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...
May 17, 2017

Changing the Rules on Unpublished Opinions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...
March 6, 2017

Candidate Questionnaires from the Cook County Clerk of the Court Race

A note from the Chicago Council of Lawyers, our partner organization in the Collaboration for Justice: The Primary Election in Illinois is March 15th, and early voting is happening now. The Chicago Council of Lawyers wants voters to focus on electing the most qualified judges possible, but there ar...
March 7, 2016

Courts and Public Accountability

“Judge Sullivan, Take Note”, an editorial in the Chicago Tribune Monday, June 9th, reminds us that the courtrooms do not belong to the judges, they belong to the people. The editorial references two recent steps by courts administrators to make Illinois’ courts more open and transparent: the Illinoi...
June 10, 2014

The Clerk of the Court Should Serve the Community

The Clerk of the Court of Cook County has considered—and apparently rejected—a policy change that would have charged all parties to receive the first copy of any order issued in their case. At Chicago Appleseed and the Chicago Council of Lawyers, we are glad to learn that this policy won’t be adopte...
May 8, 2014