Judge Ann Finley Collins comes forward

In connection with ratings issued by the Alliance of Bar Associations for Judicial Screening and various members thereof, FWIW has reported that two Circuit Court candidates were not recommended for retention on account of their failure to participate in the Alliance's screening process.

One of these two judges has recently advised the Illinois State Board of Elections that he is withdrawing his candidacy as a retention candidate; he has in fact submitted his resignation.

The other is Judge Ann Finley Collins.

Judge Collins contacted FWIW recently to advise that she, too, was seriously considering retirement as the current retention cycle got underway. When contacted about participation in the Alliance screening process, Collins advised that she would not participate since she was planning to retire.

But, Collins explained in a telephone interview Monday, as the deadline for filing for retention drew near, she realized that personal financial considerations made retirement in 2022 inadvisable. So, at the last moment, on May 5, 2022, Collins changed her mind and filed for retention.

The records of the Illinois Secretary of State (with whom declarations of intent to seek retention must be filed) confirm that Collins was one of the last Cook County judges to file for retention.

In this unusual election cycle, the Alliance made a decision early on to evaluate retention candidates first, before conducting evaluations of candidates running in the June primary. The Alliance acknowledged that it would be under unusual time pressures because of the late primary; the subsequent announcement of a new associate judge selection process only heightened those time pressures.

Sources in the Alliance have confirmed that screening questionnaires went out to retention judges in November 2021 and candidate interviews began in January.

Collins told FWIW that, by the time she decided to seek retention, she had missed the Alliance deadline for screening. She subsequently reached out to the Alliance, she said, asking if she could be screened late, but the Alliance declined.

Sources within the Alliance confirm that Collins did reach out in August and that the Alliance did reject Collins' request for a late screening. Other judges who were wavering on the question of retirement, including some who did retire, participated in the early screening process anyway, an Alliance spokesperson said.

Collins was elected to an 11th Subcircuit vacancy in 2010. For what it's worth, Collins had very favorable bar ratings at that time, including a Highly Qualified rating from the Chicago Bar Association and a Well Qualified rating from the Chicago Council of Lawyers. Collins was retained by the voters in 2016. She participated in both the CBA and Alliance screening processes in 2016 and received no negative evaluations.

Collins also told FWIW that she did not participate in the CBA screening process for the forthcoming retention election. She expects to be found Not Recommended by the CBA as a result.

The CBA ratings for retention candidates have not yet been released and FWIW has so far been unable to obtain any statement from the CBA JEC about Collins' situation.