After more than a year of organizing from communities across Illinois, the Funded Advocacy & Independent Representation (FAIR) Act (HB3363) has passed the state legislature and will be heading to the Governor’s desk to be signed into law! This historic occasion marks the first time Illinois has significantly updated its public defense structure since 1949, 14 years before the Supreme Court acknowledged the constitutional right to a court-appointed attorney.

For decades, Illinois communities large and small have experienced a civil rights crisis due to the chronic underfunding and lack of resources for public defense. Funded at a fraction of the prosecution, public defenders are subjected to unreasonable caseloads that negatively impact their clients and their own well-being. This dynamic most affects rural and Black and Brown residents, as they are most likely to be represented by under-resourced public defenders. Public defender workloads in Illinois are more than four times the maximum recommended by national experts. Nearly 60% of Illinois counties have no government office of public defense and instead contract with private attorneys to provide representation, often on a part-time basis. 

Thanks to the passage of the FAIR Act, Illinois will take a major step towards ending its public defense crisis by establishing a State Public Defender Commission in July 2026. The Commission will be responsible for planning for the opening of the State Public Defender in January 2027. Over the course of the coming year, advocates, legislators, and court stakeholders will continue to work together to prepare for this important transformation of Illinois’ court system. 

The Office of the State Public Defender will be overseen by a State Public Defender who will be selected by the State Public Defense Commission. They will be responsible for:

• Setting standards for attorney workloads, training, and resources, free of inappropriate judicial and political influence;
• Assessing each county’s need for additional resources;
• Distributing funds to counties’ public defense offices; and
• Gathering, analyzing and releasing data.

Building upon the Pretrial Fairness Act’s elimination of money bond, the passage of the FAIR Act represents another major step towards transforming Illinois’ pretrial system. Now that money bond has been eliminated in Illinois, short hearings in which a judge arbitrarily chooses a dollar amount to attach to someone’s pretrial freedom are a thing of the past. Release and detention hearings are now considerably longer and more robust, with more evidence and preparation involved. The passage of the FAIR Act brings Illinois closer to ensuring that public defenders have adequate resources and support to provide high-quality representation during these crucial hearings.  

Thanks to the efforts of community members, court stakeholders, and legislators, Illinois is set to bring its public defense structure into the 21st century and ensure that everyone is able to benefit from the rights enshrined in the Pretrial Fairness Act.