https://www.injusticewatch.org/news/courts/2021/cook-county-clerk-of-court-foia-transparency/

Circuit Court Clerk touts transparency with new bill. Critics say it’s not what she promised.

ByJosh McGhee|April 7, 2021

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Alex Nitkin for The Daily Line

Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Iris Martinez speaks at a press conference at the Daley Center on Wed., April 7.

Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Iris Martinez has walked back a campaign pledge to give the public more access to records from her office under the state’s Freedom of Information Act.

The clerk is the official record keeper for the Circuit Court and is responsible for collecting and distributing tens of millions of dollars in court fines and fees. But the agency is not subject to the state’s open record laws. That exclusion means the public has largely been kept in the dark about the operations and funding of one of the largest unified court systems in the country.