Illinois Supreme Court makes changes amid 'staggering' increase in pretrial appeals over detention

This change, though, elicited “negative feedback” from trial judges, the report said, who noted that this would add to their dockets.

“We do not overlook the fact that trial courts have borne much of the burden of implementing the PFA in our court system; we would never contrive to put upon them some exotic new requirement,” the report said, adding that the change is in line with how bond decisions were previously appealed. “But this is not a contrivance, and it is not new; it is a return to the norm.”

The court also will now only allow “one-at-a-time” appeals, meaning that parties cannot appeal a new detention decision by a judge if a previous appeal is in the works. The Pretrial Fairness Act provides that detention decisions are reviewed during subsequent court dates, so defendants could file multiple appeals in the same case, clogging up the system.

The change would “incentivize strategic thinking by trial counsel about which detention rulings to appeal,” the report said.

Among other changes, the court requires notification within 24 hours if the appeal becomes moot due to a resolution in the case, as well as the elimination of the 14-day deadline to file, reasoning that people are rushing into decisions about whether to appeal due to the deadline.

The Pretrial Fairness Act, part of a broad array of criminal justice reforms passed as part of the SAFE-T Act, abolished cash bail as a potential condition for release and changed the way pretrial hearings are conducted.

Proponents of the law have long argued that cash bail deepened disparities in the system by disproportionately jailing people too poor to make bail. In addition to the bail measure, the law also seeks to even the playing field for defendants up for their first court appearance, with more robust hearings and opportunities to evaluate the evidence more closely.

The cash bail measure has been controversial for those concerned about the public safety impact of the provisions — particularly Republicans. Opponents of Gov. J.B. Pritzker have sought to paint him and his Democratic allies as weak on crime — though studies of bail reform measures in other jurisdictions have not shown a significant effect on recidivism or failure by defendants to appear in court.

Lawmakers delayed implementation for two years so jurisdictions could prepare for the changes, and it was further stalled by a lawsuit from prosecutors across Illinois who challenged the law’s constitutionality.

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