SPRINGFIELD -- The Illinois Supreme Court has announced new standards for emergency preparedness for all Illinois circuit courts to safeguard court staff and to keep courts operational in the event of a natural disaster or other catastrophe.
Cynthia Y. Cobbs, director of the Administrative Office of Illinois Courts, said the new standards were necessary to take into account the "unique way that court systems operate" and the need to ensure that unnecessary delays in trials could be avoided to protect the rights of litigants. Cobbs said that many courts' existing plans do not address continued court operations during and following the emergency.
Cobbs said the standards, which become effective Jan. 1, give circuit courts two years to come up with their own plan or adapt their existing plan to the new standards.
The plan includes a requirement for an Emergency Coordinating Officer in each circuit, who would identify how the court could best carry out essential functions during an emergency. The ECO would also be responsible for safeguarding the integrity of electronic records and implementing the circuit's plans for alternate facilities for court operations if necessary.
The standards address the courts' ability to function during a public health crisis, a modified chain of command for court personnel during an emergency, and contingency plans if juries cannot be impaneled for proceedings due to a large-scale emergency.
The plan requires each circuit to establish a command center to communicate with each judicial branch to assign the court's resources and direct any emergency response from the court.
The plan also directs courts to have predetermined alternate data storage facilities and information technology infrastructure in place to allow the court to function if data is compromised at other locations.
Cobbs said court personnel will be trained in how to implement the emergency plan, including tests of the plan through simulated disasters and other exercises to measure courts' ability to respond to an emergency.
Cobbs said that the judiciary has become more focused on security in the years following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, focusing on security at courts in attempt to be prepared for "any type of crisis."
