The

judiciary The judiciary (also known as the judicial system, judicature, judicial branch, judiciative branch, and court or judiciary system) is the system of courts that adjudicates legal disputes/disagreements and interprets, defends, and applies the law ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

is the unified court system of Illinois primarily responsible for applying the Constitution and law of Illinois. It consists of the

Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

, the Appellate Court, and

circuit courts Circuit courts are court systems in several common law jurisdictions. It may refer to: * Courts that literally sit 'on circuit', i.e., judges move around a region or country to different towns or cities where they will hear cases; * Courts that s ...

. The Supreme Court oversees the administration of the court system.

Courts

Circuit courts

The Illinois circuit courts are

trial court A trial court or court of first instance is a court having original jurisdiction, in which trials take place. Appeals from the decisions of trial courts are usually heard by higher courts with the power of appellate review (appellate courts). ...

s of

original jurisdiction In common law legal systems, original jurisdiction of a court is the power to hear a case for the first time, as opposed to appellate jurisdiction, when a higher court has the power to review a lower court's decision. India In India, the S ...

. There are 24 judicial circuits in the state, each comprising one or more of Illinois' 102 counties. Six circuits comprise solely of a single

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

; these are

Cook Cook or The Cook may refer to: Food preparation * Cooking, the preparation of food * Cook (domestic worker), a household staff member who prepares food * Cook (profession), an individual who prepares food for consumption in the food industry * C ...

, Kane,

Will Will may refer to: Common meanings * Will and testament, instructions for the disposition of one's property after death * Will (philosophy), or willpower * Will (sociology) * Will, volition (psychology) * Will, a modal verb - see Shall and will ...

, DuPage,

Lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...

, and McHenry. The other 18 circuits each contain between two and 12 counties. The circuit court has

general jurisdiction A court of general jurisdiction, in the law of the United States, is a court with authority to hear cases in law and in Equity (law), equity of all kinds – criminal law, criminal, civil law (common law), civil, family law, family, probate, and oth ...

and can decide, with few exceptions, any kind of case. The exceptions are redistricting of the

Illinois General Assembly The Illinois General Assembly is the legislature of the U.S. state of Illinois. It has two chambers, the Illinois House of Representatives and the Illinois Senate. The General Assembly was created by the first state constitution adopted in ...

and the ability of the

governor of Illinois The governor of Illinois is the head of government of Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its we ...

to serve or resume office. The circuit court also shares jurisdiction with the Supreme Court of Illinois to hear cases relating to

revenue In accounting, revenue is the total amount of income generated by the sale of product (business), goods and services related to the primary operations of a business. Commercial revenue may also be referred to as sales or as turnover. Some compan ...

mandamus A writ of (; ) is a judicial remedy in the English and American common law system consisting of a court order that commands a government official or entity to perform an act it is legally required to perform as part of its official duties, o ...

prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic b ...

, and

habeas corpus ''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a legal procedure invoking the jurisdiction of a court to review the unlawful detention or imprisonment of an individual, and request the individual's custodian (usually a prison official) to ...

. However, if the supreme court chooses to exercise its jurisdiction over these cases, the circuit court may not decide them. The circuit court also reviews administrative decisions of certain state agencies. There are two kinds of judges in the circuit court: circuit judges (elected) and associate judges (appointed by the elected judges). An associate judge can hear any case, except criminal cases punishable by a prison term of one year or more, unless the associate judge has received approval from the Chief Judge of the Circuit Court to hear other criminal cases.

Appellate Court

The

Illinois Appellate Court The Illinois Appellate Court is the court of first appeal for civil and criminal cases rising in the Illinois circuit courts. In Illinois, litigants generally have a right to first appeal from final decisions or judgements of the circuit court ...

is the court of first

appeal In law, an appeal is the process in which Legal case, cases are reviewed by a higher authority, where parties request a formal change to an official decision. Appeals function both as a process for error correction as well as a process of cla ...

for civil and

criminal In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definiti ...

