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Amicus Joined by Chicago Council of Lawyers is Successful by Elizabeth Monkus on November 27, 2017 in Chicago Council of Lawyers, Current Legal Events, Domestic Violence In August, our partner organization—the Chicago Council of Lawyers—joined an amicus brief authored by LAF in a wrongful death su...

The Chicago Council of Lawyers, the Public Interest Bar Association that has been working for the fair and effective administration of justice for nearly 50 years, applauds Mayor Emanuel’s decision to reappoint Lori Lightfoot as the President of the Chicago Police Board. The Council urged her reappo...

Yesterday marked a major victory in the fight to end money bail in Cook County: Chief Judge Tim Evans has issued General Order No. 18.8a that instructs judges to set money bonds only in amounts that people can afford to pay. If implemented correctly and fully, General Order 18.8A will have the ef...

The Cook County court recently took bold steps to modernize the Domestic Relations Division and improve the system for all families moving through the divorce, paternity and child support process. Consolidation of the divorce court and parentage court went into effect on February 6, 2017 and is the...

The Chicago Council of Lawyers (CCL) commends Cook County State's Attorney Kimberly M. Foxx for taking a progressive step towards reducing Cook County’s money-based system of pretrial justice through the recently-announced expanded I-Bond policy. Working with Chicago Appleseed as part of the Crimi...

On June 9, 2017, Governor Rauner signed SB 2034 into law. SB 2034 covers two distinct areas of criminal law: the state RICO law and bail. First, effective immediately, it extends state RICO Act (“Illinois Street Gang And Racketeer Influenced And Corrupt Organizations Law”) for an additional 5 years....

The National Juvenile Defender Center (“NJDC”) has issued new report that examines a serious failure in our justice system: the systematic denial of children’s constitutional right to a public defense. As NJDC’s troubling new report, Access Denied, documents, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled fifty year...