Illinois Pretrial Practices Data Oversight Board Provides Few Solutions

On July 1, 2022, the Pretrial Practices Data Oversight Board (“Board”) released a preliminary report in an effort to satisfy statutory requirements laid out in the Pretrial Fairness Act sections of Public Act 101-0652, known as the SAFE-T Act. Per the new law, the Board, convened last July by the Ad...
July 15, 2022

Public (In)Access to Judicial Branch Data in Illinois

In 2019, Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts and our pro bono partner, DLA Piper, looked at the open records laws, the Freedom of Information Act, and other public access policies in all 50 states to determine where Illinois stands in terms of judicial transparency.  We found that Illin...
August 27, 2021

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

What E-Filing Can Do for the Courts and the Public

Last week, the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin (account required) reported on the progress of the Cook County’s conversion to e-filing. The article directs readers to a survey circulated by the Illinois Supreme Court’s Automation and Technology Committee, which is collecting information about who is and...
July 31, 2013

Impact of New Marijuana Ordinance Difficult to Predict Without Data

Tracy Siska, at the Chicago Just Project, evaluates the Chicago Cannabis Ordinance (pdf), the "Pot Ticket" law that just passed Chicago's City Council. Most importantly, he points out, there's no way to predict the law's impact because we have so little data on how the current laws are enforced and...
July 2, 2012
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