Yeah.

Thank you all for being here this morning.

Um, do we have any registered public speakers?

Yes.

Members of the public who wish to testify have until twenty-four hours before the schedule start at the meeting to register in order to do so.

Speakers will have three minutes to address the task force and will be alerted when they have one minute time remaining, one thirty seconds remain, and when the time has expired.

Tomorrow, I am bringing that legislation that you started to the city of County Met City.

Um domestic violence in the County Met City is rampant throughout the Southland.

The numbers are increasing.

Um legislation was started in Cook County and it was championed and partnered in City of Chicago.

We are hardest hit in the Southland, and sometimes it seems like we are overlooked.

Um and our courthouses out in the Southland are some of the worst throughout the county.

Um Marshall Courthouse does not have access or the funding that is needed to support domestic violence victims.

Um, oftentimes just trying to enter the building and maneuver and navigate the system, re-triggers and re-victimizes the victim.

Um, I wanted to thank you because in County Met City, we are going to tomorrow evening uh put forth similar legislation that you drafted to support the residents, employees, elected officials, and all those that walk through Calumet City, and we would like to partner more with City of Chicago and Cook County for domestic violence uh protection and support.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Next up is Sarah Brown.

Good morning.

Go ahead.

Good morning, everyone.

Uh, my name is Sarah Brown.

Uh I am a resident of the Southland region.

Uh I am here today to express my concerns regarding the ongoing challenges faced by family navigating the domestic relations court system.

I'm currently involved in a domestic relations case that has been pending for a little bit over nine and a half years.

Uh, this case was originally heard in the Bridgeview Courthouse, which was accessible to my community.

Um, I now find myself traveling over an hour uh to attend hearings, which places an enormous burden not only on me, but also my family who relies on me.

I would like to bring to your attention Illinois statutes related to appointment and compensation of GAL and child representatives according to 750 ILCS 5506 and 750 ILCS506.6.

This is our Illinois statute that the court has the authority to appoint GAL and child representatives to ensure the best interest of children that are upheld in domestic relations cases.

While I appreciate the need for such services, the implementation has become increasingly problematic.

Moreover, I like to remind you of the statute that determines the hourly rates that's set that's set by judges for these representatives.

The expectations for families to bear the cost of representation along with burdens of lengthy travel, adds unnecessary strain during an already challenging time.

It is vital that we prioritize accessibility within domestic relations system when families should not have to endure significant tribal hardships that could deter them from seeking the justice they deserve.

I urge all bodies to consider these issues seriously and it's for solutions that would make the processes more efficient and humane for all involved.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Next is Diane Brown.

Good morning, everyone.

Good morning.

And uh regarding domestic violence and the task force that was put together regarding domestic violence.

I'm a mother, I'm a grandmother, I'm a great-grandmother.

And uh going to court with my daughter Sarah when I retired January uh 2024.

It was an urgency uh because of a case that was uh in court for seven years, now it's nine.

And um to see the courtroom now when I was in the in the courtrooms in the 80s is totally different, but I still believe in democracy.

I believe in the court system, I believe in uh the city of Chicago, Cook County.

Uh those who are in office now, I voted for all of you all.

Domestic violence isn't going away, it's not and it affects and people that are meeting along this journey.

Um there should be accountability with GALs, believe it or not in the courtroom behind the judge, it has in God we trust.

My faith was shaken, pretending that I was a homeless person wearing the same thing the court with my daughter 2024, 2025 to see because each year she would tell me that she's gone through another judge and all of that.

I couldn't believe it because I trust in the circuit court, the county, city of Chicago, but there is a problem, it's a broken literally, and some people like myself at one time.

I I didn't believe that it was broken, it's broken, and we have to do something.

We have to produce the data.

We have to produce it.

We have to have evaluations for GALs.

There are complaints, and we should see those complaints.

There should be judicial training and oversight.

It has to.

We can't just leave it here.

We can't just leave it here because my grandson is traumatized, and other people also.

I'm a uh mandated reporter for uh CPS.

The same uh safe school trainings that I have to take to keep my job.

Every GAL should be able to have these same tests in order to if you're gonna represent a child force them to take the uh safe group safe school trainings that Chicago public school have uh teachers, educators that we have to take every year because our kids are at stake.

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much.

And the next speaker is Brittany Riley.

Riley, I'm here we can call you again.

Cassandra Taylor Bridges Dr.

Latoya Glass and Clinton Washington.

Well, okay, we also have some virtual public comment.

Is Alexis Mala Mara Visa here?

She's not online.

Okay.

What about Joseph?

Yeah, Joseph, are you able to hear us?

Can you unmute yourself, please?

I can hear you.

Good morning.

Hello.

Joseph, you may begin your public testimony.

Good morning.

My name is Joseph Jones and I'm a retired superintendent from the sheriff's office.

I oversaw jail receiving classification, parts of administration, and most importantly the records division.

I work daily with court borders.

Yeah, but he's not his audio's not going through.

Hello?

Okay.

Something on his end.

Oh, okay.

Okay.

Are you able to hear me?

Okay.

We can see you, but we can't hear you.

Um is your audio connected?

Yes.

Okay.

Give us one second, Joseph.

We'll come back to you.

Thank you.

Are any other public speakers here?

Brittany Riley, Cassandra Kayler, Burgess, Dr.

Latoya Glass.

Joseph, can you um start speaking again?

Can you hear me?

Hello.

Hello.

That's thing one, too.

Yes, Jennifer.

Do you have a question?

Yeah.

The folks on the teams can hear.

Folks on the teams can hear.

Okay.

But we can't.

In the audio room.

Say that it's something that we just one second.

Okay.

Joseph, can you um start speaking?

Can you hear me now?

Hello.

I am here.

I think we're gonna have to come back to okay.

I'll have to come back.

We'll come back to you once we have the because yeah, I think there's some stuff happening with the.

Yeah, Nancy, does it matter that's saying that's an old saying?

It's just on that one.

No, that's all that one.

Okay, if we want to continue, yeah.

Can we we'll go back to them?

Yeah, we'll come back to you.

We'll come back to the other public speaker after we begin our presentation.

So thank you all for the public speaking comments, and uh thank you all for your ability to be here today.

And um, I do believe we have a quorum, right?

Yeah, we do have a quorum.

Okay.

All right, so uh we're gonna get started.

And Katie Dunn, thank you again for helping us organize and facilitate these meetings, and we'll go right into the presentations.

Katie, if you wanted to go and start in introductions.

Um, sure.

So uh good morning, everybody.

The first presentation is by the Office of the Chief Judge, and I believe it's Kate Mellon.

So Kate, if you want to do it at the podium, so you're able to see and then we can't see Hannah's actually down to you, but I'm gonna oh Hannah, okay, yes.

Then we'll go there.

Thank you.

You can see these screens, right?

These kids.

But is it up on the screen?

Yes, yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Okay.

Good morning, everybody.

My name is Hannah Cholinski.

I am a senior domestic division attorney.

Um sorry, senior division attorneys with domestic relations.

Um, so Commissioner Miller has requested a presentation on GAL child representatives and attorneys for children appointments in the domestic relations division.

I want to note that this presentation was previously given by Judge Scanicchio in July of 2025 to the Board of Commissioners, so some of this content might be repetitive.

Um, we've updated the presentation to include some statistics and additional examples for the commissioner's request.

Next slide, please.

But I want to start by introducing the domestic relations division and what it does.

We work under the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act, which I'll refer to throughout the presentation of the IMDMA.

This is a separate statute from the Illinois Domestic Violence Act or the IDDA, which has been the focus of the previous presentations at these task force meetings.

While the domestic relations division works with the IDBA, we are mostly hearing cases under the IMDMA and appointments of GALs are pursuant to the IMDMA.

Now in Club County, we heard 12 types of cases with cases, which are listed here.

Um any of these case types can have a civil order of protection consolidated into it pursuant to Coke County's local rules.

Specifically, local rule 13.3G outlines that any time a petition for OP is filed and the parties have an existing VR case, the OP will be consolidated into the ER case for proceedings before the regularly assigned DR judge.

In 2022, we issued a set of twin general administrative orders with the DDE division, um, which established what we call the exchange program.

So under this program, litigants who file for EOPs at 555 West Harrison who have ADR case will have their petition for OP heard by the regularly assigned VR judge.