cases rising in the Illinois circuit courts. Three Illinois Appellate Court judges hear each case and the concurrence of two is necessary to render a decision. The Illinois Appellate Court will render its opinion in writing, in the form of a published opinion or an unpublished order. As of 1935, decisions of the Illinois Appellate Court became binding authority upon lower courts in Illinois. The Illinois Appellate Court has fifty-four

judge A judge is a person who wiktionary:preside, presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a judicial panel. In an adversarial system, the judge hears all the witnesses and any other Evidence (law), evidence presented by the barris ...

s serving five districts, administratively centering on

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

(1st District), Elgin (2nd District),

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

(3rd District), Springfield (4th District), and Mt. Vernon (5th District). Civil cases appealed from the Illinois Appellate Court are heard by the Supreme Court of Illinois upon the grant of a Petition for Leave to Appeal under Illinois Supreme Court Rule 315, a Certificate of Importance under Illinois Supreme Court Rule 316, or a Petition for Appeal as a Matter of Right under Illinois Supreme Court Rule 317. The same rules apply to criminal cases.

Supreme Court

The

Supreme Court of Illinois The Supreme Court of Illinois is the state supreme court, the highest court of the judiciary of Illinois. The court's authority is granted in Article VI of the current Illinois Constitution, which provides for seven justices elected from the ...

is the

state supreme court In the United States, a state supreme court (known by other names in some states) is the highest court in the state judiciary of a U.S. state. On matters of state law, the judgment of a state supreme court is considered final and binding in ...

and consists of seven justices including a chief justice. The court has limited

and has final

appellate jurisdiction An appellate court, commonly called a court of appeal(s), appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear a case upon appeal from a trial court or other lower tribunal. Appellat ...

. Prior to the state's moratorium and abolition of the death penalty (see capital punishment in Illinois), the court had mandatory appellate jurisdiction in

capital Capital and its variations may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** Capital region, a metropolitan region containing the capital ** List of national capitals * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Econom ...

cases, and cases where the

constitutionality In constitutional law, constitutionality is said to be the condition of acting in accordance with an applicable constitution; "Webster On Line" the status of a law, a procedure, or an act's accordance with the laws or set forth in the applic ...

of laws has been called into question as well as had

discretionary jurisdiction Discretionary jurisdiction is a power that allows a court to engage in discretionary review. This power gives a court the authority to decide whether to hear a particular case brought before it. Typically, courts of last resort and intermediate c ...

from the

Other tribunals

The

Illinois Court of Claims The Illinois Court of Claims is a quasi-judicial entity in the State of Illinois. Powers The Illinois Court of Claims has exclusive jurisdiction to hear all claims regarding any contract with the State of Illinois; torts committed by agents of th ...

decides all monetary claims against the government and is better characterized as part of the legislative branch.

Administration

The Supreme Court oversees the administration of the court system. Along with the state legislature, the court promulgates rules for all state courts. The Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts (AOIC) assists the Supreme Court in administration, and is headed by the Administrative Director. The AOIC conducts the election process for the appointment of associate judges; provides support services to the courts and the judicial conference; develops the judicial budget; provides legislative support services to the courts; assists in the development and oversight of the judicial education plan; develops and monitors probation programs for the circuit courts and administrative-service training for all judges; collects and publishes statistical information on caseloads; and handles payroll for all judicial personnel. The Administrative Director also is secretary of the Illinois Courts Commission, and is an ''

ex officio An ''ex officio'' member is a member of a body (notably a board, committee, or council) who is part of it by virtue of holding another office. The term '' ex officio'' is Latin, meaning literally 'from the office', and the sense intended is 'by r ...

'' member of the Illinois Judicial Conference. The AOIC Executive Office plans and directs AOIC staff support for Supreme Court Committees and the Committees of the Illinois Judicial Conference. Illinois judicial circuits map

Several courts have been approved by the Supreme Court to operate electronic court filing (e-filing) systems. The official

reporter A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

for opinions of the Supreme Court and the Appellate Court are published on the website of the Supreme Court using a public domain

case citation Case citation is a system used by legal professionals to identify past court case decisions, either in series of books called reporters or law reports, or in a neutral style that identifies a decision regardless of where it is reported. Case c ...

. There are also unofficial sources such as West's ''Illinois Decisions'' (an Illinois-specific version of the ''

North Eastern Reporter The ''North Eastern Reporter'', ''North Eastern Reporter Second'' and ''North Eastern Reporter Third'' () are United States regional case law reporters. Collectively, the North Eastern Reporter is part of the National Reporter System created by Jo ...

