Rules of Practice
Below is a link to download the official Rules of Practice of the Fourth Judicial Court of Illinois. The file contains Rules of Court, Judicial Administration, Juror Terms of Service, Appearance Time to Plead and Withdraw, Motions, Discovery, Pre-trial Procedure, Special Matrimonial Case Rules, Small Claims Actions, Administrative Rules, and Child Custody Mediation. A short synopsis of each rule is below.
Rules of Practice (65.4 KB)
The Rules of Practice file is pdf format. This file can be viewed with Adobe Acrobat software. Click the image to the right to download a free version of Adobe Acrobat.
- Rule 1: Rules of Court
Topics include the power of court to adopt rules, existing rules repealed, amendment of rules, filing of rules, and applicability and construction. - Rules 2: Judicial Administration
Topics include chief judge election and term, acting chief judge, vacancy, regular meetings, and special meetings. - Rule 3: Jurors - Terms of Service
Topics include grand jurors, petit jurors, excuse, and rules applicable. - Rule 4: Appearances - Time to Plead -
Withdrawal
Topics include appearance, time to plead, and withdrawal. - Rule 5: Motions
Topics include notice of hearing of motions, ex parte and emergency motions, and failure to call motions for hearing. - Rule 6: Discovery
Topics include discovery compliance, days for taking depositions, and case management procedures. - Rule 7: Pre-trial Procedure
Topics include pre-trial conferences, trial statement preparation and use, dismissal for want of prosecution, subpoenas in criminal cases, and subpoenas in civil cases. - Rule 8: Special Rules Pertaining to
Matrimonial Cases
Topics include matrimonial cases defined, notice of dispute as to child custody, financial affidavit, and statement of proposed property apportionment. - Rule 9: Small Claims Actions
Topics include procedure involving response by the defendant, failure of defendant to respond, setting of trial date, summons appearance date not considered the trial data, demand for trial by jury, and notice of small claims rule. - Rule 10: Administrative Rules
Topics include designation of court facilities, court hours, signing or orders and judgments, removal of files, representations, and office hours. - Rule 11: Mediation - Child Custody
Topics include statement of purpose, definitions, subject matter of mediation, duties of the mediator, qualifications of mediators, list of mediators, referral procedure, mediator report, litigation status, termination of mediation on motion of a party, and entry of judgment order.