Access to Justice – Chicago Council of Lawyers

“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...

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...

Mayoral Candidates Answer Questions from Chicago’s Civil Rights Community

Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts, the Chicago Council of Lawyers, and Loevy & Loevy asked Chicago’s 2023 mayoral candidates about critical civil rights issues to their communities. JUMP TO INTERACTIVE PAGE >> JUMP TO FULL RESPONSES >> The questionnair...

Collaboration for Justice and the Court Transparency Coalition

Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts and the Chicago Council of Lawyers—the Collaboration for Justice—are pleased to be part of the Court Transparency Coalition, led by the Better Government Association. As advocates for fair and open courts, Chicago Appleseed and the Council of Lawyers h...

The Collaboration for Justice Joins the Free to Drive Coalition as Amici in Mendoza et al. v Stickler

The Civil Rights Corps and the National Center for Law and Economic Justice have filed a brief on behalf of Free to Drive Coalition members in support of the plaintiffs in Mendoza et al. v Stickler. Chicago Appleseed and Chicago Council of Lawyers (the Collaboration for Justice)...

New Research Documents Need For Deep Reform of Cook County Criminal Court Culture

In their new study documenting a litany of failings in the operation of the Cook County Felony Courts at 26th Street and California Avenue in Chicago, "How Culture Impacts Courtrooms: An Empirical Study of Alienation and Detachment in the Cook County Court System" ("study"), four law faculty authors...

“Slipping Through the Cracks” – Evaluation of the Cook County Domestic Violence Division in Chicago

Since early 2020, Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts and the Chicago Council of Lawyers have been evaluating the Domestic Violence Division of the Circuit Court of Cook County, with a specific focus on the Domestic Violence Courthouse at 555 West Harrison in Chicago. Today, we release our find...

Amicus in People v. Moore: There is no justice when access is random or when the rules are unpredictable

In May, Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts and Chicago Council of Lawyers joined an amicus brief submitted by the Children and Family Justice Center at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law in the Illinois Supreme Court case, People v. Moore. Our Collaboration for Justice is proud to add ou...

Two Years In: Weighing the Costs and Benefits of Remote Court Proceedings

The need to preserve court access during the pandemic moved hearings online. Remote court hearings are expected to continue – even as the courts return to in-person proceedings. While the transition has raised some concerns related to due process and accessibility, there appear to be some benefits t...

Progress Report: First Year of the New Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County

Today, Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts, the Chicago Council of Lawyers, and the Civic Federation released our report examining Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Iris Martinez’s first full year in office. This progress report follows a report issued ahead of the November 202...

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