National trial judiciary meet July 31 in Chicago

The 50th anniversary of the National Conference of State Trial Judges (NCSTJ) will be celebrated on Friday, July 31, during a gala luncheon in the 95th floor Signature Room of Chicago’s John Hancock Center.

Cook County Judge Sophia H. Hall, who is co-chair of the celebration, is past chair of the NCSTJ and a past president of the National Association of Women Judges and the Illinois Judges Association.

Chief Justice Thomas R. Fitzgerald of the Illinois Supreme Court will be the keynote luncheon speaker. Before his election in 2000, he was a Cook County Criminal Division presiding and trial judge for many years.

The accomplishments of trial judges, especially past chairs of the NCSTJ, will be recognized during the program, which is directed by Judge Cheryl D. Cesario, a member of the ISBA Assembly, and JoAnn Saringer of the American Bar Association staff.

The history of the organization is traced in a commemorative booklet and in two quarterly issues of The Judges’ Journal.

In a foreword to one of the publications, Judge Hall recounted changes that have affected the judiciary during the quarter-century since the 25th anniversary of the NCSTJ.

“The elephant in the room is definitely technology,” she wrote. “Advances have reshaped society, the information upon which we rely, and the way in which judges manage and decide cases.”

She added that “With visibility from the Internet and instant dissemination of information, the isolated and deliberative world or the judge has been turned on its head. More is expected and more is assumed, rightly or wrongly.”

Jurors enter courtrooms predisposed by perceptions from the media and entertainment, and the privacy of judges can be subject to “the trivialization of celebrity,” she noted.

For the judicial system to survive, judges “must become spokespersons for the integrity of our court system (and) advocate for an understanding of our system of justice,” Hall urged. “This is not the world of the judicial profession of 50 or even 25 years ago.”