Circuit Court of Cook County

Picking up a marriage license was a breeze especially on a Wednesday during their extended hours. Security was pretty efficient as well. You have ample parking as there is a parking structure right next to the building. They also have bus service to this location. I came back here to get married as well, and that visit wasn’t bad at all. The judge was friendly, and did the whole thing within 10 minutes. What took time was the wait. My appointment was for 2:30 pm but it started at 3 pm. I did have to make an appointment to get married here. And make sure you have 10 dollars cash for the marriage license when you come here to get married.

They were definitely efficient in getting you in and out the door for a marriage license. The person at the desk was friendly enough, but we had to correct her errors a couple of times. The place is pretty much abandoned at 4:30 pm. They are open late on Wednesdays for marriage licenses as well.

Tried calling them to ask when my next court date was, but after being transfered 5 times, I was eventually given to a line that did not pick up the phone.

Come here for marriage licenses! They’ll get you in and out in no time, with friendly service to boot.
I’d say I’d come back, but most occasions that you’d need to come here for are pretty undesirable, so I’ll just say thanks to David Orr for making my marriage official in a surprisingly painless and minimally bureaucratic way!

This location is SO much better than the downtown location. I would avoid the downtown Clerk’s building at all costs in the future since you can do everything county-​related here.
I needed additional copies of my marriage license STAT and I decided to drive up here instead of trek downtown and hate myself after. So much better. Large, spacious, FREE parking lot and not a ton of traffic on a Tuesday at noon. The security check was quick and everything is really nicely labeled so I walked right to the counter with marriage certificates. Easy peasy.
My only complaint: Cook County doesn’t take Visa. What is the deal with that, Cook County? I apparently ONLY have Visa cards (which I never noticed before) and no cash. That turned into a mini-​hassle, but crisis was averted when I noticed I had a barely used Mastercard hidden behind my Jewel card. WIN.

Fascinating place.
The airport-​style metal-​detector and x-​ray machine folks at the front door wouldn’t let me bring my water bottle into court, but were reasonably friendly.
I went to observe a particular case, but ended up staying all afternoon, watching people’s lives change drastically with a casual efficiency. A really wide range of cases in the courtroom I sat in – I would have expected the cases to have been more similar. Traffic cases, from speeding, to a second DUI while the license was still revoked from the last DUI (yikes!). Two burglars the police accused of having committed hundreds of heists. A woman who wrote bad checks for less than $ 500 worth of boutique clothing was sent to prison for a year, with an additional year of probation to follow. A guy who pissed off the judge for missing several prior court dates («my car broke down») got yelled at («the court system does not revolve around your convenience!») and dragged off to jail right then and there – he looked positively shocked. A guy with a pocketful of fake Id’s and credit cards, who tried to go on a shopping spree at a supermarket, got sent off to jail.
What seemed very odd to me was that many of the defendants, the ones who weren’t (yet) incarcerated, casually sat around me in the church-​pew-​like seating. Someone sitting next to me, who I thought was a friend or relative of an accused person, suddenly stood up when their name was called and stepped forward to the docket.
A pony-​tailed male public defender kowtowed to the judge, when his client got off with just probation. Bailiffs roamed the aisles («sit up straight!») and hovered closely around the several defendants in handcuffs and prison uniforms. A police officer was questioned intently as to why it took so long to make a fingerprint identification; he stammered and sweated before the judge, while his partner looked on helplessly.
The scales of Justice, for all to see.

ASA aren’t bad and there are better places to eat than 26^th and California.

If you don’t have to come here then stay away… this place stinks, the people stink and the judges empty out your wallet, this place is corrupt and the employees are retarded and none of them speak english