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...
October 28, 2013

Chicago Appleseed Formalizing Innovative Court Watching Program

by Simona Novinec, Chicago Appleseed Intern Trial judges play a central role in the American legal system. Selection of a competent, diverse, and honest judiciary is therefore a crucial mechanism to protect judicial independence, on the one hand, and promote democratic control of judiciary on the o...
July 24, 2012

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...
May 9, 2011

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...
May 3, 2011