Similarly, any litigant who files an independent EOP at Daily Center will have their independent OP heard by a DVD judge of 555.

This exchange program ensures uh the litigants are being heard by the regularly assigned judge, and it also saves litigants from travel time in the courthouses, which lessens the strain on survivors to move between our courthouses.

You can refer to the GAO numbers 2022 D14 domestic relations division and 2022 D04 in domestic violence for additional information on the exchange program.

Um and as a final note, these procedures were implemented in response to public and advocacy community concerns that the regularly assigned DR judge should be hearing DB issues related to petitions for EOPs as a needs to ensure holistic treatment of our DRD cases.

So again, that was implemented in 2022.

Next slide, please.

So this is a structure of the domestic relations division.

Um currently we have 41 total judges in the division across all six districts.

Next slide, please.

So GAL's child wrecks and attorneys for children are appointed for some to the IMDMA specifically submitted the ILCS five slash five zero six.

Each role has specifications delay needed by statute.

For example, GALs cannot file substantive motions in court, while child reps and attorneys for children can't.

We'll touch on specifics in the following slides.

Overall, however, these appointments are made to assist the court in determining what's in the best interest of minor children, particularly when there are issues between parents and attorney parenting fund and areas that IMDMA considers parental responsibilities, which includes decisions related to education, medical care, religious issues, and extracurricular activities.

The IMDMA requires GALs and child graphs to consider what's in the best interest of the child when making their recommendations.

I want to note that the IMDMA contemplates such appointments due to the rules of civil procedure and the rules of evidence that are present in our adversarial court system here in the US.

In Illinois courts, litigants and lawyers are allowed to introduce, or sorry, litigants and lawyers are not allowed to introduce what's called hearsay during cases, which are out-of-court statements offered to prove something happened.

So in practice, this means that a parent cannot sit on the stand and say that their child told them something, and that cannot be taken into account as evidence in a proceeding.

The legislature knew that this would pose problems in litigating DR cases and created these roles to allow children to have a voice in the proceedings while remaining in compliance with the various rules of civil procedure and the rules of evidence that litigants and attorneys are required to follow in our court system.

Next slide, please.

So the first role we'll dive into is that of a guardian ad lightum or a GAL, which is specifically delineated under 750 ILCS 5 slash 506A2.

A guardian alignment is an attorney who the court appoints as its own witness.

That means that they're subject to cross-examination by both parties.

Whereas attorneys representing the parents have a confidential relationship with their clients, GALs do not have a relationship with the children or either party that is confidential.

Anything that is reported to the GAL can be reported to the court.

GALs are appointed to investigate specific facts of the case and are directed by statute to meet with and interview both parties and all children in the case.

They are also directed to interview relevant third parties.

So for example, this might include interviewing a step parent if parenting time is at issue, or interviewing a children's teacher if there's a dispute over educational decision making.

GLs are also statutorily directed and encouraged to encourage settlement between the parties pursuant to the best interest of the child.

This means that if the GAL feels there's a reasonable solution to a problem that would best serve the child, they will try to work with the parties to reach an agreement.

If, however, parties decline to agree and instead proceed to trial, the GAL is responsible for making formal recommendations to the court based off of their investigation by way of a formal written report and/or a draft allocation judgment.

I'll note that the parties are not allowed to, or sorry, I will note that parties are allowed to await that written report if they choose to do so under the statute.

Even though the GAL is the court system's own witness, and recommendations of the GAL if they feel that the said recommendation is not in the best interest of the child under the statute.

Next slide, please.

Second type of appointment that we have is a child representative, which is governed by 750 ILCS 5 slash 50683.

So in contrast to a GAL, a child rep is appointed to complete an investigation and after said investigation take a position and advocate for that position.

So additionally, the child rep has a confidential relationship with the child, meaning they cannot disclose what their client reported to them without their client's express permission.

Child reps can file motion in the court that they believe will advance their client's best interest, and they are required to participate in trial and importantly, submit a pretrial memorandum to the court that discloses their legal position and the reasons why their position is in the best interest of the child.

The child representation is not binding on the court in any ways, same as a GAL.

If the court does not agree with the child reps position, the court may issue an order regarding parenting time and/or decision making, it seems to be in the child's best interest.

Next slide, please.

So the final type of appointment under an INDMA under the IMDMA is an attorney for the child.

I'll refer to them as AFCs throughout the presentation.

This is governed by 750 ILCS 5506A1.

This is very rarely used in our division, as it's appointing independent legal counsel for the child.

So this means that the child is provided in full benefit of legal counsel, including undivided loyalty and confidentiality on the part of the attorney.

This means that the child steers the advocacy, and the appointed lawyer is not responsible for advocating for the best interest of the child.

Instead, they are bound only by the position that the child chooses to take.

So it's the same as any lawyer that you would hire as an adult.

Next slide, please.

Excuse me.

The Illinois Supreme Court justices dictate how the GAL, Child Rep, and EFC programs are to be developed and maintained by each circuit court.

Specifically, Illinois Supreme Court Rule 906 directs each circuit court to develop a set of qualifications and requirements for attorneys appointed to serve in these roles.

So under Illinois SCR 906, Cook County issued local rule 13.9, which directs the presiding judge of the domestic relations division to maintain a court appointed and court approved list of attorneys serving in these roles.

The local rule also allows the presiding judge to create and amend the requirements for the appointed attorneys based on recommendations from the GAL advisory committee.

The advisory committee is a group of seasons attorneys who were selected and appointed to the committee by the presiding judge's office.

Next slide, please.

So this is an overview of the format of the GAL program.

So as you can see, the presiding judge's office has this program with the advisory committee working directly under the PJ.

The advisory committee acts as a sort of guidepost for the PJ.

They offer feedback and suggestions to the PJ related to the GAL program.

In addition to the advisory committee, there's five subcommittees that assist in the maintenance of the program.

The screening committee runs interviews for program applicants and makes reservations as to who to accept into the court approved list.

The training committee trains the approved applicants and assists the PJ's office with updated training on a yearly basis or as new laws come into effect.

The mentorship committee was formed to hear new GALs, child reps, and AFCs with seasoned attorneys who can answer questions on best practices and serve as an ear for sticky situations.

The CLE committee deals with continued legal education and includes some of our judges.

Under the GAL program, each GAL is required to attend at least four of our court approved trainings per year.

The CLE committee helps decide what topics will be presented each month and ensures attorneys on the court approved list comply with the PJ's training requirements.

Finally, the resource committee works to provide a common resource bank for a court approved practitioners.

There's been much interest in those who sit on these committees.

The names are kept confidential if the attorneys are serving at the request of the presiding judge.

Next slide, please.

For an attorney to be added to the court approved list, they must engage in the application process.

So at this point in time, we have two application cycles, one at the beginning of the year, around January, and one in September.

Attorneys submit their application for consideration, and if they meet the threshold requirements, so some threshold requirements include practicing family law for a five-year minimum and some minimum litigation requirements in terms of proceeding to contested trials.

They are invited to interview with the screening committee.

The screening committee will thereafter submit their suggested candidates to the presiding judge for review.

Those who are approved by both Judge Signigio and the screening committee are invited to a two-day training presented by training committee.

Training ranges from extensive DV training by our court partners like the network, who spoke with you, I believe two weeks ago, on sessions on how to lead trauma-informed interviews with children.

Once training is complete, the attorneys are added to the court approach list, which is published for public review on the DRD website.

Thereafter, these attorneys are available for appointment to cases in the GAL, trial breath, and AFC.

Next slide, please.

So a bit of additional information on our training process is created under the local rules by the presiding judge.

So training is over two days and approved by NCLE.

This is the organization that's responsible for continuing legal education credits for attorneys.

It's a state-ran and approved organization.

This means that the body governing attorney registration has recognized our training program as eligible to receive required continuing education credits.

So they have gone through a full approval process.

JAL's child reps and ASC candidates are trained on the INDMA and Illinois Supreme Court rules, the unique roles and responsibilities of each appointment type, interviewing techniques, ethical considerations, report drafting, settlement and trial techniques, and they also have a dedicated DV session provided by their court partners, which are the network and/or the Illinois Coalition Against Domestic Violence, both of whom presented here.

Historically, the DD training has been provided by both of these two.

Next slide, please.

Part of the requirements to remain on the court appointed list is to participate in ongoing training, which we call CLE.

