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Judicial Election Results and End of Year Campaign

Voters Do Not Retain Cook County Judge

For the first time in nearly 30 years, Cook County voters have voted against the retention of a sitting Circuit Court judge. Judge Matthew Coghlan, who sat in the Criminal Courts, received less than the 60% “yes” vote necessary to retain his seat. The Illinois Supreme Court will appoint a replacement to fill the vacancy at the end of his term in December.

Seven members of the  Alliance of Bar Associations (including the Chicago Council of Lawyers) whose evaluations are distributed for voter education purposes through VoteForJudges.org, did not recommend Judge Coghlan.  The Cook County Democratic Party, as well, took the unusual step of withdrawing their endorsement for the judge’s retention, and several activist groups urged their constituencies to reject the judge for retention.

The voters of Cook County paid attention. The courts serve the public and without the trust of the public, the courts will not function at their best.

Chicago Appleseed created VoteforJudges.org to provide nonpartisan information about judges seeking retention and judicial candidates running to fill vacancies.  The website is now sponsored by the Committee to Elect Qualified Judges, a political action committee.  For the November 2018 judicial retention election, VoteforJudges.org was upgraded to make it more user friendly — including being more accessible by cell phones and tablets.

More than 70,000 persons visited the website, with 200,000 page views and 3 million hits.  More than 20,000 persons also visited the website of the Chicago Council of Lawyers for judicial evaluation results.

A high-quality judiciary is the foundation of fair and effective courts. It can be achieved through non-partisan selection, rigorous training and mentoring of new judges, and oversight of the performance of sitting judges based upon best practices. Above all, the public needs reliable reports of each judge’s strengths and weaknesses, as measured by objective, non-case-outcome-determined metrics in order to make ballot decisions.

At Chicago Appleseed, we are thrilled that so many voters took the time to educate themselves on the judicial ballot. We hope to see momentum in improving the process of selecting, electing and retaining judges for many years to come.


End of Year Matching Opportunity

Chicago Appleseed is a nonpartisan and independent research and advocacy organization dedicated to making the courts fairer, more effective, and more efficient. We improve lives by improving courts. We seek to identify injustice related to our courts, and then work collaboratively to stop it. 

We have accomplished much, but more needs to be done. We hope you will choose to support our work. We have launched our End of the Year fundraising campaign and this year an anonymous donor will be matching all end of the year donations up to $40,000. Any donation you make before the end of the year goes twice as far!

You can donate securely online.

Chicago Appleseed partners with the Chicago Council of Lawyers on our social justice issues, an organization which for nearly 50 years has been urging the legal profession to advance the rule of law through systemic reform efforts. Chicago Appleseed also works with a variety of community and legal organizations so that we can expand our effectiveness in bringing systemic reform to the justice system in our four program areas: criminal justice, access to justice, immigration court reform, and family law reform.

Our accomplishments include:

  • Helping to form the Coalition to End Money Bond and assisting in the effort to persuade Chief Judge Evans to issue a general order that reduced the amount of money bond and reduced the Cook County jail population by 1400 individuals.
  • Helping enact legislation to provide a waiver of court costs, fines, and fees imposed on criminal division defendants
  • Training assistant public defenders from Cook County and throughout Illinois on how to stop the unfair imposition of court costs, fines, and fees on their clients,
  • Helping plan, implement, and manage the Access to Community Treatment Courtroom 201 which employs community-based treatment services instead of prison-saving lives and money.
  • Helping plan and implement a hearing officer system in the Maywood and Markham courthouses, a program which in its first year has provided a more effective, less adversarial environment for 1,500 cases involving unrepresented parents and divorce litigants.
  • Implementing the launch of a new VoteforJudges.org website with the Chicago Votes organization to enhance voter education efforts. Chicago Appleseed created VoteforJudges.org which is now sponsored by the political action committee, the Committee to Elect Qualified Judges.
  • Consulting in the effort to increase the legal representation in police stations of those who have been arrested.

On behalf of Chicago Appleseed, the Chicago Council of Lawyers, and all our staff, thank you for your support this year.

Sincerely,
Malcolm Rich, Executive Director,
Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice and Chicago Council of Lawyers


Letter: Role of judges in reducing the use of cash bond

On November 6, 2018, the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin published a letter by Sarah Staudt, the senior policy analyst and staff attorney for Chicago Appleseed, on behalf of the Criminal Justice Advisory Committee of Chicago Appleseed and Chicago Council of Lawyers.  In the letter, we praise the four judges who have been the major drivers in decreasing the use of money bail, making our felony court system fairer, more efficient and safer. For the complete letter, please click HERE.

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