Illinois has made it a crime to secretly record domestic violence victims and witnesses inside the state's courthouses, with violators now facing up to a year in jail. Gov. JB Pritzker signed Senate Bill 4038 into law after prosecutors said abusers and bystanders were filming survivors as they left protective-order hearings and using the footage to scare them out of testifying. The measure takes effect January 1, 2027.
According to CBS Chicago, the new law bans unauthorized video recordings and still photography of victims and witnesses inside Illinois courthouses, protecting them from harassment and intimidation intended to limit their participation in the criminal justice system. Anyone caught filming a victim or witness without consent, or sharing that footage afterward, can be charged with a Class A misdemeanor. Per the same account, some domestic violence victims had already been filmed without their consent after attending court hearings.
Cook County State's Attorney Eileen O'Neill Burke championed the legislation and said domestic violence victims have suffered additional trauma from abusers trying to silence them, per that report. The bill drew bipartisan support in Springfield before reaching the governor's desk.
Prosecutors Say Filming Became a Weapon Against Survivors
The push for a statewide statute came directly from Cook County prosecutors, according to the Chicago Defender. The Cook County State's Attorney's Office told the paper that unauthorized courthouse recordings were being weaponized not only to intimidate domestic violence victims out of seeking protective orders, but also to target and harass prosecutors, judges, and victim advocates. State Senator Laura Murphy of Des Plaines and State Representative Mary Gill of Chicago sponsored SB 4038, which passed the General Assembly in May with bipartisan backing before reaching Pritzker's desk.
How the Statute Works, and Where It Doesn't Apply
Per LegiScan, SB 4038 amends the Illinois Criminal Code of 2012 to prohibit knowingly video recording, livestreaming, or photographing a victim or witness inside a courthouse without consent or judicial authorization, and it separately criminalizes disseminating any recording captured unlawfully. The statute carves out exemptions for footage captured by official courthouse security cameras, law enforcement body-worn cameras, and proceedings approved under the state's Extended Media Coverage policy.
A conviction carries a Class A misdemeanor, Illinois' most serious misdemeanor classification, with penalties of up to 364 days in county jail and fines of up to $2,500, according to Davis Law Group.
A Patchwork of Local Rules Before the New Law
Illinois Supreme Court Rule 44 already restricted unauthorized audio, video, and photographic recording in state courthouses, and court policy automatically limits extended media coverage in sensitive proceedings such as orders of protection and family court matters absent special judicial consent, per the Illinois Supreme Court.
Before SB 4038, individual judicial circuits relied on local administrative orders to ban courthouse recording, but the state lacked a uniform criminal statute with statewide penalties for unauthorized filming of victims, the Chicago Defender noted.
Chicago's Domestic Violence Courthouse Under Added Scrutiny
Cook County's Domestic Violence Division operates out of the courthouse at 555 W. Harrison St. in Chicago, which was designed with separate elevators, corridors, and waiting rooms meant to keep petitioners away from alleged abusers, according to the Circuit Court of Cook County. That courthouse handles both civil protection orders and criminal domestic battery cases.
Concerns about survivor safety around that building aren't new. Community advocates and public defenders reported that federal immigration agents conducted surveillance and detained individuals outside the Domestic Violence Courthouse in 2025, according to CBS Chicago, which warned the tactic deters victims from reporting abuse, a dynamic Hoodline previously covered in a report on ICE surveillance at West Loop court.
Illinois law separately requires officers conducting lethality assessments in domestic violence cases to give victims standardized program information along with the state's domestic violence hotline number, under 750 ILCS 60, according to FastDemocracy. Advocates have also pushed for broader court reforms across Cook County, an effort Hoodline detailed in an earlier report on courts that failed domestic violence survivors.
