Secrecy in court for the rich and powerful
Cook County judges have helped the wealthy, well-known and well-connected to keep their family matters hidden while using the public's courts, according to a Tribune investigation. (Posted: April 27, 2013)
Cook County judges have helped the wealthy, well-known and well-connected to keep their family matters hidden while using the public's courts, according to a Tribune investigation.
The Tribune has found that judges in the Domestic Relations Division have allowed Cook County Commissioner John Fritchey and the billionaire CEO of SC Johnson to use their initials to hide their divorces. Other times, judges have taken court secrecy a step further, and ordered entire files sealed and locked in a vault.
In those sealed files are details about the lives of Chicago Ald. Ricardo Munoz, as well as a millionaire lawyer and the mother of former Chicago Bear Brian Urlacher's child, among others. After inquiries from the Tribune, the judge who sealed Urlacher's ex-lover's divorce case said he made a mistake and moved to make it public.
"If you avail yourself of the court system, you have to pay the price of it being public,” said Nancy Chausow Shafer, president of the Illinois chapter of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. “If we start making exceptions for the rich and famous, it creates a dual court system, which goes against our populist belief of what a court should be, which is really justice for all without distinguishing between the rich and poor.”
The Tribune has found that judges in the Domestic Relations Division have allowed Cook County Commissioner John Fritchey and the billionaire CEO of SC Johnson to use their initials to hide their divorces. Other times, judges have taken court secrecy a step further, and ordered entire files sealed and locked in a vault.
In those sealed files are details about the lives of Chicago Ald. Ricardo Munoz, as well as a millionaire lawyer and the mother of former Chicago Bear Brian Urlacher's child, among others. After inquiries from the Tribune, the judge who sealed Urlacher's ex-lover's divorce case said he made a mistake and moved to make it public.
"If you avail yourself of the court system, you have to pay the price of it being public,” said Nancy Chausow Shafer, president of the Illinois chapter of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. “If we start making exceptions for the rich and famous, it creates a dual court system, which goes against our populist belief of what a court should be, which is really justice for all without distinguishing between the rich and poor.”
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-court-secrecy-story,0,3130945.story
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