Illinois Circuit Court Information and Rules

The Illinois circuit courts are courts of original jurisdiction in the State of Illinois. Illinois has 102 counties and there are 23 circuit courts in the state, each having under its jurisdiction one or more of the counties. Five of the 23 circuit courts include one county (Cook, DuPage, Will, Lake, and McHenry). The remaining eighteen circuit courts consist of two to twelve counties each.

Circuit Court Judges

The Illinois circuit courts are each served by two types of judges- circuit and associate judges. There are about 514 circuit judges and 354 associate judges. Circuit judges have a tenure of six years and may serve for an additional six years if elected. Circuit judges are entitled to hear any court cases. Associate judges on the other hand are appointed by the circuit judges and serve the court for four years. They can hear all cases except felonies (these are criminal cases that are punishable by one year of imprisonment).

Illinois Circuit Court Jurisdiction

The Illinois circuit courts hear all civil cases including appeals of administrative agencies, cases of small claims (not exceeding $5,000), domestic relation cases like divorce cases, domestic violence cases, criminal cases, juvenile cases, child protection cases, marriage cases, and cases on traffic violations.

In order to ensure a fast and accurate proceeding of the court formalities, one must know the rules and regulations of the circuit courts. The official websites of the circuit courts have the rules of the courts enumerated for the public. For example, the Circuit Court of Cook County (named after Daniel P. Cook) has all the court orders and rules available for the people and can be viewed by visiting http://www.cookcountycourt.net/rules/http://www.peoplepublicrecords.org/index.html.

Locating Circuit Courts

The official website of the Illinois circuit courts can be visited at http://www.state.il.us/court/CircuitCourt/default.asp. By selecting the name of any county the corresponding court information can be viewed. The office addresses and the contact information of the different circuit court clerks is listed at http://www.state.il.us/court/CircuitCourt/CircuitCourtJudges/CCC_County.asp.

The contact information for the Cook County Circuit Court is:

Cook County Courthouse
County Building
118 North Clark Street
Chicago, IL 60602
Telephone: 312-603-5656.

The contact information of the separate divisions is given below:

Richard J. Daley Center
First Municipal District
Circuit Court of Cook County
Office of Public Affairs
69 West Washington Street, Suite 3300
Chicago, Illinois 60602

Second Municipal District
Circuit Court of Cook County
5600 Old Orchard Road
Skokie, Illinois 60077

Third Municipal District
Circuit Court of Cook County
2121 Euclid
Rolling Meadows, Illinois 60008

Fourth Municipal District
Circuit Court of Cook County
1500 Maybrook Drive
Maywood, Illinois 60153

Fifth Municipal District
Circuit Court of Cook County
10220 South 76th Avenue
Bridgeview, Illinois 60455

Sixth Municipal District
Circuit Court of Cook County
16501 South Kedzie Parkway
Markham, Illinois 60428

Criminal Division
Circuit Court of Cook County
2650 South California Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60608

Additional information and county clerk information can be obtained by visiting
http://www.state.il.us/court/CircuitCourt/CircuitMap/Cook.asp#Cook.
In a similar fashion, it is possible to access the same information for all the other counties in the State of Illinois.