Court restructure may harm children

Recently I attended a meeting convened by the presiding judge of the Child Protection Division of the Circuit Court of Cook County. We were informed that the county board is funding the hiring of three public defenders to create a new Multiple Defendant Unit in the Child Protection Division at a cost of $250,000, which is being removed from the chief judge’s budget and shifted to the public defender with no reduction in the Cook County budget.

The Cook County Board is apparently ordering that beginning April 4 all new conflict cases will no longer be referred to the Conflict Bar Panel composed of approximately 70 private attorneys until 500 new cases have been referred to this new public defender panel. Each new public defender will have a caseload of a 166 files, which more than doubles the existing public defender caseload. The plan is to increase the unit to 20 attorneys, which would exceed the current cost of the existing Conflict Bar Panel which has successfully represented residents in child protection cases for decades.

This radical change in the way these cases are handled will remove the experienced private attorneys who do not have medical and pension costs attached to their compensation and substitute three public defenders who will have an overwhelming caseload involving children that must be resolved by law on an expedited basis. This change has not been clearly thought out and rushed through in the last few days, which may result in injury or tragedy to children in Cook County.

This fundamental change in the administration of justice will create numerous problems and a sharp increase in costs to Cook County.

Gilbert C. Schumm

Elk Grove Village