Law Schools and the Duty of Pro Bono Service

Recently, the Wall Street Journal ran a short piece commenting on The Imposition of Social Justice Morality in Legal Education by Julie D. Lawton in Volume 4, Issue 1 of the 2016 Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equity. Ms. Lawton is an associate Clinical Professor of Law and the Director of the Ho...
May 31, 2016

Report on the Impact of Court Fines, Fees and Costs

The Collaboration for Justice—the joint social justice effort of Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice and the Chicago Council of Lawyers—has released a report on the impact and legality of court fines, fees and costs. The report details how the recent trend of shifting court costs to low-income and in...
May 26, 2016

Cook County Drug Field Testing Pilot Program Second Quarterly Report

  Included here is the second quarterly report of the program study committee for the pilot drug field testing program created under 50 ILCS 737/1. The Cook County Pilot Drug Field-Testing Program was brought about to reduce the average time in jail between arrest and preliminary hearing for...
April 11, 2016

Resign, Re-run, Avoid Retention

Three judges in southern Illinois’ 20th judicial circuit—Chief Judge John Baricevic and Circuit Judges Robert Haid and Robert LeChien—resigned in August in order to avoid retention elections. Judges Baricevic and LeChien each had narrow retention margins in their 2010 retention election, but Judge H...
March 23, 2016

Candidate Questionnaires from the Cook County Clerk of the Court Race

A note from the Chicago Council of Lawyers, our partner organization in the Collaboration for Justice: The Primary Election in Illinois is March 15th, and early voting is happening now. The Chicago Council of Lawyers wants voters to focus on electing the most qualified judges possible, but there ar...
March 7, 2016