Beginning in 2019, the Illinois Supreme Court began unprecedented efforts to identify, collect and make publicly available, comprehensive data regarding court system operations throughout Illinois. These efforts to upgrade existing technology and to streamline data collection and sharing efforts will bring about a sea change in the availability of...

Several years ago, we profiled Judge Wendell Green, who was the first African American to sit on the circuit court in Illinois in 1950. Judge Green was not the first person of color to become a judge in Illinois, that honor belonged to Judge Albert George, who preceded Green on the bench by nearly three decades.

The Illinois Supreme Court announced the adoption of a new Illinois Code of Judicial Conduct on July 1, 2022. The new code took effect on Jan. 1, 2023, and contains the ethics rules governing the behavior of all state court judges in Illinois, as well as candidates for judicial office. The new Code is based on the current American Bar Association Model Code of Judicial Conduct.

Justice David K. Overstreet and the Illinois Supreme Court have announced the appointment of Robert E. McIntire as a Resident Circuit Judge of Vermilion County, in the Fifth Judicial Circuit.

Showing a steadfast commitment to improving the court and community response to individuals with mental illness and co-occurring substance use disorders who encounter the criminal justice system, the Illinois Supreme Court spent the past year continuing its active participation on the...

Illinois judges are increasingly being recognized for their dedicated work in courtrooms throughout the state.

Rule 4.2, commonly referred to as the “no contact” rule, an ethics rule that seemingly does not attract a lot of attention, was the subject of two recent ABA formal ethics opinions. The first, ABA Formal Opinion 502 Communication with a Represented Person by a Pro Se Lawyer (Sept. 28, 2022) looked at the...

The 2023 Federal Poverty Level guidelines were released by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services in mid-January. The Access to Justice Commission has updated the FPL annual and monthly charts and the Judicial Bench Card to reflect those changes.

Illinois judges are increasingly being recognized for their dedicated work in courtrooms throughout the state. Here are some of the recent honors received by Illinois judges:

With the ascension of Lisa Holder White, Joy V. Cunningham, Elizabeth M. Rochford, and Mary Kay O’Brien in 2022, the Illinois Supreme Court now has a majority of women on the bench for the first time in history. Let’s review some of the historic firsts for women in Illinois law.