I had an interest in a court case in Will County and thought I'd look at their website to see whether I could access anything there. Here's what I got. $240 for access to their website but I can get a special deal for $300 to access a host of other counties, including Champaign. WAHOO!
I understand that there are more than a few problems with JANO, some of which were discussed here. But we ought to appreciate the fact that Linda Frank didn't buckle under the pressure to join this cabal of counties who charge outrageous fees for the most basic public information.
When will someone start asking questions about the JANO system boondoggle? Just exactly how much cash has changed hands,why doesn't it work, and have attorneys been retained yet to sue the JANO folks? Is $3 million for something that doesn't work not enough to raise eyebrows?
The News Gazette is busy covering sweet corn festivals and 50th wedding anniversaries, so their apathy on this is understandable.
I'm hearing now that the Champaign County Circuit Clerk's office is contacting people who have already paid their fines for cases that settled with an agreed disposition with the State's attorney's office as much as a year ago and is telling these people, who were ordered to pay their fines within 30 days, that the amounts that the individuals paid (the amounts that they were told by the circuit clerk's staff at the window in the Courthouse) were actually not the right amounts, and now, either money is being refunded (not a terrible thing), or they are required to pay more because the fees were not accurately calculated. I don't know yet if the individual's licenses are going to get taken away or if the State's attorney's offices is going to try to re-prosecute the individuals because they didn't pay their fines within the 30 days, but this seems like just another example of the problems more and more people have with the Champaign County Circuit Clerk.
In most other counties you can walk from the courtroom to the Circuit Clerk's office right after a case is resolved and the Circuit Clerk can calculate the court costs. That has not been possible in Champaign County, where calculating court costs has seemed to involve Tarot cards and the entrails of chickens.
It may not be the circuit clerk's fault, but this county's justice system is broken and something needs to be done. It would help if Frank, Walsh, Difanis, Rietz, Beckett and a few others went to Allerton for a long weekend and sang Kumbaya whilst figuring out how to work together like adults.
With regards to the Circuit Clerk's website - the case lookup is not "live" but at best a day old, the courtroom calendars have not been updated since June 30, and the courthouse phone listing is horribly out of date (at least three of the department heads listed have long ago moved on, several of the departments are in new locations and the county board member list is not current).
While the fee charged for Multi-Court is outrageous you do get a "live" case lookup and not day old data.
Bob Loblaw
Sangamon County recently abandoned the use JANO. I hope our folks here talked with their counterparts in Springfield to find out why.
The federal court system has a very well developed electronic case management and retrieval system in place. Since Illinois procedures differ from those in the federal courts, some changes would be needed, but I'd like to see if the feds would license their system. It would probably have to be done on a statewide basis, which would require some action by the General Assembly, so that's probably not in the cards.
but this seems like just another example of the problems more and more people have with the Champaign County Circuit Clerk.
Nice to see Kimmy Hooper taking swipes at Linda Frank on this site. It's too bad Kimmy can't coherently string together words to form a sentence.
"Nice to see Kimmy Hooper taking swipes at Linda Frank on this site. It's too bad Kimmy can't coherently string together words to form a sentence."
First of all, not every anonymous poster is someone we all know. Alleging an identity without proof or even a coherent argument is no better than making anonymous allegations without evidence. Pot, kettle.
Second, I found the sentences to be quite coherent, even if a tad run on. Would you care to address their subject matter directly, or is warrantless character assassination your only skill?