Cook County Record

At The Cook County Record, our mission is to provide thorough coverage of Cook County's legal landscape, empowering you, our readers, to stay informed about public affairs. Cook County's courts are known for their complexity and unique challenges. They have gained a reputation as a hub for mass torts, asbestos lawsuits, and substantial financial awards, earning the label of a “judicial hellhole.” Our aim at The Record is to present a balanced perspective on these issues while offering a space for diverse viewpoints. We want to ensure that everyone can form their own opinions based on the information we provide. We invite your input! If you have thoughts to share, please reach out with your story suggestions, press releases, letters to the editor, or guest articles. We are eager to publish them. We are committed to maintaining fairness and impartiality in our reporting and will strive to keep personal or political biases out of our news coverage. The Record operates under the ownership of the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform.

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IL high court: State OK to restrict constitutional challenges to state laws solely to Chicago, Springfield courts

4 days ago | cookcountyrecord.com | Jonathan Bilyk

Illinois' ruling Democrats can continue to enforce a state law making it more difficult for Illinois residents to challenge the constitutionality of state laws in court, after the Illinois Supreme Court turned away a challenge and left in place the law forcing people to file such constitutional challenges in state courts in either Chicago or Springfield.
IL high court: State can limit constitutional challenges to Chicago, Springfield courts

4 days ago | cookcountyrecord.com | Jonathan Bilyk

Illinois' ruling Democrats can continue to enforce a state law making it more difficult for Illinois residents to challenge the constitutionality of state laws in court, after the Illinois Supreme Court turned away a challenge and left in place the law forcing people to file such constitutional challenges in state courts in either Chicago or Springfield.
Oak Park violated federal law in banning natgas in new homes, other buildings: Lawsuit

5 days ago | cookcountyrecord.com | Jonathan Bilyk

Chicago's suburb of Oak Park has been hit with a lawsuit, seeking to strike down that village's ban on the installation of natural gas-powered appliances in all new homes and buildings.
Counties ask judge to rope IL state govt, private 'tax buyers' into class action over property tax 'takings'

6 days ago | cookcountyrecord.com | Jonathan Bilyk

As class action lawsuits mount on behalf of homeowners who claim they unconstitutionally lost their homes and equity over unpaid property taxes, Chicago's collar counties, along with others, have asked a judge to force the state government that created the potentially unconstitutional tax laws and private investors who profited from the system to help the counties wear the blame and foot the bill for the potential coming payout.
IL Sup Ct to decide if insurers can avoid covering companies hit with lawsuits over permitted emissions

1 week ago | cookcountyrecord.com | Jonathan Bilyk

The Illinois Supreme Court will weigh in on the question of whether insurance companies can use so-called "pollution exclusions" to sidestep possible obligations to help companies like medical device sterilizer Sterigenics pay big settlements to end floods of lawsuits related to the companies' emissions, even when those emissions never exceeded any legal limits.
New filing: 'Whistleblowers' can back fraud, racketeering claims vs Simmons, other asbestos lawsuit firms

1 week ago | cookcountyrecord.com | Jonathan Bilyk

A Los Angeles-based pipemaker is seeking to revive its racketeering claims against some of America's most prominent filers of asbestos lawsuits, introducing what it calls new testimony from alleged whistleblowers who can substantiate the company's claims that firms including Simmons Hanly Conroy have used fraud to secure verdicts and settlements worth potentially billions of dollars in allegedly wrongly filed asbestos cases.
Activist groups seek to force $105K penalty vs Townstone, even though feds say case motivated by censorship

1 week ago | cookcountyrecord.com | Jonathan Bilyk

A group of left-wing activist groups have moved to block the Trump administration from refunding more than $100,000 in penalties paid by Chicago area mortgage broker Townstone Financial, saying the administration lacks the authority under the law to undo a deal that ended a regulatory action intended to punish Townstone for comments the brokerage's executives made on the radio - even though federal officials now say that action was the result of unconstitutional targeting over disfavored speech.
Judge blocks Trump Labor Dept anti-DEI funding rules

1 week ago | cookcountyrecord.com | Jonathan Bilyk

A Chicago federal judge has partially blocked the Trump administration's Labor Department from cutting off federal funds to organizations that promote so-called "diversity, equity and inclusion" in the workforce, because to do so, the judge said, would violate those groups' constitutional rights to promote DEI intiatives, which the Trump administration has called illegal discrimination on behalf of non-white, non-male and LGBTQ individuals. On April 14, U.S. District Matthew F.
23 states: IL, Chicago 'sanctuary' laws incentivize illegal immigration, 'spills' burden onto other states, rest of U.S.

2 weeks ago | cookcountyrecord.com | Jonathan Bilyk

The so-called "Sanctuary" policies of Illinois and Chicago shielding illegal immigrants from federal immigration enforcement have created a system that incentivizes illegal immigration to the U.S., violating the principles of the nation's founding charter and placing a heavy burden on the entire country, and must be ordered to end, a coalition of 23 states have said in court.
City Council committee rejects $1.25M for family of Dexter Reed, who shot at cops

2 weeks ago | cookcountyrecord.com | Jonathan Bilyk

The family of Dexter Reed, a black man killed by police after he opened fire on officers when they stopped his car, will not get $1.25 million from Chicago city taxpayers under a settlement backed by Mayor Brandon Johnson, after a narrow majority of the Chicago City Council's Finance Committee rejected the deal. On Friday, April 11, the Finance Committee voted 15-12 against the settlement, meaning it will not advance to the City Council for a vote from the city's full collection of aldermen.