So our CLE is approved by the entity I spoke about in the last slide, MCLA.

We have a range of presenters and topics available to our GALs on a monthly basis.

So some sample CLEs are navigating gender and sexual identity issues, best practices in working with children with special needs, and understanding the DCFS system.

We also require all court-appointed GALs to attend our annual DD training held during domestic violence awareness month in October.

The training is delivered either by the Illinois Coalition Against Domestic Violence or the Network and both organizations that presented to you at these task force meetings.

In addition to our ongoing training requirements, we also launched our mentorship program last year.

The mentorship program airs all of our newly approved court appointed attorneys with an experienced practitioner to help troubleshoot issues and provide feedback during a first year of practice as a court appointed GAL child rep the NASC.

It is a one-to-one process.

So one new attorney to one experienced attorney.

Next slide, please.

So this slide describes what an attorney must do to remain on a court-approved list.

It includes that court-approved attorneys must be licensed and a good standing to practice law in Illinois, maintain errors and omissions insurance, so that's sometimes colloquially called a malpractice insurance and policy.

Attend at least four of the eight CLEs hosted by domestic relations division and accept at least one new pro bono appointment each year.

They also must be willing and able to take appointments throughout the county, not just a specific district.

So prior to the implementation of the GAL program, GALs were sort of creating cottage industries where they would only appear in a bridge report where they would only appear in Mark Bond.

And so the point of this rule is to encourage GALs to attend Adri Court regardless of location.

So the presiding judge's staff maintains record requirements results in automatic removal from the list.

This means that anyone on the public facing list is indeed compliant with the requirements of the corn appointed program pursuant to local rules.

Next slide, please.

So every case in every family is unique.

Because of this, the statute provides really wide discretion for judges to appoint GALs to a case.

Some considerations include these factors listed, such as the complexity of the case, the age and gender of a child, and the income of a family of their financial constraints.

So for example, a couple who's making a combined income of 45,000 with one child with an agreement with a parenting plan are highly unlikely to have a GAL or child rep appointed unless there's some serious concerns for the well-being of the child, such as some sort of ECFS investigation when a filing is made.

Couple making $500,000 with four children, and parents who both want majority parenting time and the ability to enroll children in a boarding school out of state are more likely to have a private paid GAL appointed.

In contrast, a family with a fee wairound file and where kids reportedly witness domestic violence between the parents is likely to have a pro bono GAL appointed or one of the parties is represented.

All this is to say that the judges are very careful about their appointments, both in terms of who they appoint and what role they're appointing, be the GAL, a child rep or an AFC.

Data indicates that all of the cases filed in the last two years that involve children, only about 5% of those cases have GALs, child reps, and AFCs appointed.

To put this into perspective, from 2023 to 2025, 62,224 cases were filed in Cook County that were eligible for a GAL child rep or AFC.

Only those of those cases, only 3,484 cases had an appointment order entered in total.

So a total of 58,700 cases did not have any sort of GAL child rep or AFC appointments.

The data also indicates that judges are appointing a variety of GALs and that there's no favoritism occurring as it relates to appointments.

In fact, the data shows that the most judges appoint one practitioner is three times in one year.

Data also shows that the average time a GAL child rep or AOC appointment is made is 2.3 years or 28 and a half months after the case was filed.

So considering the volume of cases each judge sees, this data indicates that judges are diversifying their appointments, learning the case and the issues involved, and heavily considering which GAL child rep and AFC would best fit each individual's family's needs and circumstances.

Next slide, please.

Okay, so financial considerations are a hot button topic for our court appointed representatives.

As an initial point, the attorneys that serve as GALs, child refs, and AFCs are private attorneys.

Just like any other service provider, there is a need for their work to be paid.

Under statute, this obligation extends the litigants involved in the legal dispute.

And again, this is pursuant to the statute, the IMDMA.

This let the legislature further enabled attorney appointment attorneys appointed as GALs, child refs, and AFCs to recover fees pursuant to the attorney fee statute, which is 750 ILCS 5 slash 501.

Also denotes that fees related to these professionals' investigations are classed as support for the child.

Again, this is directly within the statute.

That means that they cannot be discharged in a bankruptcy proceeding.

This is the language that was enacted by the Illinois statute under the uh INDMA.

So under Illinois Supreme Court Rule 298, litigants who qualify for a B waiver are entitled to pro bono or free GAL appointments.

However, this rule does not extend to child reps or AFCs, and the legislature has not extended these fee limitations via statute or other legislative means.

The PJ's program requires that each court approved practitioner to take at least one pro bono appointment each year.

In addition, judges have the discretion to call a GAL and ask if they would take a case on a pro bono or SLAM scale if they think that it would be the best fit for the case, but also know that a GAL is already serving their yearly pro bono requirements.

This does happen quite often in our division.

Judges are able and do consider financial limitations of the parties when selecting the appropriate GAL child rep and EFC.

The appointment order allows judges to set a retainer and order a fee structure.

This means a judge may set an hourly rate that is below the normal billable rate of an attorney for cases where parties may not be able to afford their particular fees.

We also have access to OPG for child rep appointments, which operates on a reduced payment scale and CDLS, which provides us with additional pro bono appointments for GALs and child reps.

OPG presented at a work group meeting last week, so I'll refer to their presentation for additional information and CBLS appointments will be discussed on the next slide.

So Chicago Volunteer Legal Services or CDLS is a court partner that accepts pro bono GAL and child rep appointments assume to the listed general administrative orders that are contained on the slide.

When CDLS is appointed, the CDLS staff finds an available volunteer attorney to serve as a GAL or child rep and coordinates to have them appear in the case.

CDLS currently accepts seven pro bono appointments per month for a total of 84 appointments per year.

For the GAO, CDLS is responsible for training and supervision of their volunteer attorneys, and the PJ works in close concert with CDLS.

Next slide, please.

The slide briefly touches on OPG, which operates on the sliding scale and will serve as a trial draft for cases that needs a criteria listed on the slide.

Sarah Hopkins from OPG provided a wonderful in-depth presentation on OPG last month, and I would point you to her presentation if you have questions about the program.

She does a much better job discussing that program than I ever could.

Next slide, please.

So with grievances.

In any adversarial process, one or both parties may be displeased with the outcome of the case.

It's especially likely in these high conflict cases involving children that one or both parties have grievances or issues with the attorneys appointed to represent their children's interests.

There are three options to address grievances.

One, they can file a motion to discharge the court appointed attorney.

Two, they can file for appellate review of the ad issue recommendation.

And three, they can file a complaint against the attorney with the attorney registration and disciplinary committee, referred to as the ARDC.

This is the governing ethical body for licensed attorneys in Illinois.

There have been many questions about whether the presiding judge may address grievances against attorneys and or judges as they relate to these types of cases.

The presiding judge has centralized administrative authority to coordinate and supervise function of the courts, but the position does not hold authority to review decisions or engage in judicial discipline.

By way of the statute and various other legislative authorities, only the appellate court may review the decision of a circuit court judge.

Similarly, by way of statute and other various legislative authorities, only the ARDC may review an attorney's actions and engage in disciplinary proceedings, and only the judicial inquiry board or the JAB may review and engage in disciplinary actions against judges.

The presiding judge of DRD and the presiding judge of any of our divisions cannot engage in these actions whatsoever.

Next slide, please.

The last point I'll touch briefly on is the issue of body attachments for failure to pay GAL fees.

So first I want to make very clear that body attachments related to non-payment of GAL child rep and AFC fees is extremely rare in our cases.

When we reached out to our DOD judges to request case information on the issuance of a body attachment, so remember we have 41 judges.

Only about four judges responded with one case instance each.

And these were a result of a grievous disregard for A B order.

I'll also note that body attachments are only issued after extensive time on the docket.

They're only issued after a purge is issued.

A litigant is on notice of the purge and generally where a litigant refuses to show up to court.

In reviewing instances of a body attachment issuing, typical timeline looks something akin to this example.

The GAL is appointed with a retainer at $5,000 and available rate set at 250 dollars per hour.

The parties are ordered to split these fees on a 50-50 basis.

Dad declines to pay his portion of the retainer.

Mom pays 2,500 in installment to the GAL.

The GAL engages in one year's worth of work that includes incidents of DV, DCFS investigations, and relocation issues.

Dad has still failed to make his initial retainer payment and has not made any further payment towards a C.

