For years, Cook County's courts have suffered under a backlog of slow-moving cases.
And while officials with the court have said repeatedly the situation is improving - particularly when compared to 2020-2021 amid the height of the pandemic - accurate case processing statistics for the Cook County Circuit Court remain scarce, making it difficult for the public to know for sure how much the situation may have changed in recent years and just how backlogged Illinois' largest court system may actually remain.
Last spring, for instance, the Office of the Illinois Courts noted in its annual report - which included data for 2022 - that the data it provided for 2022 for courts in Cook County was unreliable.
Cook County Circuit Judge Thaddeus Wilson
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That report indicated Cook County only had 309,404 cases remaining open headed in 2023. However, in the five years prior, the backlog of cases ranged from 1.463 million in 2018 to a high of 1.88 million open cases in 2021.
However, the authors of the 2022 Illinois Courts Annual Report added a footnote to the data, informing readers that "Due to changes in Cook county’s case management system, there are large variances in the number of cases being reported as filed, closed, and open between 2022 and prior years."
This year, however, the job of understanding the statistical status in Cook County's courts is next to impossible.
As of early June 2023, the Office of the Illinois Courts said it can't publish any statistical information about business in the Cook County Circuit Court, because it seemingly has not been provided with any new information about those courts from 2023.
"2023 Cook County data is not yet available," reads a message posted on the website of the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts. "The information will be updated once the data is processed and validated."
Questions from The Cook County Record about the missing Cook County data to spokespeople for the Illinois Supreme Court and the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts were not answered on Monday, as they did not reply.
A spokesperson for the Office of Cook County Chief Judge Tim Evans declined comment, saying questions were best directed to the Cook County Circuit Clerk's office, as he said the circuit clerk is responsible for supplying that data to the Illinois Courts Office and the state Supreme Court.
In response to questions from The Cook County Record, a spokesman for Cook County Circuit Clerk Iris Martinez released a statement:
"The Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County has been actively working with the AOIC on our reporting for 2023.
"We have submitted our initial numbers for review to the AOIC and are working with them and the Chief Judge (Evans) to ensure the data is accurate and complies with the Cook County Manual on Record Keeping standards."
No one contacted by The Cook County Record indicated when the data would be made publicly available, or when the Illinois Courts' annual report would be issued.
The Illinois Courts' website has provided a quarterly breakdown of court statistics for all of the other 101 circuit court systems throughout Illinois, at least through September 30.
The data, normally updated for every 3 month period throughout the year, updates the public on several key statistics for the state's local court systems, which handle the adjudications of millions of legal matters every year, including criminal charges, class actions, personal injury cases, divorces, child custody disputes, foreclosures, evictions and more.
The data shows how many cases of various kinds were opened in each court during a certain time period, how many are pending, and the number of matters closed within that same period.
In some interpretations of the data, court data also reflects the so-called "clearance rate," or the rate at which cases closed or resolved compare to the number of cases opened. At its most basic, the clearance rate reflects a court system's ability to keep up with its caseload.
While many court systems throughout the state have a clearance rate near or exceeding 100%, Cook County's clearance rate has lagged, averaging about 77% from 2018-2022, according to information published by the Illinois Courts.
Statewide during that same span, case clearance rates averaged about 91%, with a high of 97.2% in 2021.
The real and comparative backlog in Cook County's courts have generated headlines in recent years. The Chicago Tribune, for instance, noted the backlog has often left criminal defendants to languish as their cases continue pending. In some ways, such delayed justice also served as the basis for Illinois' move to abolish cash bail, as advocates of the controversial criminal justice reforms pointed to the inability of those charged with crimes to get out of jail and potentially contribute to society, perhaps for years, while courts moved their cases to conclusion.
In response to the Tribune's report, Evans released a lengthy statement in the spring of 2023, blaming the Covid pandemic for worsening the system's case backlog, particularly in criminal cases. He further noted the Cook County court system had implemented measures to reduce the backlog, again, particularly in criminal matters.
He asserted the clearance rate for felony cases in 2022 in Cook County was 106%.
He also asserted the Cook County courts were "on track to meet" time standards imposed on Illinois circuit courts by the state Supreme Court in 2022, specifically to address backlogs and delays in administering justice. Under those standards, courts are expected to resolve virtually all matters within certain timeframes. For example, 98% of criminal felony cases are expected to be completed within 30 months, while virtually all complex civil cases are expected to be completed within 36 months.
"Judges must balance moving cases along expeditiously with always respecting a defendant’s right to a fair trial and the rights and needs of the other participants," Evans said in his statement in 2023.
According to published reports, the work on increasing the speed of case resolution in Cook County courts has been ongoing for years.
In 2017, for instance, Cook County Circuit Judge Thaddeus Wilson, who formerly was a supervising judge in the Cook County courts' criminal division, was selected to lead a team of judges to oversee the development and implementation of caseflow management standards designed to reduce the amount of time criminal cases remain in court.
Last year, after reviewing a civil derivative settlement, Wilson ordered the creation of a reform group focused on streamlining and improving divorce litigation, Children of the Court.
Wilson is currently assigned to a non-supervisory role within the Cook County court's Chancery Division, which presides over class action lawsuits, mortgage foreclosures and certain other kinds of civil cases,
Last year, Evans pointed to the county's implementation of a "new differentiated case management (DCM) system," which was rolled out in early 2022 in the criminal division. The statement said "Judge Evans established" the system.
In his statement, Evans did not say if the DCM system had worked to speed up case management.
"The Illinois court system is in a time of change, and the Circuit Court of Cook County is committed to working with the Illinois Supreme Court to provide judges the tools and the training they need to meet the goals of efficient disposition of cases while guaranteeing the rights of the accused and respecting the interests of all others concerned," Evans said in the 2023 statement.