection in conjunction with a criminal case and getting a civil order of protection separate from a criminal case or without a criminal case at all, as well as preliminary hearings in felony and misdemeanor domestic violence offenses and all stalking cases. It also created a safer, calmer environment for survivors and court staff alike.

Unfortunately, it has not delivered on the promise of specialized training for judges and other court staff, has not been able to integrate with other social services for survivors and has created new complications for survivors who have an existing Domestic Relations case. 

A Well-Intentioned but Fragmented System

Cook County appears to be the only jurisdiction in the United States that has established a separate Domestic Violence Division, that exclusively hears both civil and criminal orders of protection.   Therefore, it overlaps with both the Domestic Relations Division and the Criminal Division (Chicago Appleseed, 2022).

In theory, the specialization of the Domestic Violence Division creates a central place for a survivor to experience a legally sensitive case in a trauma-informed environment and connect with needed services. For most survivors, the Division succeeds in centralizing access to court services. In situations where there is an existing Domestic Relations, unfortunately, survivors must navigate overlapping divisions for assistance with divorce, child support, or parenting time. 

While the law allows the Domestic Violence judge to issue child support orders, they routinely defer to the Domestic Relations Division judges and hearing officers at the Department of Health and Family services to handle formal child support orders. This unnecessarily complicates the process for survivors and is in violation of the Illinois Domestic Violence Act. Unless a Domestic Relations case exists between the parties, the DV judge should hear child support in conjunction with an order of protection, when requested. Where there is an existing Domestic Relations case between the parties, however, both the order of protection, as well as child issues, will be returned to the jude assigned to the Domestic Relations case.

There remains an information gap between the court and the public about remedies and services available in the DV Division, as well as ways to access the courts. Resources in the central DV courthouse are not available to litigants in the branch courts. The result is a patchwork process that can leave some survivors unprotected and exhausted.

Additionally, expansion of the Illinois Domestic Violence Act to include no-contact orders for stalking situations outside of ongoing interpersonal or familial relationships has created gridlock. The new provisions have seen neighbors or tenants turn to the domestic violence division to intervene in escalating interpersonal conflicts. While these conflicts often need court resolution, the IDVA was not intended to cover them and the DV Division are not an appropriate place for their resolution. The Division and the Office of the Chief Judge have identified this as a priority for the Division to remedy.   

Innovation Without Evaluation

The Domestic Violence Division has tested some emerging innovations, in particular:

The Child Relief Expediter program has been in service since 2013 and has been recognized by the Office on Violence Against Women as a national model. It has been expanded to include additional court staff and HFS officers. The program allows parents to create an informal agreement for child support in conjunction with an order of protection. These informal agreements are not enforceable by the court and may not follow statutory requirements for support orders. Nonetheless, they are a critical source of support for children and an important means of empowering survivors to assert conditions they believe will create safety for them and their children. 

The Litigant Services Associates were hired in 2023, based on recommendations from a task force comprised of legal service providers, survivor service providers, researchers and court staff. There has been less time to evaluate their efficacy, and initial inquiries suggest the program has been beneficial. But we cannot confirm these impressions and do not have accurate statistics on how many people they assist. There is no available data because unlike other states, Illinois courts are not bound by the Freedom of Information Act (Chicago Appleseed, 2021), which would require public data on usage, efficacy, or gaps in services. Without transparency or evaluation, it is unclear how effective the LSAs are at delivering on their promise.

It is similarly difficult to assess the efficacy of the DR kiosks at the central DV courthouse without data. 

Additionally, persons with cases in the DV Division of the branch courts do not have access to any of the programs adopted in the Division at the central courthouse. The courthouse at 555 W Harrison is designed to keep petitioners separated from respondents in the elevators and corridors. There is a children’s room which offers a safe, comfortable place for children to wait while their parent is in court. For now, both LSAs and CREs are limited to the DV courthouse. It’s possible that branch courts are better able to integrate petitions for an order of protection filed in DV with their open DR case, but we don’t have sufficient information to judge. 

Finally, people experiencing intimate partner violence arrive at the courthouse often in a state of crisis with needs that go beyond what the court offers. The LSAs may successfully present a calm, helpful presence to survivors, but their role is necessarily limited in time and scope. There remains a gap between their services and the goal of comprehensive wrap-around services for survivors. To minimize this gap,  it is critical for the Division to build and maintain relationships with community service providers, and necessary for the Division to ensure community partners have up-to-date information about the courthouse.  

Access and Equity Deterrents

Survivors also contend with logistical and digital barriers that make the courthouse seem inaccessible. Additionally, remote filing options, meant to enhance accessibility, often exclude self-represented litigants who cannot access sealed orders or track filings online the way attorneys can. This is particularly relevant during the period of time after an emergency order of protection is entered and before it is served. 

These inequities impact immigrant survivors even more, as they may avoid the courthouse due to fear of ICE. For a system prioritizing safety and accessibility, these barriers reveal a stark equity gap.

A Path Forward: Integration and Transparency

The Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts advocates for a court system that is efficient, equitable, and data-informed. The creation of Cook County’s Domestic Violence Division was a major step forward. Now, the Division needs ongoing reform  to achieve that initial vision.

We are calling for:

  • Creation of a Hearing Officer Program in the Domestic Violence Division to expedite child support matters for survivors with an open Domestic Relations cases and to assist DV judges in the drafting of child support orders for survivors who do not have an open Domestic Relations case
  • Expansion of Litigant Services Associates (LSAs) to the Domestic Relations Division
  • Improved coordination between the DV and DR Divisions to smooth transfer of orders of protections back to DR when necessary
  • Improved coordination between the DV division and First Municipal courts to transfer cases which fall outside the intent of the IDVA
  • Evaluation of the Division’s programs and outcomes, and publication of the evaluation report
  • Technological equity so everyone—not just attorneys—has access to online filing systems and resources

A truly survivor-centered court system must work with survivors, not against them. Cook County’s Domestic Violence Division can be a national model if it embraces transparency, inter-division coordination, and accountability.

Current Work

Chicago Appleseed has multiple ongoing projects centered at the Domestic Violence Courthouse. We have again been invited to participate in the Office of the Chief Judge task force on courthouse operations. The task force should be wrapping up and issuing its recommendations in late spring 2026.

Recently, we trained more than 30 volunteer court-watchers to observe pretrial conditions and detention hearings for domestic violence cases. This court-watching project will allow us to better understand the implementation of the Pretrial Fairness Act in domestic violence cases in Cook County and compare these pretrial hearings to those in other criminal cases, many of which we have observed in the past year.

Further Reading