Andrea M. Buford
Judge up for retention, on the Chicago ballot November 3, 2026. Incumbent.
Circuit Court of Cook County
Ratings
Record
Appointed to the Circuit Court in 2013 and elected in 2014; presiding judge of the Child Protection Division, where she has spent most of her career hearing child abuse and neglect cases. Injustice Watch reports that as a lawyer for the city she represented former Chicago police officer Joseph Miedzianowski, by then convicted of racketeering and drug conspiracy, in a 2007 federal civil rights trial brought by two former federal agents who said the department retaliated against them for trying to report him; the jury awarded the agents $9.75 million. She has served as president of the Cook County Bar Association and the Illinois Judicial Council. A judge stays on the bench with a yes from 60 percent of voters.
Background
Attorney in private practice representing corporations and municipalities in civil litigation (1987-2013), while also a hearing officer for the Illinois State Board of Education and Department of Human Services (2009-2013) and a commissioner on the Illinois Court of Claims (2007-2013). Law degree from IIT Chicago-Kent (1986).
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