Side by side, husband and wife stand before a judge, their demeanor formal. In an echo of the ceremony that joined them years before, they say “I do,” only this time it’s in answer to a judge’s inquiry about their understanding of their marital dissolution.
Afterward, they walk down the aisle for the last time, through a courtroom filled with others waiting to do the same. There is a bright spot in the serious proceedings, however-the courthouse is close to home.
Since May, the Cook County Circuit Court Domestic Relations Division, more commonly called divorce court, has provided this service to the south suburbs in Bridgeview’s 5th Municipal District. Dissolution of marriage can be just as wrenching in Bridgeview as in downtown Chicago, but it’s more likely that suburban litigants may run into their judge at the local deli.
“I feel like a small-town judge because I am even more accountable to what I say and do on the bench,” said Associate Judge Susan Snow, who has spent 12 years in Cook County’s Domestic Relations Court at the Daley Center in Chicago and is the only designated domestic relations judge in Bridgeview. “Some people like to go to work and be anonymous. But I make many decisions for people out here. And it’s very likely that I’ll bump into those in my cases at the local grocery store.
“If I make a ruling someone won’t like, the inspiration to me is to make sure every word and act will be respected and will ensure their dignity. I want them to say, `I may not like what you did, but I was treated fairly.’ “
The 5th District provides full judicial services for residents of 23 southwest suburbs in Lyons, Lemont, Palos, Worth, Orland and Stickney Townships who are seeking dissolutions, child support, custody, visitation rights and orders of protection, among other services. Before May, only uncontested dissolutions could be filed and adjudged in Bridgeview. Uncontested cases are of two types: Default, where the respondent either doesn’t appear in court or doesn’t wish to participate in the proceedings; or stipulated, when both parties appear in court, participate in the proceedings and reach an agreement.
Of the six districts in the Cook County Circuit Court system, only Bridgeview and Rolling Meadows (3rd District) have the pilot program. The option remains to file dissolution cases downtown, especially if one of the parties objects to filing in the suburban courts. Increasingly, however, ligitants have opted to save travel time for themselves and their attorneys, and the related expenses involved.
Between May and November, about 700 cases were filed in Bridgeview. Snow said she handles an average of 20 cases each on Mondays and Thursdays in Courtroom 106, with other days devoted to conferences for pretrial, settlement and child custody. In some cases, she holds informal hearings and conferences in her chambers or a meeting room where clients can talk without the restraints of a formal cross-examination or trial.
It’s “a more rational pace” than when she worked at the overburdened Daley Center, said Snow. The downtown courtrooms field six judicial teams, each consisting of one preliminary judge and four trial judges. Those downtown teams hear a combined total of nearly 300 domestic relations cases a day.
“Here I can think more and exchange more with the people without measuring every second I’m spending on their case,” Snow said of her move to Bridgeview. “When I was downtown, I would see people literally pack the courtroom, and I would feel like I was in the middle of the tension between the people in front (stating their cases) and those waiting their turn in the back.”
Snow, 47, who grew up in Chicago’s Beverly neighborhood and graduated from Morgan Park High School, lives in a south suburb with her husband of two years, plumbing contractor Bill Erickson, and her two stepsons, Matt, 22, and Luke, 19. Divorced for 10 years before her marriage to Erickson, Snow has amassed plentiful experience that has prepared her for the Bridgeview assignment.
After graduation from the University of Illinois-Champaign in 1968, she taught English and Russian for two years at Rich East High School and graduated from IIT/Chicago Kent with a law degree in 1973. She specialized in title searches with two local companies and practiced real estate law with her father, attorney Lendol Snow of Alsip. Handling real estate cases led her interest to dissolution cases, especially when so many couples were splitting their marriages as well as their properties.
When she joined the Cook County Circuit Court bench about 13 years ago, she spent the first 10 months in traffic court, then moved to domestic relations in downtown Chicago.
“The custody of children has to be the most intense judicial experience,” Snow admitted. “That can humble the judge the most. You have such a direct impact on the child’s life and on the parent’s life. You never forget once you get immersed in a family’s life and have given them a specific direction in their life.”
