Using settlement money from opioid manufacturers and distributors, the Lake County Regional Office of Education is proactively developing an opioid education program ahead of statewide changes to how the subject is handled.

Top Senate Democrats Charles Schumer and Dick Durbin on Wednesday turned up the heat on two Republican senators who have been blocking votes to confirm 319 military promotions and four U.S. attorneys, including April Perry, in line to be the next chief federal prosecutor in Chicago.

A federal lawsuit over the promotion of abortion services in Illinois began Wednesday in Rockford.  Attorneys are arguing the 2016 an amendment to the Illinois Health Care Right of Conscience Act that requires medical and counseling personnel to promote abortion regardless of their ethical or moral views.

The public’s trust of the judicial branch — state and federal — is fundamentally dependent on the perception that judges are unfailingly impartial. And that rests on a judge’s ability to anticipate and minimize the biases that are part of human nature.

Tyler Technologies, Inc. announced recent success with the Appearance with e-filing Easy Form, aimed at self-represented litigants filing into civil court cases in Illinois. Through collaboration between Tyler, Suffolk University Law School, Illinois Legal Aid Online, and the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts, the groups have been able to streamline the process from form creation through electronic filing for courts in nearly all Illinois counties.

Bringing back discretionary parole and expanding clemency in Illinois are just a few of the criminal justice proposals being considered now by Illinois lawmakers. But there’s a big difference between talking about sentencing reform and enacting it, and supporters are urging patience.

In courtrooms around the state early this week, judges conducted the first hearings under a new system that determines whether a defendant will be jailed while awaiting trial based on dangerousness and risk of fleeing prosecution, rather than their ability to post bail.

A Peoria County Grand Jury on Tuesday indicted three people on multiple felony charges for allegedly defrauding Illinois’ government of more than $1 million in sales tax revenue they collected from their customers at local gas stations over a 3 1/2-year period.