Monica Somerville Wants Diversity, Fairness and Education to be at the Forefront
Monica Somerville Wants Diversity, Fairness and Education to be at the Forefront (Chicago, IL) —With more than three decades as an attorney, Monica Somerville believes in the importance of life experience and common sense while still maintaining compassionate and insightful thinking to make equitable decisions. It led her to run for Judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County.”
The reason why I decided to run for office is because it’s very important that we have different judiciary where we need diversity on the bench,” said Somerville. “It is so important for people to have judges who are not only qualified, but judges who have a different perspective. Judges who come from the same communities, judges who will judge fairly and who are going to be open minded so there’s fair representation for everyone.”
Fairness
Somerville has litigated cases in state court, and state and federal administrative agencies. She has legal experience in personal injury, worker’s compensation, unemployment insurance, housing, employment discrimination, contracts, and municipal law.
“I believe anyone who appears before me will get fairness. And at the end of the day, they will know that all of my decisions were fair rulings and that’s what we need,” said Somerville. “One of the things that I have noticed in talking to people is that there’s no confidence in the judiciary. A lot of times when there are mandatory court room hearings, they feel that the judge has already made up his or her mind. They don’t feel like they’re actually being listened to and that is so important.”
When someone walks into a courtroom, she sees the justice system as an avenue for them to telltheir story, and feel like they are being hard and respected.
“That they are not being judged based on the color of their skin, or their economic level. It is very important for our judiciary to have fair, open minded judges who have unbiased opinions,” said Somerville. That’s what I’m going to give people as a judge.”
Understanding the legal system
She also believes people should have a basic understanding of the legal system.
“One of the things that I’d like to do is bring the courtroom to the classroom,” said Somervillle. “We have a lot of young people that sometimes appear before judges. I think it’s important for kids at a very young age, starting probably second or third grade and all the way through high school, to learn about the legal system to learn about the legal system. We have to allow children to come into courtrooms to see what a judge does and to see how judges make rulings. As a judge, I will bring the courtroom to the classroom.”
Experience
For the last 15 years, Monica has served in roles such as chief assistant corporation counsel of the Torts Division, supervising administrative law judge, director of Workers’ Compensation, Police & Fire Claims, and deputy director of Finance.
Somerville said she is committed to bringing public confidence to the justice system and has championed the causes of the everyday Cook County citizens of Cook County.
“I am committed to bringing integrity and fairness to the bench. I will always decide cases based on the facts and the law,” she added. “Judges have enormous power over our lives and that is the reason why it’s so important to vote because most of us will all appear before a judge at one time of our life. It can be for a traffic matter, a probate matter, dealing with real estate matters, a landlord tenant, child custody and many other kinds of cases.”
Monica Somerville Wants Diversity, Fairness and Education to be at the Forefront
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