[caption id="attachment_19265" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Over 400 new lawyers were sworn-in on Thursday at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago."][/caption] Over 600 new attorneys were admitted to practice in Illinois on Thursday, May 5 with Justices of the Illinois Supreme Court and Illinois Appellate Court administering the attorney's oath at five separate locations. All of the candidates have passed the Illinois State Bar Examination, a required ethics examination and have been certified by the Committee on Character and Fitness. The largest group, 428, were admitted in the First Judicial District during ceremonies starting at 10:30 a.m. in the Auditorium Theatre at Roosevelt University, 50 East Congress. Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne M. Burke presided over the ceremony with Justice Mary Jane Theis participating. Illinois Appellate Justice Thomas R. Appleton from the Fourth Judicial District made the motion to admit the class and Cook County Associate Judge Brian K. Flaherty will seconded the motion to admit the class. The 628 men and women were certified as candidates and were sworn in as Illinois attorneys Thursday at ceremonies in the five Supreme Court judicial districts: Justice Robert R. Thomas presided over the Elgin ceremony; Justice Rita B.

The Illinois Supreme Court announced on Monday a special committee to study and formulate proposals to help those facing the loss of their homes and improve the judicial process in mortgage foreclosures throughout Illinois. The proposal was brought to Chief Justice Thomas L. Kilbride and the Supreme Court by Supreme Court Justice Mary Jane Theis, who noted the problem isn’t easing. At the end of 2010, there were approximately 70,000 mortgage foreclosure actions pending in Cook County alone. Chief Justice Kilbride was instrumental in bringing a foreclosure mediation program to Will County and is looking at instituting additional programs in his Third Judicial District across north central Illinois. Cook County has a mediation program that was specifically recognized by the White House at a Washington D.C. conference sponsored by Vice President Joseph Biden’s Middle Class Task Force. “These have been important steps forward for those who are faced with the loss of their homes due to declining home values and our nation’s economic crisis, but the problem isn’t going away,” said Chief Justice Kilbride. “The Supreme Court has a keen interest in programs with the strong promise of achieving timely and lasting resolution to tough problems, and we believe this select Committee can come up with specific solutions to help families cope with the emotional and financial burdens of those facing such a devastating loss.” The Committee consists of 14 persons who have been on the front lines in dealing with the housing crisis, how it affects home-owning families as well as the lenders. They are judges, bankers, lawyers, a law professor and an official from the Illinois Attorney General’s office which has joined the nation’s other attorneys general in probing alleged abuses by lenders in their foreclosure filings “While the economy appears to be making some progress the foreclosure crisis remains a serious societal problem,” said Justice Theis. “It is important that the Court try to do what it can to lend some stability and certitude to what is a financially and emotionally chaotic process.  Mortgage foreclosure proceedings in Illinois need to be fair, efficient and final—not subject to later legal challenges. “Many homeowners in foreclosure cases cannot afford to hire a lawyer to represent them. They may not understand the proceedings against them and they don’t know if lenders have taken shortcuts by false documentation.  We need to provide protocols that are uniform and exist throughout the state to deal with the explosion of foreclosures that drive down property values and destabilize neighborhoods.”

The Illinois Supreme Court today released revised Minimum Courtroom Standards for the state's courthouses. The standards were originally adopted in 1993. They concern all details of how a courtroom should be set up, including the height of the judge's bench: The Judge's bench shall be designed such that the judge's eye level, when seated, is higher than any standing participant with the front of the bench 52 inches to 56 inches high and the back riser height 21 inches to 22 inches in height. Click here to read the revised standards.

The Illinois Supreme Court has announced the implementation of a mandatory judicial evaluation program for all Circuit and Associate judges in the state as the final part of a series of initiatives to improve public confidence in Illinois courts. The program is designed “for the purpose of achieving excellence in the performance of individual judges and the improvement of the judiciary as a whole,” states Supreme Court Rule 58 which the Court amended Tuesday to establish the program as mandatory. “This is an extremely important step in making a good judiciary even better,” said Illinois Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas L. Kilbride. “There are more than 900 judges in Illinois and under this program every one who serves at the Circuit Court level will be evaluated by those who appear before them and work with them. This evaluation is for the purpose of enhancing the performance of Illinois judges and improving public confidence in the state’s courts.” The results will be confidential, shared only between the judge and a facilitator, also a judge or retired judge who has been specifically trained in the process. The program will be administered under a contract with the National Center for State Courts and will be monitored by the Supreme Court Judicial Performance Evaluation Committee.