Mom, meanwhile, continues to make her monthly installment payment as agreed to by her and the GAL.

Eventually, the GAL files what's called a petition for rule to show cause against DAD for his willful disobedience of the court ordered retainer payment issued the year prior.

The judge reviews the petition and finds the GAL has established a prima fascia or clear showing that the 2500 repayment retainer payment was not made, and that such failure to pay is in violation of a court order.

The judge then sets what's called a hearing on the rule, where dad has a chance to show that he is not in willful violation of the court order but has a good reason to not make the payment.

Prior to the hearing, the GAL continues to try and engage with dad to set up a payment plan.

Dad ignores these costs.

The hearing date comes and Dad is responsible to show that he's not willfully non-compliant with the order.

Dad reduces bank statements showing a consistent income of about $3,000 per month and consistent withdrawals of $4,000 per month at various ATMs across the city.

Dad argues this shows that he cannot make the required GAL payments.

However, Dad's bank records also indicate that these ATMs are basing casinos and other gambling establishments.

When questioned by judges as to what the as to these withdrawals, dad concedes that he has a steady income, but states to the court that he does not want to pay the GAL.

He further concedes that he makes monthly withdrawals to gamble.

Because of this, the judge finds that dad is willfully non compliant with the order to pay the GAL and issues a rule against him.

Under the statute, under the statute, the judge will make a finding that such a refusal to abide by the order is willful and consumacious.

Again, this is directly from the code of civil procedure.

The quote, the court will then set what's called a purge, which is a stack payment that will discharge the rule.

Generally, a judge will stay a purge for a period of a month.

So in the case example, the judge sets a purge of $1,250, half the amount of the retainer owed to the GAL and stays commitment or stays arrest for a month.

The judge will then set a status date on the purge for a month and orders dad to return to court in person on the next day for status on whether that $1,250 was paid.

A month later, the parties returned for status on DAC's payment of the purge.

The GAL reports dad has not made the payment.

The judge will review Debt's finances and may decrease the purge.

He will then stay commitment or stay arrest for another few weeks in order debt to return for status to see if he made that purge payment.

This pattern generally continues of continuing the purge and staying commitment for months at a time.

So in most cases, we see judges continue the status of the purge for about six plus months prior to issuing a body attachment.

Body attachment is truly a last resort order, and one that our judges in DRD do not take lightly.

Like I said, I reached out to our judges, and only four responded with one case instance.

The reality is that the parties in these cases are engaged in a private civil suit, and the legislature has authorized the attorneys to seek fees for services rendered in the dispute via the contempt process.

In addition, GALs will often go to great lengths to set up payment claims with litigants to avoid initiating contempt proceedings.

Ultimately, contempt proceedings cost time and money for the attorneys as well as the litigants, and they're not an issue judges take lately lightly, nor something that is used often in our cases.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Um, because of timing, I think we should just do questions from commissioners and tours before we go into our next presentation.

Is that works?

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Dagman.

Thank you, Commissioner Miller.

Thank you for your presentation.

I have a couple questions on the Guardian Line structure.

So county is it's true.

That you follow the federal poverty level limitations.

All counties follow the federal poverty level limitations for a 298 waiver, yes.

Okay, so it looks like my research that for a single person that's $15,960, and then for family four, it's $33,000.

Okay, okay.

So that means if I'm getting divorced and I need a GAL, would I be considered considered single or family?

It's your family size.

So under the federal statute, um, your family size is considered.

So what first has to happen is the living rate goes and they have to file what's called a 298 fee waiver.

The 298 fee waiver is a uh state-level waiver that the Supreme Court issues.

You can find it online, um, and they have to mark their name and then how many people are within their household.

So if they are supporting two kids and themselves and their family of three, if they're supporting their mother and their mother lives with them, um, as well as a child over 18 that lives with them, that's still considered a family of three.

The judge then does a review to determine whether they fall within the federal guidelines and then AP waiver is issued.

A 298 fee waiver is only good for a year, again that's pursued to statutory rules and so rules that the court is required to follow.

So you have to read up that 298 every year.

If a 298 is on file when a GAL is appointed, and the GAL fees are weighed for that person who has a 298 on file.

Okay.

I think I'm focusing more on the amount of money.

So if your family for you have two kids, you're a married couple, you're divorced, and you need or the court says you need a GAL and appoints a GAL.

The GAL is like 7500 to 20,000.

I can't speak to specific GAL.

I'm just I just say I'm just saying what my research has shown.

Okay.

So my point is, and this is not a complaint against you.

I think for the community here who has had um, you know, the amount of dollars that it costs for a GAL is very expensive.

So in consideration, if it's your family of four, you're making a little bit over 33,000 a year, you're not eligible for that fee waiver.

Um, according to your squad, there are some others eligibilities, like you can try to get the me pro bono, but if it's uh 7500 per GAL up to 20,000 per GAL, you're making slightly that doesn't track.

So I guess we've heard from a lot of people historically that the GAL, the amount of money for a GAL that is ordered by the court is more money that they can pay.

And there's been a lot of complaints about that.

So I guess in connection with the advisory committee that is under the Office of Chief Judge, has there been discussions about how to ameliorate that financial burden to a family?

So Commissioner Dagnon and I would direct you to the legislature, the judicial um capacity that we can do is only follow what the legislature puts out, right?

Under the legislative IMDMA and what the legislature decided is that for civil cases.

Um remember it's two private individuals who are litigating the civil lawsuit, right?

So even though it's a divorce, it's still the civil lawsuit, two private individuals are litigating.

Um, and so the legislature decided that GAL fees, child rec fees, and AFC fees are a function of support of the child, which means that they are the ones who really set the fees.

So the only real way that we can adjust a fee structure, the only way that we can adjust how payment works is if the legislature were to amend our um really amend the statute, or if the Illinois Supreme Court were to change their rules.

Understood.

Okay, but when we have laws that are made by our state legislature, and those laws are enforcing as described or is intended, the legislature relies on the people that are implementing and incorporating those laws here from them to say, hey, you know, you guys implemented this law.

This is how it's affecting people in real time.

You might want to consider changing it.

Here's our recommendation.

And every single one of these separately elected at the county have legislative leaders on to do exactly that.

Sure.

And Commissioner Dunning.

Okay.

Yeah, just let me finish my sentence.

So um, I think for this part, the sheer number of people who have come before our board who have come before this meeting, it seems incumbent upon us to have more of a wholesome conversation about what does that really mean?

Like, I didn't know that $33,000 with a federal poverty level, and then the sheer amount of money that it charges that the guardians and light them, which do great work.

Charge, I'm saying those things don't balance out when it comes to that.

So I think maybe this discussion down today should have more represented representatives from the county, maybe from the state legislature, to really toggle that and really get to you know a more reasonable amount of money.

I know um that you know, one of my siblings had a guardian ad light on, and they are a shop, they don't make a lot of money, and it was like they it really put them in a really significantly distressing position, and so I think that's kind of what we've heard county wide, which is one of the reasons why we put this task force together, this identified issues like this, bring them into communities like that and solve them.

So um that's really on the guardian of lightem.

Do you we know how what percentage of cases have a guardian ad litem that are responding to them?

Yes, that was shared in the slide, five percent.

Only five percent of cases have a GAL.

Correct.

Okay, and then um for the criminal, if there's a civil order of protection and a criminal order of protection, right?

Are you talking about a civil order of protection?

Yeah, you had like one of your first slides, it had talked about the criminal the civil order protection.

Sure.

And then you have a criminal order of protection, is that right?

No, there's these are two different functions of the IBDA.

No, no, I'm just saying are there criminal orders of protections that are issued by OCJ?

They are issued in criminal DD cases, yes.

Okay.

So if I get a civil order of protection, then later on I need a criminal order of protection.

How do you bridge that information?

We cannot bridge that gap.

So the um civil order of protection is done by the civil court under the civil code under the RDDA.

So the RDDA has two functions.

They have a criminal function and a civil function.

So the DR court only operates under the civil function of the IDEA.

So the DR court only operates under the civil function of the IDEA if that's pursued to statute well as local rule.

If there is a criminal proceeding, then the state's attorney is responsible for seeking a criminal DB order of protection.

Our judges do not issue criminal orders of protection.

They do not deal in the criminal world.

Okay, those are all my questions.

