Stand down from red alert: Associate judge process to "reconvene" in April

The Nominating Committee of the Circuit Court of Cook County decided today to reconvene the Associate Judge selection process in April.

The Nominating Committee took this action to avoid overlap with the March primary in which several applicants for Associate Judge are also running for Circuit Judge, and to avoid a scheduling conflict with the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts’ mandatory Education Conferences that judges will attend in February and April.

While Circuit Judges are elected by the public, Associate Judges are appointed by the Circuit Judges in a selection process conducted by the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts. For this selection process, Circuit Judges will see 34 names on their ballots and will select 17 candidates. The 17 candidates who receive the most votes will become Associate Judges.

A total of 272 licensed attorneys originally submitted applications for consideration for the 17 Associate Judge vacancies and underwent evaluations by several bar associations. The bar associations’ evaluations concluded in December.

This month, the Nominating Committee interviewed 248 applicants, as 20 withdrew from the process and four did not appear for their interviews. Interviews concluded today, and the Nominating Committee will reconvene in April to select 34 finalists.

All Circuit Judges who will vote in the Associate Judge selection process must attend one of two state-mandated judicial education conferences on February 5-9 and April 9-13. If the Nominating Committee was to move forward with selecting the Associate Judge finalists, the timing of the conference would limit the Circuit Judges’ ability to personally meet with the 34 would-be Associate Judge finalists before the Circuit Judges cast their ballots.