Snow presides over what she prefers to call family court with Kim Wilson of Darien, who coordinates cases with the downtown Chicago court, secretary Karen Carroll of Willow Springs and court clerk Ed Zolna. Zolna, of Midlothian, has been a clerk in Chicago’s domestic relations division for 21 years and lauds the pace of the Bridgeview court.
“People are sure they can get their cases heard here. Sometimes we can get them on the calender and in the court within a week,” he said.
If a dissolution is uncontested, an attorney can file the case on a Thursday, get on the court’s call for Monday and if the case is simple, receive a judgment within a week. If the case has complications, such as disputes over alimony or child support, the dissolution could take months, depending on the parties involved and the judicial calendar for handling related meetings and conferences.
“As compared to downtown, I have found it much less stressful here,” Zolna said. “We’re working with a lighter volume right now, and there’s an easy-going manner here.”
Of course relieving the caseload of the downtown Chicago courtroom doesn’t necessarily change the emotions of the individuals who break up their marriage and their south suburban homes. One young woman (several litigants on a recent day preferred anonymity) held back tears while standing before Snow. In the back of the courtroom, her parents watched as their daughter dissolved her marriage, divided her property and reverted to her maiden name all within a span of about 15 minutes.
Such quick action drew the praise of several people who came before Snow. “I didn’t want to go downtown. It was more convenient here,” said Noelle Elm of Alsip, who was before Snow to obtain a dissolution and arrange for visitation rights for her daughter.
JoAnn Gorecki of Orland Park filed for an uncontested dissolution from her husband Raymond, who was not in attendance. “It certainly saves time driving downtown, and it’s quicker here,” Gorecki said.
Said attorney John Landry of LaGrange, who recently handled a dissolution case in Bridgeview: “We’re finding that the epicenter of power is moving from downtown Chicago to the suburbs. You can even see that when many big law offices establish satellite offices in the suburbs.”
Jim Riley, a Hickory Hills resident and former president of the Southwest Bar Association in Orland Park, worked with other suburban bar associations to persuade Cook County Circuit Court’s recently retired Chief Judge Harry Comerford; Judge Benjamin Mackoff, who presides over Cook County’s domestic relations division; and Bridgeview’s presiding judge, Anthony Montelione, of the need for the full-service divorce court in the suburbs. After several meetings, the agreement was reached and the facilities were provided.
“Bridgeview has 21 courtrooms, and some of the rooms weren’t being used,” Riley said. “That was a bone of contention. We have the facilities available, why aren’t they all being used? Judge Mackoff seemed receptive from the beginning, and we were certainly delighted to get Judge Snow.”
Riley, whose own legal practice based in Hickory Hills consists of 60 percent domestic cases, said it will take about a year to dispose of pending cases and convert his practice to Bridgeview. “The last thing some of these people here need is expensive attorney’s fees and being dragged into the Loop all the time. We just don’t have enough time in the day once you battle traffic, find parking, reach the courtroom and end up spending hours in the hallways and get very little judicial time. Why should I go downtown all the time when my clients are in the south suburbs?”
Judge Mackoff said the pilot program will be evaluated after a year to determine if the divorce court will remain a permanent fixture in the suburbs.
“We hope it will be well-accepted. After all, it provides a convenient location for the litigants who live or work in that area, and it certainly takes away from the heavy load downtown,” Mackoff said.
If the Bridgeview pilot program continues, it could inspire another such full-service divorce court for the 6th District in Markham, fulfilling the wish of Presiding Judge Sheila Murphy.
Murphy said she is “very eager to have the full-service divorce court. We have some of the poorest people in the country living here. But whether they’re poor or rich, they have to endure a great inconvenience to travel to the Loop for their cases.”
Jack Faddis, president of the Southwest Bar Association, hopes that the circuit court’s other downtown services, including probate, will be added to Bridgeview.
“This is the second largest circuit in Illinois. It’s something to be reckoned with,” said Faddis. Montelione said that was the idea when the Bridgeview courthouse was conceived.
“From the way it was designed and built five years ago, we knew we would grow and didn’t want to be limited with our courtrooms. We had the space available to try this pilot program, we made some adjustments and made the courtroom available,” Montelione said.
“We had no real idea just how well it would be used,” Montelione added. “But there was such a clamoring by the local practitioners that we had to try this.”