''). The opinions of the Supreme Court and Appellate Court had been published in the '' Illinois Reports'' and '' Illinois Appellate Court Reports'', respectively, from 1831-2011. Illinois Appellate Court decisions from before 1935 are not binding. Jury verdicts and settlements are published in the monthly ''Illinois Jury Verdict Reporter'', with regular updates from the ''Chicago Daily Law Bulletin'', and the weekly ''Cook County Jury Verdict Reporter''. Decisions of the

are published in the ''Court of Claims Reports''. The Illinois Judicial Conference committees are charged with examining and making recommendations on matters of judicial branch policy. The Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority published information about criminal justice issues in ''On Good Authority''. The chief justice of the Supreme Court is elected by the court from its members for a three-year term. Circuit judges in a circuit elect one of their members to serve as

chief judge Chief judge may refer to: In lower or circuit courts The highest-ranking or most senior member of a lower court or circuit court with more than one judge. * Chief judge (Australia) * Chief judge (United States) In supreme courts Some of Chief ...

of the circuit court. Cases may be assigned to general or specialized divisions by the chief judge who has general administrative authority in the circuit, subject to the overall administrative authority of the Supreme Court.

Officers and personnel

Judges

Some judges are elected while others are appointed. For elected offices, judges are nominated in party primaries and elected in partisan elections. The seven justices of the Supreme Court are elected from the five appellate judicial districts of the state: three justices from the First District (

Cook County Cook County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of Illinois and the second-most-populous county in the United States, after Los Angeles County, California. More than 40 percent of all residents of Illinois live within Cook County. ...

) and one from each of the other four districts. Each justice is elected for a term of ten years. The majority of the Appellate Court judges (18 in the First District, and between seven and nine in each of the Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth Districts) are elected for a term of ten years, with the remaining judges having been appointed by the Supreme Court. Members of the Supreme Court also have the authority to elevate trial judges to the appellate court on a temporary basis. There are two kinds of judges in the circuit court: circuit judges and associate judges. Circuit judges are elected for six years, may be retained by voters for additional six-year terms, and can hear any kind of case. Circuit judges are elected on a circuit-wide basis or from the county where they reside. In the Circuit Court of Cook County, which contains

and is the largest of the 22 circuits in Illinois, circuit judges are elected from the entire county or as resident judges from each of the fifteen subcircuits within the county. Associate judges are appointed by circuit judges, under Supreme Court rules, for four-year terms. An associate judge can hear any case, except criminal cases punishable by a prison term of one year or more, unless the associate judge has received approval from the Chief Judge of the circuit to hear other criminal cases. The Illinois Courts Commission, composed of one Supreme Court justice, two Appellate Court judges, two circuit court judges and two citizens, has the authority after notice and public hearing to remove from office, suspend without pay, censure or reprimand any member of the judiciary for willful misconduct in office, persistent failure to perform his or her duties, or other conduct that is prejudicial to the administration of justice or that brings the judicial office into disrepute; or to suspend, with or without pay, or retire any member of the judiciary who is physically or mentally unable to perform his or her duties. The Illinois Judicial Inquiry Board, created by the 1970 Illinois Constitution, has the authority to conduct investigations, receive or initiate complaints concerning any member of the judiciary, and file complaints with the Courts Commission.

Attorneys

The Supreme Court administers professional discipline through the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission (ARDC), and they govern initial licensing through the Illinois Board of Admissions to the Bar, where the applicant must receive a certification of good moral character and general fitness to practice law by the

Illinois State Bar Association The Illinois State Bar Association (ISBA) is among the largest voluntary state bar associations in the United States. Approximately 28,000 lawyers are members of the ISBA. Unlike some state bar associations, in which membership is mandatory, ISB ...

(ISBA) Committee on Character and Fitness.

Accusation of corruption

Accusations have been made of corruption in the Probate Division of the Circuit Court of Cook County, resulting in a three-year suspension recommendation against the accusing attorney by the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission.

References

* *

External links

Official website of the Illinois Courts
{{Judiciaries of the United States