I do think that we need Commissioner Miller and Allen's, I think that we need to have more conversation about what GAL is fee structures, waivers, and L cancelling a continuous problem.

Thank you, Commissioner Digman.

Okay, I'll do a person to various.

Yes, okay.

Thank you.

Good morning.

Thank you for your presentation.

Let me turn this on.

Good morning.

Thank you for your presentation.

Um, I think you touched on this with Commissioner Um Bridget Debnan, but just so that I can clarify, and if you can just help me better understand, because when there are hundreds and hundreds of victims that are that have order protections and then they're transferred to the domestic relations division, can you walk me through the process and how these fees are considered when the victim is in a dangerous situation or in a divorce when it's not without violence?

How are the can you walk me through that process in terms of like how how are payments prioritized in fees?

I think you're conflating two issues, so I just want to make sure that I understand the question.

Are you trying to delineate between a survivor of domestic violence and the divorce proceeding and a non-survivor?

More of the survivor and a non-survivor, yes.

So kind of under I just want to make sure I understand if you could just walk me through in terms of like when there is an order of protection, how are those fees processed?

All fees are related to 298 fee waiters.

So that is again an Illinois Supreme Court rule, a federal poverty ruling, and a um staff for a ruling.

Now, what I will say is under that IDDA, all fees related to any um DV filing, so any filing related to an EOP, any motions are waived under the statute for petitioners, I believe for respondents as well.

Um so anything related to that person's OP is waived, it's free, nothing is collected.

These related to a GAL, generally a G A L to get a G A L, you need an I and DMA proceeding.

So again, remember that we're working under two different statutes.

So to get a GAL, they only fall under the IMDMA, not the ID DA.

So regardless of whether there's an OP in a proceeding or not, anybody in an IDMA proceeding can have a GAL.

Regardless of your survivor or non-survivor, the fees are um dictated by the IMDMA only.

There's no the legislature has not put in any sort of reference back to the IPDA for us to delineate between a survivor versus non-survivor.

So fees for GALs are under the general um I and DMA fee structure.

So there's no delineation between survivors or non-survivors.

And then can you help me better understand what if there's a situation where there's uh child support?

How are the payments prioritized in a situation like that?

Um trial support is lawyers feel like do the fees go to the child support first or do the lawyers' fees?

Child support is always prioritized by our judges.

Um, additionally, like I said, in the statute, um, GAL fees are considered child support measures, and that was specifically enacted by the legislature under 506B or 506D, I believe, is the specific citation.

Well, thank you for clarifying that.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

I just wanted to go back to another question too.

I don't think there's anyone else.

Do you have what's no okay?

Um, could you go over the grievance process again?

You know, first of all, there's lots of acronyms that are here that I want to make sure everybody understands.

If you could go over the the litigants can file agreements with the ARDC and just for purposes to say what ARDC is again.

ARDC is the attorney registration and disciplinary committee.

So this is a statewide disciplinary committee that um registers and deals with disciplinary issues for attorneys throughout the state.

Okay, so can you just go over when you you clarify the differences for filing a grievance and what that looks like?

Can you just go over that because it's kind of fast if you could just go over it again?

Sure.

So there's three options when there's a grievance.

The litigant can either file an appeal, the appeal goes up to the appellate court, and the appellate court um will make a review of the app issue recommendation that's statutorily um we we cannot review our judges' own, like the PJ can't review her own judges' decisions, only the appellate court is able to review decisions.

So if the litigant feels as though something um was incorrectly done or there was an issue with the GAL's investigation, then they have to file a formal appeal for the appellate court to review.

Um the second way to address the grievance is that the litigant themselves can file a motion to discharge the court appointed attorney.

Um, and the third option is to uh lodge a complaint with the ARBC.

And what are those complaints look like typically?

I can't really speak to an ARBC proceeding.

Um, you would have to speak with an ARDC attorney.

Typically, it goes through a full investigation, it's a full independent investigation.

I just don't have that orange of knowledge, so I don't feel comfortable talking to it.

Okay.

And then once it is filed, do you know what happens to it?

No.

Okay, so that's a whole separate department.

Okay.

Hi, uh, I'm Kate Nolan with the chief judge's office.

Uh, those like the judicial inquiry board, the ARDC complaints are confidential.

There is a state appointed body that hears them and investigate.

Some of them will go to um hearing, but some of them will just be investigated and then um dismissed.

Uh, you generally do not find out the outcome unless you are a party to it, or you somehow it is published.

So when ARDC complaints lead to discipline of attorneys, there will be publishment and public acknowledgement of the outcome, but otherwise the outcome is confidential.

So a judge in a case, if there is an ARDC complaint, might never know the outcome of that unless there was a public acknowledgement on the outcome.

And the state appointed body is in what department?

The the um the myth, the ARDC, that's the ARBC, it's the attorney registration disciplinary committee.

It's for all attorneys in the state of Illinois.

Um, all of us are licensed, registered each year have to comply with the requirements and be in good standing.

So it's essentially making a complaint about whether this attorney should be in good standing to practice law in the state of Illinois.

And so you would you would file a complaint and say the reason why I'm making this complaint is I don't think this attorney practiced in good faith or whatever your complaint is, and you're saying to the ARDC, I don't think this person should continue to practice law in the way.

So outside of the attorneys, is there a review process for the judges?

Is that under ARDC also?

That is not.

So that's under the judicial pinquiry board.

Judicial inquiry board.

Yes, it's a similar process.

So again, it's confidential, it's a state body that um takes in investigations of complaints of judges, investigates them, and will make a determination.

They will make a determination whether to um continue and make a claim against the judge.

The ultimate outcome could be that the judge is removed from the bench.

That's a very rare outcome.

Generally, there will be some method through which the judge can um improve their practice.

So if it's about demeanor or if it's about a certain case, the judge will be given uh instructions on how to approve the demeanor.

And so that will go back and then they will work to essentially um correct the behavior.

But generally, those complaints are confidential.

The judge themselves may not even be aware that there has been a complaint made against them unless there is an investigation that's forwarded to the higher body.

And so the state appointed body is its own separate entity for the judicial inquiry board, and then um how does someone file that?

Is there so there's information online?

So you you simply send an email.

It's it's a it's a simple process, it's really very simple.

You send an email to the judicial inquiry board, you can look online for how to do that.

You send an email and you say, Judge X in my case did this, I think this isn't appropriate.

Will you please investigate?

They will investigate.

Okay.

So I think that that was even during our board meeting that that was something people didn't really know about that process, and that's why we have this task force so we can learn about other processes that people can take advantage of.

So that's good to know.

All right, and then the other thing I wanted to find out more about was I know you said there's the criteria for the appointments of the GAL, so those are the ones that are appointed for those who don't have the ability to pay.

The subject matter has it's for um any appointment, they make all of those considerations when making appointments.

But is the appointment process?

Let's say I know we were talking about the minimum income.

So does the judge decide how much um or that the GAL will be appointed without the ability to pay if someone doesn't have the ability to pay?

Yes.

So if there's a two-night generally aware moves for the appointment of the GAL, so we do have a very high um number of cases that are what we call unequal representation where one person is represented, one person is an SRL.

Um, sorry, I apologize, self-representative again.

Um, they don't have an attorney, and so generally the lawyer will do for a GAL appointment.

At that point, we are like the data reflects for about 2.3 years on average into the life of the case.

So at that point, multiple financial um disclosure statements will be exchanged.

So that's called a 13.3 year financial affidavit that discloses everything in terms of monthly income, debts, um, payments, uh, the child support units that are coming in, maintenance payments that are going out, it discloses everything that's available on the court's website if we'd like to look.

It's a pretty comprehensive document about 14 pages.

Um, the judge has an opportunity to review that.

We also review the docket to see if there's a current unity fee waiver entered on behalf of either party, um, and that's how they meet the appointment sort of recommendations and the fee structure.

I also want to note that um if you are represented by a civil legal service provider, CLSP, so that's people like legal at Chicago, like um Ascend Justice.

If you have a CLSP, your fees are also waived.

Okay.

That helps.

All right, and then last piece I wanted to ask for the for the GALs.

You said that they can waive the written report that goes into the court proceedings.

Only the litigants can waive the written report, yes.

Right.

So how can you just say how would that happen?

Like give an instance on why or how that would happen.

Um, if litigants don't want to have the written report issued, then they can simply ask that the GAL not issued a written report.

