Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts

Civil Liberties & Police Accountability Committee Monthly Meeting
2021-08-13 12:00 - 13:30 (America/Chicago) | Teleconference
The Civil Liberties & Police Accountability Committee typically meets on the second Friday of every month from 12 – 1:30 PM (CST) to discuss civil liberties issues that are both local and national in scope—including police accountability in Chicago. Click here for more.
NOTE: Call-in information for Civil Liberties Committee Meetings may change monthly. To receive up-to-date information and monthly meeting agendas, fill out this form.

Access to Justice Committee Monthly Meeting
2021-08-10 12:00 - 13:30 | Zoom – Video Conference
Our Access to Justice Committee typically meets on the second Tuesday of every month at 12:00 PM (CST) to identify ineffective, inefficient, and unfair court management policies and procedures and discuss strategies and recommended improvements. Click here for more.
NOTE: Access to Justice Committee Meetings times/call-in information may change monthly. Please fill out this form to make sure you receive the most up-to-date information about each meeting.

Family Law Committee Monthly Meeting
2021-08-03 15:00 - 16:30 | Zoom – Video Conference
The Family Law Committee typically meets on the first Tuesday of every month at 3 PM (CST) to examine issues of domestic relations, child support enforcement, and domestic violence in Cook County. Click here for more.
NOTE: Family Law Committee Meeting times/call-in information frequently changes. Please fill out this form to make sure you receive the most up-to-date information about monthly meetings.

Don’t Believe the Hype: Cutting Through False Narratives and Protecting Pretrial Justice Reforms
2021-07-28 18:00 - 19:30 | Online – TBD
Don’t Believe the Hype: Cutting Through False Narratives and Protecting Pretrial Justice Reforms
When: July 28, 2021 @ 6 PM
Where: Register now and you’ll get a link to access the event emailed to you on the morning of July 28: https://forms.gle/jQu1uzs4gW2XqEFV9
What: False narratives about the impact of Cook County’s efforts to reform the pretrial justice system have permeated the airwaves this summer. While Chicago Police Superintendent Brown and Mayor Lightfoot have consistently tried to tie gun violence to pretrial justice reform, a wealth of academic research has proved that these claims are not true. On Wednesday, July 28th at 6pm, the Coalition to End Money Bond will be joined by Cook County Public Defender Sharone Mitchell, Jr., Alderman Byron Sigcho-Lopez, and Emmett Sanders of MediaJustice to get the facts about pretrial justice reforms and discuss what real community safety looks like.
Click here for more information about the Pretrial Fairness Act and our work to End Money Bond.

Public Hearing - Illinois Supreme Court Statutory Court Fees Task Force
2021-07-13 10:00 - 13:00 | Online – YouTube
Public Hearing – Illinois Supreme Court Statutory Court Fees Task Force
On July 13, 2021, at 10:00 AM (CT), the Illinois Supreme Court Statutory Court Fees Task Force will hold a public hearing (via Zoom) on the following topics:

Fiscal impact of the Criminal and Traffic Assessment Act (CTAA) and related Supreme Court rules pertaining to fees and costs imposed on parties to civil, criminal, and traffic proceedings;

How to address issues that have arisen with respect to implementation of the above CTAA measures;

Issues not addressed by the CTAA, including waivers in traffic cases, juvenile cases, the elimination of assessments in criminal cases with long sentences; and

Data reporting on the imposition, collection, and waivers of court costs and fees.

Click here for the Notice of Public Hearing (July 13, 2021), which includes information about how to provide written or oral testimony.
More information about the Supreme Court’s Task Force can be found on our blog. Click here to learn about the Criminal and Traffic Assessments Act (CTAA).

