Probate Division update: Docket books out, screens and keyboards in

A note and an accompanying photo from the Chief Judge's Office:

Cook County Chief Judge Timothy C. Evans met with Probate judges and staff on Friday, September 27 to celebrate the opening of new Probate Division Courtroom 1813. This new courtroom replaces the antiquated docket room and is updated with high tech equipment which will improve access to justice for lawyers and litigants. As of October 1, 2024, cases assigned to guardianship of minors' estates Calendar 1, are being heard in the new courtroom by Judge Daniel R. Degnan. Pictured are Judge Terrence J. McGuire, Chief Judge Evans, Judge Degnan (seated), Presiding Judge Daniel B. Malone, Judge Susan Kennedy-Sullivan, and Judge Amee Alonso.

I wonder if there are any docket books left in the Daley Center; this may be the finish. When I started out, there were docket books in every division. Unlike a lot of court files, the old books were too big and heavy to grow legs and walk away. The status of any given case could be ascertained, even if the file jacket was missing. Or, and this sometimes proved to be the case, the file was not missing, but actually accounted for, only in another location, such as a courtroom.

Technology is great -- you're reading this, aren't you? -- but it is subject to hacking by enemies foreign and domestic, sunspots, power outages, and (perhaps, someday) control of all those AI entities we're so heedlessly setting up and letting loose. Is there no one left who saw James T. Kirk or Dr. Who fight existential battles with megalomaniacal machines? Those old TV shows were warnings, people....