The GAL, like I'm thinking about an instance where she self-represented, but again, is here to reach out to the GAL and say we don't want the written report read, we just want to be able to question you at trial.

The GAL would then input a motion to the court to say um it would be something as simple as like motion to wave written report, keep it report and attest under oath that um both parties ask that the report be waived.

Um, the judge will then question both parties and ensure on the record that they do waive the report, and then the judge will just issue an oral ruling, and then in any subsequent trial setting order, there wouldn't be a report turnover deadline.

Thank you.

Um I don't think there's any other questions.

Thank you so much for your very extensive report.

We appreciate it.

Katie, do you want to keep going?

Yes, um, uh, thank you.

Um, our next presenter is Dr.

Phyllis Blesh, she's from Governor State.

Um, we are so excited for her to be here.

Um here.

Oh no, she can go there.

Yeah, uh okay.

Sorry, Dr.

West.

Um over there.

I feel like I'm up here before.

Oh, we can't because we have left.

Yes, yeah, because she won't be able to see them so okay, perfect.

Okay, thank you.

Hi everybody, how are you?

Good morning, good hearing.

Thank you.

Uh it's an honor to be here and to be in this room as a practitioner.

I will first introduce myself, and then I will go into the work that we do at the Governor's State Legal Clinic, which is a pro bono legal clinic, and is three years old.

Again, my name is Dr.

Phyllis West.

I am born and raised in Chicago.

I think that's very important.

And I've worked in Cook County as the assistant health officer for the South and Southwest Suburbs for Cook County Department of Public Health.

I have been in the South Suburbs working since the 90s.

I think this is very important, and specifically my responsibility was doing health planning for 1.2 million people in the suburb.

That is the lens I'm speaking from, is a systems lens and what we see in the different communities, particularly in the southern suburbs.

All right, next slide.

I also want to say before I forget uh in addition to that history.

As I've worked for governing state university since 2008, I trained social.

Many of them are in these courts, as well as working with children and families around domestic violence.

Lastly, I want to publicly acknowledge that a commissioner Dennis Deere was my childhood, and so I come in this room with a dear family in my heart, and through the lens of domex domestic violence very broadly when we talk about the needs.

The history of the legal clinic.

The legal clinic is a part of the social justice initiative.

It is and was a vision of our former president Cheryl Green, who passed in 2025.

Our current president is Dr.

Joyce Bester, and she is from Phoenix, Illinois.

The legal clinic's vision came from President Green, and I am the founding director of the legal clinic.

We opened the legal clinic in June 2023, and it was housed in the library.

From there, September 2024, we had a building established, and we've been in that building since 2024.

This is very important because it is the social justice building in which our community members come to see us in the legal clinic.

For those of you who are not familiar with Governor State University, it is 30 miles south of Chicago, and it resides on the border of Will County and Cook County.

And although we are in Will County, majority of our students and community members who seek help come from Cook County.

Next slide.

Currently we have two part-time attorneys, and we have three pro bono attorneys.

In addition, our staff, our legal clinic is ran by social work interns, faculty, and IT specialists, which are computer science students.

Next the areas in which uh I already talked about the counties, uh, both county, and Kaku Key County, in which we cover also uh serves hundreds of people since we've opened in the last three, just since September, we're at 200 people that we visit uh that we've worked with in the areas of family law, housing, immigration, and expungement and sealing.

Expungement and sealing is our number one request, and it has been very difficult to do that.

The second major request is family law, and that's why we're here today.

Next slide.

The family law cases, they come to us for divorce, order protection, mental health, well-being of relatives, child custody, child support, and guardianship.

The mental health and well-being of relatives is usually around families coming to the clinic to talk about do we hospitalize, do we need to hospitalize our relatives in the house, and we don't know if we're safe, right?

We're seeing a lot of that.

I want to emphasize right here, uh although often when I'm hearing about DV, I only hear about marital couples, but domestic violence, right, involves everybody in the household and the relatives, including the children and what the children see.

This is important because I'm getting phone calls of people asking advice about should I hospitalize my child because I'm uncomfortable and I'm not safe, and if I hospitalize my child and they come home and if they're not on medication, what do I do?

And it's really hard to say you probably can't live with your child because we've seen way too many times, and I just want to remind us the month of April, there were 10 African American women murdered by a family member.

Next slide, please.

When we're looking at family law, and the reason why I say family law is because the cases that you all have talked about are cases that made it to court.

They're coming to explore what is the possibility of what will happen if I make this decision to get a divorce.

What's gonna happen if I go into the domestic violence shelter, and they won't let my older child in there with me.

These are the questions that we sit with.

The lawyers don't sit with these questions.

The social workers sit with this question.

I'm the only trained social worker, and then I get faculty social workers to come in, as well as our interns, and I'm training them, and they're asking the what if questions.

Most of our attorneys really we meet the social workers meet with the community members before the attorneys.

And this is why.

We hear the mental and psychological abuse first.

We see the severe anxiety.

In fact, we are often sitting with them side by side, saying, Let's breathe with you.

We're attending virtual court with them, and they're taking their virtual court sessions in the legal clinic.

I'm emphasizing the tears and the fear and all the anxiety that we're working with them as social workers first before they can get to our attorney because our attorneys have to be have the ability to hear them.

Right?

And you can't hear through the pain.

So we allow them to cry and hold their hands.

We allow them to have a clear focus and write down their agenda for their meeting.

We're seeing young women in their 20s come in and are often children of parents who were involved in domestic violence, and now they're involved in what's called BDSM cases.

Right?

And that's some kind of bondage, sexual abuse.

So we're seeing this, we're seeing domestic violence repeat itself.

And I'm saying that for a reason, as we consider and the need for an alliance in all of the South Suburbs, and not just in Calumet City.

We need this in, we need some type of alliance in the South Suburbs to really help us understand the law.

Honestly, I have a PhD, and I was deeply overwhelmed with hearing the process, and I know that our community members don't understand that language, and they can't fill out this paperwork.

One of our responses at the legal clinic, considering we're just three years in, is that I came up with I designed something called FEMASA, and we also had a DV think tank meeting, a several series of meetings in the Southland.

Next slide.

They don't want to leave us, they want us to walk away.

And just really to also push beyond the psychosocial barriers that they're experiencing.

Our uh interns collaborate also with community with other community organizations, and we do referrals for any other social need they will have that could affect their legal process.

In short, we just want to let them know that they're not alone.

Next slide, please.

This was the last one we had, but we had a series of three of them, and this included, in addition to Governor State staff, Department of Social Work, uh, Dr.

Vicky Coffey, who's retired, but is uh D expert, Dr.

Renee Garvey, who's also and she teaches our domestic violence class, and wants to set up a training.

In addition, we invited Family Rescue, which is in Chicago, as well as a new the chief executive officer of a new lastly Leslie Landis, who works at Loyola and is retired domestic court and administrator.

I know you can't see the slide, but the DD think we just wanted to come together and say how do we work together?

How do we provide further legal services to this population here?

And how do we coordinate where we're not overlapping?

We looked at uh resources that are available.

We definitely looked at Markham.

We know that Anu is working diligently there, but we also know that there's so many other gaps in services to navigate Markham Courthouse, and we have the same complaints in expungement still in the Valmarkle as well.

Next slide, please.

We talked about uh partnerships and our wish lists about intentional collaboration.

This gives back to the notion of an alliance, and a warm handoff.

We've been doing very well with that warm handoff.

Yeah, we get direct calls from a news that hey, we have someone coming over, we're setting up a plan.

Can they come over there?

We do have that in place, but we need the alliance to keep us going because I think everybody's over well doing this work.

I mentioned the D D course and then the internship and training that we're we are training our students because we're looking at a more larger vision of how do we train the next group of DV professionals out here to do this work ongoing.

Next slide.

The recommendations I have from a larger systemic lens is I'm requesting us to look through the lens of a public health person.

A public health lens is very different than what we have done in the past.

Secondly, prioritize Cook County suburbs and value the unique needs of the county suburbs.

Cook County Southland is not like Chicago, it cannot be treated in Chicago.

We will miss it.

The third one is establish an alliance, and we talked about that.

I just I'm almost finished, and I just want to the next slide, please.

That public health lens looks at the largest systemic reasons of families struggling and what that is.

It's a root cause that we want to emphasize, understand social conditions and prevention strategies as well.

