Recent News About Cook County Clerk Of The Circuit Court
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A federal appeals court in Chicago has slapped a hold on a federal judge’s order to force Cook County’s courts clerk to begin providing the press and public immediate access to publicly filed court documents, at least until the appellate judges can rule on the court clerk’s claims that the federal judge had no business issuing the order, on the grounds of protecting the public’s First Amendment rights to public information.
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Moments after a Chicago federal judge chided her for creating a system designed to take an “end-run” around the First Amendment’s guarantee of public access to public information, the clerk of Cook County’s courts has asked a federal appeals court to put a hold on the judge's order and further remove the matter from the judge’s consideration entirely.
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Saying public access to publicly-filed legal documents is not “some sort of frill” feature of a modern court system, a Chicago federal judge has denied a request from the Cook County court clerk’s office for more time to comply with the judge’s order to begin providing immediate access to all electronically filed lawsuits filed in her office.
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As she prepares to make her case to a federal appeals panel, the clerk of the Cook County Circuit Court is also awaiting an intervention from Illinois’ highest state court on her request for relief from state court rules she argues preclude her from abiding by a federal judge’s order to make publicly filed lawsuits immediately available to the press and the public.
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A panel of state appeals justices will allow the Cook County Circuit Clerk’s office to be sued for allegedly illegally making litigants pay fees to file certain types of motions, saying the clerk can’t argue their payment signaled their assent to the fees, as failure to pay the fees would have locked them out of the ability to challenge the orders pending against them in court.
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With just days to spare before her office would need to comply with a federal judge’s order to begin providing the public and the press immediate access to electronically filed lawsuits, the clerk of Cook County’s courts has appealed the ruling.
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A Chicago federal judge has told the Cook County Circuit Clerk’s office it cannot withhold electronically filed lawsuits from public view for days at a time pending administrative processing because, to do so, violates the right of the press and the public under the First Amendment to immediate access to otherwise public documents.
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Cook County's courts have been given an additional six months to bring their civil case filing systems into alignment with a statewide electronic case filing system required by the Illinois Supreme Court, despite comments from Circuit Clerk Dorothy Brown just weeks earlier they would be ready to meet a Jan. 1 deadline.
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At the turn of the New Year, county circuit court systems across Illinois are expected to take a leap into the 21st Century, as they begin to require all civil court documents to be filed electronically, under an order from the state's Supreme Court. However, the steps into the digital age may not necessarily ensure greater or easier access to otherwise public court documents in the state.
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A news service which reports on litigation and trends in civil courts across the country has sued the Cook County Circuit Clerk’s office, saying the clerk’s policy of withholding many civil lawsuits from public view for days at a time pending administrative processing violates the U.S. Constitution and goes against years of standard practices regarding freedom of access to public information.
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The Cook County Clerk’s office has reached a $36 million deal with Tyler Technology that the clerk's office is touting as moving operations a step closer to the 21st century.
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A Chicago businessman has asked a Cook County court to order the county to conduct an audit of the finances of the county’s Circuit Court Clerk office to explain what the businessman says are apparent discrepancies, totaling perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars, between what the businessman and his lawyers believe should have been collected for special-use court funds from millions who pass through the county’s court system, and the figures the court clerk has allegedly publicly reported.
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The Cook County Circuit Clerk’s office has misinterpreted a state law allowing it to collect fees from people filing certain motions in court, a state appeals court has said, clearing the way for a Chicago man and his attorney to pursue their lawsuit to secure a court order forcing the clerk’s office to stop demanding the money.
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Chicago lawyer Mark McNabola, already being sued by his ex-client - a man left paralyzed from a 2009 boating accident who claims the attorney’s use of jury note, improperly shared by a court clerk, cost him a $25 million settlement - has been hit with another lawsuit, this time from the yacht maker they had sued and who now allege the lawyer should also be made to pay for using the jury note to cost them a verdict from a jury poised to hand the company a courtroom win. The suit also names Cook C
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A Cook County judge has shot down a class action suit brought by a suburban medical records company, which alleged the Cook County Circuit Clerk’s Office wrongly charged litigants with fees for filing certain types of motions, ruling the company should have paid the fee under protest and pursued other options, rather than lodge a lawsuit.
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While some ideas are moving ahead and others are on the backburner, the concept of reducing the number of the county's elected offices remains a hot topic in Cook County, as supporters believe the reforms could both save money and make the local government more effective by installing the best people for the job, rather than the most popular.
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The Cook County Board has approved the purchase of new technology to allow justice agencies within the county to share data electronically.
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CHICAGO – The Cook County Circuit Court clerk is offering county citizens one last chance to reconcile delinquent court fees and fines before new taxation laws on overdue fines take effect in 2016. Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County Dorothy Brown said the county is holding its inaugural Amnesty Week Oct. 5-9, 2015.
