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 have joined a variety of other advocates for equitable justice to highlight how a lack of transparency about court operations impedes the fair administration of justice. The core of the Coalition’s advocacy is expanding the application of the state’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to the judicial branch. As the law currently stands, the judiciary has full discretion over what information it releases about its operations, creating significant blind spots in the public understanding of basic information about our courts. Illinois is an outlier in exempting our courts from open access laws, court rules and/or policies.
We’ve explained the details of this exemption in the past, and the BGA does the same in a post, “How Illinois Courts are Hidden from FOIA,” on its website. While this exemption remains, Illinois courts are not required to answer inquiries about:
- How courts spend public funds,
- How long it takes for a court case to move through the system in each county,
- How people who work for the courts are trained, and what policies they follow,
- How many people violate their probation each year in each county, or
- How children detained at juvenile detention centers are disciplined.
We look forward to working with the Coalition to open access to important information about our courts. Courts have tremendous power over individuals, their property, their rights and their liberty, and the influence of their budgets, training, and policies have tremendous impact on the health, safety and economic security of the communities where we live and work. Fair courts are open courts and equity demands transparency in court operations.
Please follow the Coalition’s work here and through the BGA.