Do you need help getting back your suspended or revoked driver's license? The Cook County Public Defender's Office is proud to co-host the seventh installment of the Driver's License Reinstatement Expo. The expo is September 17 at Malcolm X College and volunteer attorneys from our office will participate.
News
Assistant Public Defenders Margaret Armalas and Megan Tomlinson discuss the shocking pattern of racist enforcement of gun possession laws in Chicago in an op-ed published in the Chicago Tribune.
Mitchell is the public defender for Cook County, which includes Chicago, a city with some of the strictest gun laws in the country. Growing up on the South Side, Mitchell was raised to believe that guns are dangerous and harmful, a view that was reinforced by his experiences as a public defender and gun control advocate. But those experiences have also led him to believe that gun-permitting laws are harmful, as he explains to Lulu Garcia-Navarro in this episode of the New York Times First Person podcast.
False alarms involving electronic monitors are a huge issue for clients of the Cook County Public Defender's Office who are placed on house arrest while awaiting trial. The consequences can be very serious, including being put in jail or charged with a crime. The Chicago Reader and The Triibe looked into this issue.
Dozens of children have been unjustly held in the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center even though judges ordered them released. That is because the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services says it has nowhere to send them. Andrea Lubelfeld, Chief of our Juvenile Division, spoke out about the problem in a story for WBEZ.
In a historic step, attorneys from the Cook County Public Defender's Office Immigration Unit Pilot have begun representing immigrants in bond hearings and removal proceedings before the Chicago Immigration Court.
We spent a day on the road with veteran investigator Alicia Stewart to find out all about her inspiring work for the Cook County Public Defender's Office. Alicia's story is the first in an occasional series of stories we will be sharing about the work of our office.
Op-ed published April 7, 2022 in the Chicago Sun-Times.
Civil asset forfeiture is a tool ripe for abuse. It raises civil liberties concerns and offers little public safety value. It would be a step backward for Chicago after other jurisdictions have abandoned or reformed such tactics.
Community groups join ACLU and Cook County Public Defender urging City of Chicago to drop plan for new civil asset forfeiture powers