I’m not the tourism bureau here so I’m not comparing the Sycamore Pumpkin Festival to the Taste of Chicago or anything like that, but I do work as a lawyer primarily in Cook County and due to a quark of fate I’ve had a case running in DeKalb County for some 7 years now (long story). And wanted to point out a couple of troubling facts related to the administration of justice in Cook County, using DeKalb to highlight a couple examples.
I wanted to post this now because I have two very similar situations currently unfolding in the respective counties and I like how DeKalb’s handling my “situation” better than Cook.
In Cook County, I had a contested hearing in the last couple weeks. And it was fairly involved and went for 2ish hours and then the Court issued its oral ruling. I was the only lawyer in the case. The same day of the hearing I entered a handwritten ordering highlighting the Court’s ruling and ordering that I would later submit a clean, type-written Order covering everything in detail. However, between the day of the hearing and entry of the final, “clean” copy of the Order there are discrepancies as to what specifically was the Judge’s ruling. And the only two things we have to go to assure accuracy are my handwritten notes of the ruling and the Judge’s notes. Unless you bring your own, there are generally no court reporters in most hearings and the hearings are not recorded. So the result of a very important court hearing and judgment hinges on the ability of two people to read their own chicken scratch (I tend to be very detailed but in the midst of a court hearing where paper is flying everywhere I would admit my thoroughness suffers). 
In DeKalb County I encountered a similar situation recently and asked the Court to amend an Order that I think contained a scriveners error…i.e. something was written up wrong and inconsistent with the Court’s oral ruling. I should have caught this the first time but I’m human. Well, in DeKalb everything in the courtrooms is recorded in real time. So Judge said to order the transcipt and we’ll see.
What I’m getting at is a concern for the fundamental administration of justice issues that I see in Cook County, like the above. This isn’t just something to laugh about or a minor hassle for me to have to look in a court file or any of those things that I and others have blogged about. Right?
In the example above, in DeKalb we’ll have the assurance of a transcript saying what the Court’s judgment was whereas in Cook, we might get it wrong. So you add that to another big problem I encounter a lot, the fact of lost court orders and court pleadings in Cook County, due to no electronic filing system and I hope some of the powers that be start to make some changes. Because you just don’t know who will be the next victim of an injustice
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I’m not sure if it’s a glitch on my part but in case it is not me, I wanted to let you know that the main page of the site isn’t fully loading… Don’t see anything in the right column unless I click “about” or click to comment. Can’t see posts prior to these today on the main page either. Thanks!
Thanks Cheryl…seems to be okay after checking on several different computers. Thanks for the heads up!
Peter,
DuPage also records their proceedings, as do some other counties. I’d like Cook to do it as well (have had OC’s lie about what was said when a reporter wasn’t there), but I doubt it will ever happen…
It seems like the larger counties should lead the way on these sorts of issues since they have the resources. How ’bout a trial effort in one of the municipal suburban courthouses? That would be just like the size of DeKalb…nothing to it.
Hi, good post. I have been pondering this issue,so thanks for posting. I’ll certainly be coming back to your posts.