Next slide, please.

Everything I've heard today.

Children are watching.

Just last week, woman walked in, Spanish speaking, broken jaw with three children.

They witnessed it all.

What are we doing to prevent domestic violence from the beginning?

What systems do we have in place?

Next slide, please.

Prioritize cook counting.

I already talked about the structural system, uh, implementing funding for education around healthy relationships and healthy families.

Increase access to child visitation service center.

This is vitally important.

But if they're in the middle of a divorce, each one of those divorces could possibly become a domestic violence case easily.

They're usually calling us screening.

Men, women, doesn't matter about gender, everybody's screaming, and they're in a moment of desperation because they're saying we have nothing and every we're losing everything.

The legal clinic has been able to provide a service to calm people down, and to say we will walk through and help you with your post air pro se case.

And you can come back as many times as you want.

We're hoping that we're reducing that anxiety that would hopefully reduce violence.

Next slide, and I think I'm finished.

Because we need to think through what does that look like?

What do all of these different levels look like?

And what is the role of the court?

What is the role of the community?

What is the role of us honoring the voices of families and people who have survived domestic violence and those who did not?

We have to hear that voice.

Every person who walks into the legal clinic is an expert.

We are not.

Thank you, Dr.

West.

Um, any questions?

Other person for us.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you for what you do to help.

Um hearing that you provide this guidance at the center.

I just want to thank you for everything you and everybody at the center and what they do.

How often are you there open to help?

We're open on Fridays and Saturdays.

We take calls during the week, and we schedule them on Fridays and Saturdays for now.

Um we're gonna go to a week schedule Monday through Fridays by the fall because I've been working every Saturday for three years, and we're not doing that again.

But probably once a month, though, but we need to take some of that back so we can take care of ourselves.

And when you mentioned that we need to prioritize the Cook County suburbs, I know you mentioned in your presentation, Calumet City.

What other suburbs are we talking about when you mentioned well?

Thank you, and that's why I started with my former role as Cook County Department Public Health Assistant Health Officer where we did health lighting for 1.2 million people.

I'm talking about Harvey, Markham, Phoenix, Hazelcrest, I'm talking about all the Southland, Madison, we're getting them from all these different places, Blue Island.

We Midlothian, and have enough space for them because there's no place for a transaction to go where if people if a couple is already experiencing hostility and to drop the child off, there's really no place in the area in which they live to do that.

They have to go outside of their communities.

Right?

So if you dislocated my job and you have a right to see your child, do I need to see you?

That's what's happening, and we are traumatizing people by forcing them to see the person who harmed them.

There has to be a better way.

What form do you find yourselves helping them fill out?

Is it an order of protection or what legal forms do you think?

Correct.

What's the different reasons?

Uh community members come for different reasons.

We call them community members because we're not fully representing or they're not paying for service, and they come to uh assist with order protection or guiding them how to get an order protection.

They also come to amend parts of their divorce or different amend court papers in preparation for the next court date.

Some of that means like child support, child custody, visitation, different things via the court requires before they get there the next time.

And can you share with us what are some of the experiences go to services after seeing your son after visiting you?

What what are can you share some of the experience after visiting us?

Yes, and then they go to like a court hearing or other services.

Um before visiting us, and then after last week.

Her spouse soon BX had a lawyer, she did not.

He had support, she did not, and the group of people who came with him was threatening her and bullying her, telling her to drop the charges.

She said I'm alone, he dislocated my jaw, and I'm scared.

I need what to know what to do for the next court.

We pretty much did an assessment to find out who do you have one to support you day to day, and then also before this is before she met with the attorney.

We also talked to her about the different resources and linking her to court a court advocate, in addition to agreeing to walk with her and go to court with her because she should not be alone.

So I'm going to court with her.

And that's where we are with that particular case.

Other cases, one virtual, we would sit next to that person who often had anxiety and was shaking, and I'm doing therapeutic things of helping that person to breathe and to prepare them, and then just sitting there letting them know because they're already prepared for court, right?

They're already they know what they want, they know what how they're gonna articulate it now, even if they don't have an attorney representing them, and they're sitting next to us, and then they're able to walk through it each and every time.

We definitely had some testimonies of getting full custody of their child and not having to share that custody because of the severe domestic violence.

So we've had some wins, and currently we have six court cases.

Well, we have six community members dealing with domestic violence now.

And would you define that situation in family court?

Is that an experience I could be in the court that that's what all of those family court correct?

Well, thank you.

That's all they have.

Thank you.

Um, I was just gonna ask so, Dr.

West, thank you so much for your heart, first of all, in compassion in this area and the great work that you have done at Governor State over the last few years, creating a whole new department and finding the great experts to work there and feeling a need in the Southland has been something that's needed, and you're really coming to the call for action.

And Dr.

Green, who you know I knew also very well, and thank you for her visionary leadership on this.

So, with all of the statistics and things that you've seen already just in a short period of time.

Could you say what's the biggest gap that you're seeing from your office vantage point in the Markham courthouse?

Just pick one.

I'm probably gonna have to pick more than one.

Okay, first I'll start with radical hospitality.

They're rude, and people do not feel safe.

So people don't feel safe because they're not getting their questions answered, or they don't feel like they're being accommodating in that sense, or is it really the physical danger that someone could walk up on them while they're at the courthouse, or all of that?

Markham and Bridgeview, because one of those cases was great to you, uh, in which they had an interaction, and and so I don't that you do raise a point of I don't think they even thought about the fact that this person was coming to court, and then the partner was coming to court with people, and then that harassment that occurred.

I'm sure no one thought of that.

I like to say that whenever you encounter someone, it has starts how we treat them starts when somebody's calling or when they're coming to the door.

And that's why it's that radical, some kind of we call it radical hospitality and we sort of do.

And that is just maybe for people who feel comfortable and and welcome if they have questions.

But if I'm already afraid, and now you're intimidating me, telling me I should know certain things.

It just makes it harder to navigate the space.

And that isolation.

And I'm trying to think of one of the sometimes it's calling and not getting a response.

And I yeah, I don't know specifically for outside of just people not feeling comfortable there.

And uh we again, I don't know.

I know that there have been times I've had challenges calling even with a relationship with a new and trying to get that court advocate over there.

We've talked with a new and other DD specialists about needing more because it's just overwhelming.

They're like I said, they're doing a great job.

I just think it's not enough.

Uh court advocates and support to walk away people, and we leave them alone to do the hardest thing in their lives, and I can't imagine that.

And thank you.

So I think that's also one of the goals of the task force is to identify we have gaps, especially within the different courthouses because they should be seamless, and you know what happens in one should happen at all.

So that's something that we can take into account.

So thanks for that.

The other thing was you mentioned about the um the access for child visitation services and centers.

What does that look like right now in general?

I think there's just one in Melanie.

Okay, and there are not many at all.

There, I don't know of any.

And are police stations another place that um a person could use to for the child visitation services?

Is that an option, or you don't know?

I would be surprised because if we're talking about Cook County Southland, right?

We're talking about different police stations, right?

Different departments, and while I know they have something in Harvey around domestic violence, I don't know if they visitation unless people just agree.

Let's meet at the police station exchange hotel, which sounds really weird, and I wouldn't want that to happen.

That sounds traumatic.

It does think about it.

Yeah, it does.

I just I I thought that I I thought that that was uh, and that's something else we can look into.

I don't know if anyone knows specifically here yet, but that's something else we can look into because right that would traumatize a child to go to a police station to meet their um any other questions.

No, thank you so much for your presentation.

That was great.

All right, appreciate it.

Thank you.

Do you want to try to we did have a public speaker who is is he connected now?

And I think Joseph, are you able to unmute yourself?

Yes, I am yes, I am.

Okay, great.

We can hear you.

If you could just uh begin your public comment.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, everybody.

My name is Joseph, and I'm here to speak plainly about what I've seen and what I know.

I'm a retired superintendent from the sheriff's office, and I oversaw jail receiving classification, parts of administration, and most importantly, the records division.

I work daily with court orders, commitment documents, and the enforcement of those orders, not theory, not policy on paper, real people being taken into custody based on what comes out of the court system.

So I'd like to start by clearing up something right away.

There seems to be doubt whether people have actually been taken into custody on GAL orders for not paying attorney's fees.

That is inaccurate.

They have been uh incarcerated and they've been there, and there have been more than just four in over my 30 years of service to Cook County.