Annual Police Accountability Forum
2021-06-22 12:00 - 14:00 | CollaborationForJusticce.org
Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts, the Chicago Council of Lawyers, and the American Constitution Society (ACS) – Chicago Lawyers Chapter are hosting a forum on police accountability focused on issues facing residents of Chicago. This year’s panel will cover issues related to accountability, transparency, and community oversight of the Chicago Police Department; implications of the recent SAFE-T Act, which includes provisions related to policing and the criminal legal system; and improvements for the future focused on racial equity and fairness. Click here for the event flyer.
1.25 hours of CLE credit available for Illinois lawyers.
CLICK HERE TO RSVP.
Moderated by Sharon Fairley, Professor from Practice at the University of Chicago Law School.

Sharon Fairley has taught courses on criminal procedure, legal ethics, and public corruption at the University of Chicago Law School since 2015, becoming a Professor from Practice in 2019. Before joining the Law School, Ms. Fairley held positions as a federal prosecutor with the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois and the First Deputy Inspector General and General Counsel for the City of Chicago Office of the Inspector General. Following the police murder of Laquan McDonald in 2015, Sharon Fairley served as the Chief Administrator of the Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA) and then helped create and build Chicago’s Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA).

Participants:
Andrea Kersten, Interim Chief Administrator, Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA)

Andrea Kersten is the Interim Chief Administrator of the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA). Ms. Kersten has been an integral part of COPA’s leadership team for over five years, beginning her work at COPA in the legal department as the Chief Investigative Law Officer and later becoming the Chief of Investigative Operations. Andrea Kersten has previously served as a domestic violence advocate, an Assistant State’s Attorney in Cook County, and an Administrative Law Judge for the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, and has been instrumental in forming COPA’s Special Victims Unit, a group of specialized investigators dedicated to victims of sexual assault, sexual abuse, and domestic violence. In 2020, Ms. Kersten helped form COPA’s Protest/Civil Unrest Unit, which is organized to address mass protest-related complaints against the Chicago Police Department.

Deborah Witzburg, Deputy Inspector General for Public Safety, Chicago Office of the Inspector General (OIG)

Deborah Witzburg is the Deputy Inspector General for Public Safety for the City of Chicago Office of the Inspector General (OIG). Before taking this position in 2020, Ms. Witzburg’s roles with the OIG included advising on legal and constitutional matters related to OIG’s oversight of Chicago’s police and police accountability agencies; leading efforts to screen and review closed police disciplinary cases as well as evaluations of COPA, BIA, and the Police Board; and providing legal and strategic counsel for investigations of misconduct by City of Chicago employees. Deborah Witzburg has also worked for the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office in the Community Justice Center, focusing on prevention programs in partnership with schools, senior citizen groups, and neighborhood organizations.

Jamie Kalven, Founder & Director, Invisible Institute

Jamie Kalven is a writer and executive director of the Invisible Institute, a non-profit news agency that reports stories that surface abuses of power. Mr. Kalven was the plaintiff in Kalven v. Chicago (2014), in which the Illinois appellate court ruled that documents bearing on allegations of police misconduct are public information. His reporting in Slate in 2015 first brought the police shooting of Laquan McDonald to public attention; and he co-produced 16 Shots, an Emmy-winning documentary on the McDonald case. In 2016, he published a series titled “Code of Silence” in The Intercept that exposed the criminal activities of a team of corrupt Chicago Police Department officers and has contributed to the exonerations of more than seventy-five individuals.

Nusrat Jahan Choudhury, Roger Pascal Legal Director ACLU of Illinois

Nusrat Jahan Choudhury has been the Roger Pascal Legal Director at the ACLU of Illinois since January 2020. Nusrat oversees the development and execution of strategic litigation against assaults on civil rights and civil liberties from Washington, DC, and leads a team working to advance civil liberties and human rights in Illinois. Prior to joining the ACLU of Illinois, Nusrat Jahan Choudhury served as Deputy Director of the national ACLU Racial Justice Program and as a staff attorney in the ACLU National Security Project, working on a range of important matters, including: litigation and advocacy to end debtors’ prisons; helping to launch federal litigation and related advocacy against racial profiling and unlawful stops in Milwaukee’s stop-and-frisk program; challenging the FBI’s targeting of Black activists based on race and speech; challenging national security practices that improperly target Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, and South Asian communities; and more.

