Latest News - Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts

Barriers to Justice: Identifying the Hidden Ways Survivors are Punished in Domestic Violence Court

This article was researched and written by Jenna Grace Piehl (rising fourth-year in Journalism and Legal Studies) & Mariana Leone (rising fourth year in Political Science and Theatre), Northwestern University students and Summer 2021 Communications Interns for Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair C...

REPORT: “Solutions rather than Obstacles” – An evaluation of the Hearing Officer Program in Cook County’s Domestic Relations Court

Every year, the Domestic Relations (DR) Division of the Circuit Court of Cook County processes approximately 40,000 divorce and child support cases. Because DR cases are handled in civil court, neither individual party -- the petitioner nor respondent -- have any right to free or accessible legal re...

Public (In)Access to Judicial Branch Data in Illinois

In 2019, Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts and our pro bono partner, DLA Piper, looked at the open records laws, the Freedom of Information Act, and other public access policies in all 50 states to determine where Illinois stands in terms of judicial transparency. We found that Illin...

Loyola Report Reveals Undue Punitive Effect of Gun Possession Convictions on Young Black Men in Cook County

As the summer ends, gun violence continues to dominate headlines in Chicago; so far this year, there have been over 2,000 people hurt or killed by shootings. As the city continues to grieve and look for effective and equitable solutions to gun issues, the importance of data-driven policymaking is cr...

You Have the Right to Chronically-Underfunded and Overworked Counsel: The need for improved support of public defense in Cook County and beyond.

BACKGROUND The concept of a public defender is relatively modern in the American legal system. For most of U.S. history, being poor meant defense by an attorney was unavailable to you. That all changed, however, in the seminal case, Gideon v. Wainwright, when the Supreme Court found it to be the...