Judicial Elections

Early voting has already started in Cook County and there are 101 judicial races: 27 vacancies, 73 retention elections and 1 new judicial seat. Voteforjudges.org—a non-partisan website founded by Chicago Appleseed and sponsored by the Committee to Elect Qualified Judges—collects the judicial evalua...
October 21, 2014

Innovations in Family Courts

The Domestic Relations Division of the Cook County Court is carefully examining ways to make some significant changes which will improve the level of service for everyone needing to establish parentage of a child, get child support for a child or come to a shared agreement for parenting.  Chicago Ap...
June 11, 2014

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

Policy Statement on Docket Statistic Reporting

Chicago Appleseed advocates for research-driven solutions to systemic dysfunction and supports evidence-based reforms in Illinois’ courts, government and communities. Our staff and teams of pro bono professionals rely on meaningful data about Cook County’s courts in order to identify inefficiencies,...
May 14, 2014

Judicial Election Spending

By Aswan Taylor, Intern for Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice A wave of recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions, culminating in last week’s McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission ruling, have diverged from the formidable pull of public sentiment and mounting research to reassert the role of financi...
April 24, 2014