Oral Arguments - People v. Gomez-Ramirez (AMITA Health and Alexian Brothers)
2021-06-16 10:00 - 17:00
Oral Arguments – People v. Gomez-Ramirez (Case No. 3-20-0121)
On Friday, July 10, 2020, Chicago Appleseed and Chicago Council of Lawyers submit an amicus brief in the Illinois appellate case of People v. Gomez-Ramirez (AMITA Health Adventist Medical Center, Bolingbrook, and Alexian Brothers-AHS Midwest Region Health Co., Contemners-Appellants). Our pro bono partners at DLA Piper served as counsel for the amicus brief, filed in support of AMITA Health. At issue in our briefing was the State’s Attorney’s improper assertion of a right to search the victim’s health records, based on mere supposition about the contents of the records.
We sought leave to file an amicus as part of our role in monitoring State’s Attorneys’ offices and reporting on the status of prosecution in Illinois.
Briefing has finally concluded in the case and oral arguments are scheduled to begin on June 16 at 9:00 AM. These arguments will take place via Zoom and, as expected, Amici will not argue.
To view the Call of the Docket, visit http://www.illinoiscourts.gov. Under the heading Appellate Court, select Oral Argument Calendars, then Third District, then the session for June 16, 2021 at 9:00 AM. The case number is 3-20-0121.

Keynote: Dr. Traci Burch (Virtual Pro Bono Spotlight)
2021-05-19 12:00 - 13:00
Virtual Pro Bono Spotlight Event – Keynote: Dr. Traci Burch

Wednesday, May 19, 2021 (12-1:30 PM) – Keynote Presentation

Traci Burch, PhD, Associate Professor, Northwestern University Department of Political Science & Research Professor, American Bar Foundation

Click here to RSVP for the May 19 keynote.

Our digital events will be hosted on CollaborationForJustice.org.
May 2021: Chicago Appleseed and the Chicago Council of Lawyers are launching a two-part virtual Spotlight Event to celebrate the strides toward justice we and our collaboration partners have made in the past year. Without our community and coalition partners; pro bono teams from over a dozen firms and law schools; loyal donors and funders; and hundreds of individual volunteers, none of our work would be possible. Click here for more information.
To sponsor the Collaboration for Justice Spring Pro Bono Spotlight Event, click here.

Criminal Justice Panel (Virtual Pro Bono Spotlight)
2021-05-12 12:00 - 13:30
Virtual Pro Bono Spotlight Event – Criminal Justice Panel

Wednesday, May 12, 2021 (12-1:30 PM) – Criminal Justice Panel

Panelists: Sarah Staudt, Collaboration for Justice of Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts & Chicago Council of Lawyers; Cathryn Crawford, Lawndale Christian Legal Center; April Preyar, Schiller Preyar Jarard & Samuels Law; Sharone Mitchell, Jr., Cook County Public Defender, and Tanya Woods, Westside Justice Center.

1.25 hours MCLE credit available.

Click here to RSVP for the May 12 panel.

Our digital events will be hosted on CollaborationForJustice.org.
May 2021: Chicago Appleseed and the Chicago Council of Lawyers are launching a two-part virtual Spotlight Event to celebrate the strides toward justice we and our collaboration partners have made in the past year. Without our community and coalition partners; pro bono teams from over a dozen firms and law schools; loyal donors and funders; and hundreds of individual volunteers, none of our work would be possible. Click here for more information.
To sponsor the Collaboration for Justice Spring Pro Bono Spotlight Event, click here.

Access To Justice Program Committee
2019-02-28 09:00 - 10:00
For details, please email caffj@chicagoappleseed.org

Immigration Court Reform Program Committee
2019-02-27 02:30 - 03:15

Criminal Justice Advisory Committee
2019-02-21 06:00 - 07:30

Family Law Program Committee
2019-02-08 09:00 - 10:30

Criminal Justice Advisory Committee Meeting
2018-12-20 06:00 - 07:30 | Miller Shakman & Beem, 189 N. LaSalle Suite 3600, Chicago, IL, United States
