When Justice Mary Jane Theis becomes Illinois’ 122nd chief justice and the 78th person to be chief justice¹ on October 26, 2022, she has three main goals in mind. She intends to immediately start working on achieving them. 

1. Access to Justice.

While access to justice has been a court priority for more than a decade, Justice Theis wants to expand the access efforts. “What does access mean? Is it enough to get before a decision maker?”  Or, she asks, is there more to access to justice? Justice Theis told me there are more areas of access that need consideration.

One area is the lack of public defenders and pretrial service officers in downstate rural counties. A large percentage of Illinois counties do not have either. Part of the problem is that judicial services, other than judges’ salaries, are funded by the counties, which has led “to a patchwork of how the judicial system works.” It is, she says, “clear that there are vastly different resources among the counties.” The General Assembly is working on that problem with a newly established task force to study the issue and recommend solutions.

Another problem is access to justice on the civil side of the court system. The problem she identifies is that since civil filings are down approximately 40 percent from pre-pandemic numbers that reduces the filing fee dollars counties use to help fund the courts.  Justice Theis also noted that most self-represented civil litigants are on the defense side. “What does this mean?” That is one of the questions, Justice Theis hopes to have answered during her three-year tenure as chief justice.

2. Mental and Behavioral Health Issues. 

This is an issue, Justice Theis told me, that affects many different areas of the justice system—problem solving courts, criminal courts, and juvenile court proceedings among others. She notes that many juveniles who start out in the system involved in abuse and neglect hearings often end up as defendants on the criminal side of juvenile proceedings. A part of her goal is to try to find ways to better serve the young people who get into the juvenile system and deal with this pattern and hopefully reduce the number of juveniles who end up as criminal defendants.

3. The Future Method of Efficiently Handling Court Proceedings. What Will the System Look Like and How Will it Operate?

In March 2020, Illinois courts faced a crisis with the shut down caused by Covid-19. Justice Theis is quick to praise the leadership of Chief Justice Anne Burke, for not only guiding Illinois courts through the pandemic, but even more importantly, in devising and implementing ways to quickly get, and keep, the courts functioning. Justice Theis pointed out that Chief Justice Burke did this through collaboration by reaching out to stakeholders in the various parts of the judicial system to find solutions. Justice Theis plans to continue “listening to lawyers, judges, and others to find ways to solve tomorrow’s issues facing the courts.”

Civility and Professionalism.

Not a new issue, but a continuing one. Justice Theis praised the leadership of Jayne Reardon in leading the Commission on Professionalism for many years. And, she speaks highly of the plans Erika Harold has for her leadership of the Commission.

Civility and professionalism remain a concern in this continuing era of remote hearings. Justice Theis said “it is a great benefit to have hearings where people are, especially for pro se litigants.” But on the other side of the issue, Justice Theis wonders if the lack of formality that accompanies many remote hearings means that the lack of civility happens more often.  The concern she expresses is whether judges can deal with civility or professionalism issues as effectively in a remote hearing as during a face-to-face hearing in the courtroom.

Court Administration.

There are a lot of administrative issues that face the chief justice “of this huge system” that is the Illinois judiciary. In her 39+ years as a judge (at all levels: associate, circuit, appellate, and supreme), Justice Theis told me: “I enjoy policy work, where people come together to work on hard problems.” The difficulty, as Justice Theis described it, is that looking at one issue often leads to several others that are related and equally vexing. As an example, she recalled a recent discussion among the justices about how best to make a record on appeal in this era of remote hearings. That led to a discussion on the availability of court reporters, electronic recording of the proceedings and how to make the system work among the numerous circuits with differing levels of resources to implement them. It was an ongoing discussion, she said, that resulted in the director of information technology attending one meeting to explain the difficulties and costs of wiring the various court houses across Illinois for computer access and wi-fi.

Another issue with various sub-issues is implementing the pretrial reform statute and elimination of cash bail issues that take effect January 1, 2023. The supreme court has had a task force developing plans and recommendations. The statute “requires significant change in how the courthouses run.”  The General Assembly is said to be considering some modifications to the law before it takes full effect. Whether any changes are enacted, Justice Theis told me the Illinois court system will be ready to comply. As she put it: “Failure is not an option.”

With all of these administrative details and her plans for the future, Justice Theis is looking forward to working with new colleagues on the Supreme Court. Justice Lisa Holder White joined the court in July. Justice Joy Cunningham will join the court in December. Also, they will be working with a new justice from the second district who will be elected next month and join the court on December 5, 2022.