Illinois high court seeks volunteers to work on appeal cases

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SPRINGFIELD, ILL. (AP) — The Illinois Supreme Court is recruiting more volunteer lawyers to help speed up criminal appeals that at times in northern Illinois takes so long the defendant has completed his prison term before their appeal is decided.

The high court in February launched a six-month pilot program in Cook County to take up the backlog of criminal appeals. The Chicago Sun-Times reports 75 attorneys volunteered, and they’ve adopted 45 cases and filed 18 briefs.

Chief Justice Anne Burke
Supreme Court Chief Justice Anne M. Burke says the program has reduced the backlog of criminal appeals cases in northern Illinois. Now, the program is being extended to the entire state beginning in December.

The Sun-Times reports the appeals court in Cook County decided more than 1,300 criminal cases in 2018. Two-thirds of those took at least 782 days to resolve, a longer wait than anywhere else in Illinois.

The Cook County state’s attorney’s office routinely sought 180-day extensions to respond to appeals because of a shortage of attorneys to handle those cases.

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