Both men and women have been held in custody on these orders and labeled with failure to comply with court orders, unpaid fines, and failure to pay child support.

That is fact.

Now we need excuse me.

Now we need to look at how and why this happens, especially on the civil side when it comes to civil body attachment orders, particularly those who are connected to the Guardian Lightem fees.

I have serious concerns.

The system is supposed to protect the victims, but in some cases it's doing the opposite.

They could be put at risk for a body attachment order that creates fear and it creates hesitation.

It could stop someone from fully engaging in the process, even when they're acting in good faith.

And this is where it becomes even more concerning.

Under Illinois law, GAO fees can be treated and enforced in a manner similar to child support obligations.

That gives those fees a level of enforcement power that most of their private debts or attorney fees simply do not have.

So now you have a situation where person who cannot afford these fees can be exposed to enforcement measures that include custody.

No other private attorney and any other area of practice operates with that level of enforcement behind their fees.

That raises a serious question of fairness.

But in most financial situations, we do not just we do not jail people over debt.

We use collections.

Yet here, financial non-compliance can lead to custody.

That inconsistency matters, and it matters extremely in cases where there are victims concerned.

And then we need to ask now why is this allowed?

Okay.

In addition to that, there are other steps that need to be taken.

Okay.

The documents themselves are also part of the cause.

We are dealing with orders that are difficult to read, sometimes copies of copies incomplete.

They're relying on check boxes, clerks shorthand, and leave way too much to interpretation.

In some cases, private attorneys are filling out the forms that should be completed by the clerk's office, introducing errors from the start, and they carry all the way through to enforcement.

That's not paperwork.

That's a system failure.

Because once those orders are enters, they move to enforcement.

Now you have deputies who are handling these orders, are expected to act on them in good faith.

They are expected to interpret what is written, even when they are unclear and they have to make decisions that can result in someone being taken into custody.

When some things go wrong, the sheriff's office takes the blame, and the breakdown uh is there.

Let me be clear.

Law enforcement does not create these orders.

They are given them.

The system is not lacking awareness, it is lacking coordination, collaboration, and accountability.

Too often the response from all of our departments is that's not my job.

Departments operate in silos, and the ownership of the outcome gets lost.

This has to change for the sake of the victims and their children.

We are all here to protect people, especially those who cannot protect themselves.

The responsibility does not stop at department lines.

If we are serious about that, we need real collaboration, real clear communication, and consistent court orders, not passing the book.

The truth is the system is broken, and everybody in this room owns a piece of that.

And I ask everybody to move forward.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That can future public speakers.

Okay.

Um I think is there a public speaker who was not who was called earlier who might be in the room now.

Do you want to call them again?

Sure.

Uh Brittany Riley.

Okay, thank you.

Brittany Riley.

Hello, everyone.

I'm a resident in the South Land region.

The Mess of Violence has a has a wide variety of victims.

Victims need support to overcome abuse.

The South Suburban part of Cook County.

Many nonprofits do not have the resources to offer services to assist victims.

Resources are allocated for abusers to go to jail, but not for our victims.

Victims need a need immediate support.

Support prevents and significantly reduces the lackingness of repeat abuse or debt.

We need housing, emergency, transitional, temporary, and permanent, clothing and pool, financial assistance.

We need help with schools, restrictions and relocating children.

We need counseling for individuals and families.

We need medical support, which is medicine and equipment.

We need vital records, which is IDs, birth certificate, vital records, medical documentation.

We need transportation or to eliminate barriers with bus passes, Ubers or safe passages.

We need EMS, we need uh emergency medical police and services to be trained and how to intervene properly.

We need advocates, attorneys, park is we need supervised business, escort support.

We need to shift the mindset on domestic violence to those who are handling or servicing individuals, shift the mindset of victims to create environments that are healthy, safe supportive, imposter self-development.

The crisis center for South Suburbates of Urb has limited capacity for families depending on the size, ages and um sizes, age, and genders, placing children and shelters that are far from their home, creates a transportation barrier for children to get school.

School districts deny enrollment based on whether children are displaced and preferred students to stay enrolled in schools where they live, which can lead them to being stopped, kidnapped, abused, accused, increase, increase in uh parents, especially not custodians.

Um, and there are increased in parents, especially non-custodian parents and um killing their children.

So we need support in the South Subverse.

And I'm speaking from a victim um point of standpoint.

My child was abused and it sent me into a whole array of things I didn't think I had to interact with the police with DCFS judicial system.

I had to educate her and um make sure she had a phone and things of that nature, so we just need help in the house of her.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Cassandra Taylor Bridges.

Are you in the room?

Yeah, no, Dr.

Latoya Gloss Clinton Washington, Jessica Jackson.

Um thank you very much for um allowing me to public speak.

Um this is a very, very serious um discussion and a serious panel.

Domestic violence is a real issue that a lot of people deal with.

I did uh a volunteer uh Bible study in domestic Bible shelters some years ago.

It was called the Genesee Center in California, and it was started by four black women, and the center was disguised as a preschool, and it was for 30 days, uh 30-day program for the women to transition.

And one of the troubling things was that the parameters that we gave the women to operate within in order to get the help that they needed to transition out of their um violence situation into a safer situation.

The problem a lot of times is that the women would not concede to the rules.

That happens a lot where you tell them that they can't be in contact with their abuse and they can't be in contact, even sometimes with their jobs if they really want to get away from a situation, can't be away, they can't um be in contact with their current employer.

So for a lot of women, that's challenging to just really turn over a whole new leaf like that, but it has to be an X amount of determination within that individual to make that change, right?

So to see these type of programs and stuff like this is very good because it's a service that's needed.

It's needed for men too.

You know, a lot of men are getting abused, and we're not talking about that.

But the reality is a lot of these women are very aggressive, they're very aggressive.

And the fact that you know, I had a father, he wasn't abusive, but I'm just saying I had a father, I got a son.

He's not abusive, but the reality is men have issues in relationships as well, not just women, and so with this thing with domestic violence, too.

It needs to be handled properly by the county because I'm sure like Alderman Taberas and uh Commissioner uh Miller have heard me talk about the situation with my property and how we're in my property by way of the public administrator telling them to squat.

Okay, remember I said that that situation turned violent.

30 seconds, right?

The the basement tenant attacked my daughter, me and my daughter, the public administrators and idol, they took that case out of the file, so that that prosecution could not go forth against that tenant.

If they did that to me, they doing it to other people.

You don't do that, you don't take the cases out of court.

You let those people get prosecuted when they do domestic violence because this is serious, okay.

So thank you for uh allowing me to speak.

Thank you very much.

George Blake Moore.

And I used to read the paper, and uh I would see things happening and uh independent.

And I would say, oh, that's a white man, a white cry.

Oh black people didn't have all that domestic value.

But today, when I read the paper, I say, uh somebody, a man uh killed so many children and his wife.

I said, oh, that's a white man.

Black people don't do things like that.

Now it's happening to us.

We're assimilating into something that was not in our culture.

We had other problems.

I say, oh no, I think that's a white cry.

And it's why.

How people didn't do that.

Because we had the legacy of crazy.

We had all the problems.

Now we are the white people here.

Right here.

With that commissioner.

And and and white.

And the we're picking up the bad head.

So we are triggering to be bad, both happy.

And when we hear he has cry.

That's a white man.

That committed that crack.

No, no, no, no, no, not today, Mr.

Blake Moore.

He's a black.

We are picking up the white meeting.

One minute.

They're meant to crack.

They're mean and slave and do all kind of things.

Black people didn't do that.

And then I'll shoot my father.

So this assimilation had been good for us.

We're picking up these ugly, ugly, mean white folk.

We are trimming!

We will never do that!

Go about three minutes up!

I used to read the paper.

I got a white man committed crack.

No, no, no, no, no, no.

These king of cries now about black people.

Oh black people.

So that tribulation has been bad for us.

We have other issues.

Slavery.

Not turning on each other.

Get out of here, shit, too.

And your time is up.

Thank you.

Thank you for the public testimony.

So I don't think we have any other uh presentations now before this uh committee.

So I will move to adjourn.

Seconded by other person.

Second, all in favor of adjournment, say aye.

All opposed say nay.

Now this meeting is adjourned.

Thank you all for your time and attention today.

I appreciate you being here.

Thank you.