Latest News - Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts

Chief Judge Evans Commits to Reform Bond Court and Create Adult Restorative Justice Programs at Reclaim Campaign Public Action

Last Thursday, July 24, the Community Renewal Society held a large public action with 500 congregants and Chief Judge Timothy Evans to call on the Chief Judge to institute specific reforms creating an Adult Restorative Justice diversion program and moving the County away from monetary bonds. ...

CC license attribution by Eric Allix Rogers

Taskforce, Including Preckwinkle, Evans, and Alvarez, Visits Washington D.C. to Review Pretrial System; and a Warning About the Expanded Use of Electronic Monitoring

Stakeholder Trip and Continuing Meetings on Bond Court Reform Last week, the Illinois Supreme Court issued a release describing the recent two-day trip, arranged by the Illinois Supreme Court, for the heads of the relevant Cook County agencies to review and glean the benefits of Washington D.C.’s a...

Court Recording and Access to Justice

Like other courts across the nation, Cook County is seeing increasing numbers of self-represented parties in the courts. At the same time that litigants are finding it harder to pay for legal services, Cook County has a projected budget deficit of $152 million for 2014, which has resulted in a reduc...

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...

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...