The ISBA Offers a Proposal to Update the Recusal Rule in Illinois

On Saturday, the Illinois State Bar Association voted on a proposed update to the recusal rules in Illinois. Chicago Appleseed, the Chicago Council of Lawyers, and the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform are heartened to see the ISBA address a subject of critical importance: judicial disqualifica...
December 19, 2012

Policy Brief: Use of Data in Criminal Court Performance Measurement

Our latest policy brief, "Use of Data in Criminal Court Performance Measurement" is now available. This brief explores the benefits of measuring criminal court performance, shares two case studies of where doing so has been successful, and then offers one potential application to Cook County: t...
December 3, 2012

Close Call for Cook County Judges Found Not Qualified by Most Evaluators

Cook County voted to retain all of nearly 60 judges up for retention yesterday. However, the four judges found Not Qualified by a majority of bar associations received around a 63% "yes" vote while most other judges received well over 70%. To be retained, a judge must receive at least a 60% "yes" fr...
November 7, 2012

Voting for Judges

For this election ballot voters are faced with a list of nearly 60 judges seeking retention. Only 60% of the votes cast on any judge need be in favor of retention for a judge to keep her seat —no judge has lost office since 1990.  Voters must think critically about the retention election and should...
November 1, 2012

Best Practices for Judicial Evaluations

Recently, the State Journal-Reporter published an article which briefly examined the Illinois State Bar Association’s voter recommendations for judicial retention in the 7th Judicial Circuit, where the State Journal-Reporter publishes. The brief article raises interesting issues about judicial evalu...
October 29, 2012