Latest News – Page 2 – Chicago Council of Lawyers

Letters to the Editor Commentary

Stoking fears about DNC protests gets in the way of right to peacefully protest Now, more than ever, we must renew our collective commitment to amplifying voices outside institutions of power, writes the Chicago Council of Lawyers. By Letters to the Editor Aug 13, 2024, 2:00pm CDT Chicago...

Transit Table partners pass HB277

HB277—a bill that amends Illinois law to no longer suspend driver's licenses for failure to appear in court for traffic tickets—has passed both houses and now heads to the governor for signing! Illinois will join twelve other states that no longer restrict driving privileges for failure to appear in...

Threats of Punishment Don’t Create Safety

In an editorial Friday, the Sun-Times reports that State Senate Republicans want to toughen the law and upgrade order of protection violations from a misdemeanor to a Class 4 felony. The editorial suggests this will deter violence and create safety. Unfortunately, that is a misconception. The Dep...

NEW REPORT – When You’re a Hammer, Everything’s a Nail: Examining the “Progressive Prosecutor” Movement and Possibilities for Future Reform

Byline: Naomi Johnson (she/they) is the Co-Executive Director of Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts. They lead all research and policy projects for the organization – centering community voices alongside evidence-driven approaches. Naomi graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with a...

Primary Election Judicial Evaluations for 2024 are Live!

Among the Chicago Council of Lawyers’ most vital projects are our state judicial evaluations. This crucial public service to help the citizens of Illinois vote for qualified judges. The quality of our judiciary is a critical part of our democracy, and informed voting for judges is necessary if we ar...

NEW – Restorative Justice, Community, and the Courts: An Analysis of the Impact, Benefits, and Elements “Constantly in Conflict” in Chicago’s Restorative Justice Community Courts

Our new report examines the Circuit Court of Cook County’s three Restorative Justice Community Courts (RJCCs) located in the Avondale (North Side), Englewood (South Side), and North Lawndale (West Side) neighborhoods of Chicago. The North Lawndale court opened in 2017, and Englewood and Avondale fol...

“Haste Makes Waste” in Courtrooms Too: Balancing Quality with Quantity in Response to the Immigration Backlog

Since 2017, the backlog of pending immigration cases in the United States has been growing exponentially. Today, there are over two million pending cases in the U.S. immigration court system. Over the past few months, the situation has significantly worsened, with a record-breaking nu...

Pretextual Vehicle Stops—A Pipeline to Police Testilying

Our January 2023 police perjury report convincingly demonstrates that the Chicago Police Department (CPD) has a culture that condones dishonesty, prevalent lying in court (“testilying”) and, false report-writing by police officers. Along with recommendations to improve transparency (some of which ha...

NEW REPORT | One Size Doesn’t Fit All: A Review of Post-Plea Problem-Solving Courts in Cook County

Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts and the Chicago Council of Lawyers are excited to release our new report, One Size Doesn’t Fit All: A Review of Post-Plea Problem-Solving Courts in Cook County. In it, we offer a holistic picture of the scope of specialty (or “problem-solving”) cour...

NEW REPORT | I Don’t Know Why I’m Here: Observations from Cook County’s Civil Asset Forfeiture Courtrooms

Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts and the Chicago Council of Lawyers are excited to announce the release of our newest court-watching report, I Don’t Know Why I’m Here: Observations from Cook County’s Civil Asset Forfeiture Courtrooms. From March to August of 2022, our volunteer...