Illinois Court Records

Illinois Court Record Lookup

Court documents serve many purposes and are considered public; therefore, anyone can access any Illinois IL court records by performing an Illinois court records search online. Individuals may need these documents to enforce a legal judgment, settle a disputed motor vehicle violation, enroll in a court-mandated class, or prove that a term of probation has been served.

Illinois court records contain Illinois criminal records, traffic violations, civil cases and more information.

Trial Courts

In Illinois, the circuit courts are the only trial courts in the state. These are spread across 24 districts, some courts encompassing more than one rural county while others are limited to one congested urban area.

Circuit courts have divisions within them that handle family matters, such as Illinois child support and custody orders, juvenile cases, oversee some state commissions, probate issues, and small claims, as well as civil and criminal trials. Arbitration panels may be used to settle civil cases depending on the dollar value in dispute. 

A five-year trend shows a significant drop in the number of cases the circuit courts handle, from about 3.2 million to 2.5 million across all categories. These Illinois court records online can be accessed via Illinois court case lookup.

Intermediate Court of Appeals

Panels of three judges sit on hearings of disputed decisions by lower courts. These appeals courts are spread across five districts and involve 24 judges. Over 3,000 cases per year are disposed by these courts each year.

Supreme Court

Seven elected justices occupy the bench of the state’s highest court. This court hears selected cases from lower courts and advises on the constitutionality of laws as well as overseeing the state bar. Over 2,200 new cases are filed with the court each year and an equal number are disposed of, which can ve viewed by Illinois court record lookup.

Federal Court

Each state has at least one U.S. District Court, which is the federal court for that area. These courts have jurisdiction over violations of federal law, cases that involve multiple states, and bankruptcy cases.

Illinois Notable Court Cases

In the midst of turmoil over gun violence and police conduct in Chicago, an appellate court overturned a temporary injunction in mid-2016 that kept police misconduct records away from public scrutiny. After an appeals court said in 2014 that records dating back to 1967 should be available to the public, a police union had won the injunction that sealed records of police wrongdoing and complaints against officers. The information becomes public at a time when the police commissioner resigned over the delayed release of information and inaction by the police regarding an officer shooting a civilian.

An effort to reign in runaway costs of public employee pension programs was declared unconstitutional by the Illinois state Supreme Court in 2016. State legislators had passed the bill because, they said, nearly half the state's budget is spent on retirees. The three-year-old law sought to reduce pension benefits of retirees in order to preserve taxpayer supported programs but the Supreme Court, in its role as final arbiter of questions of constitutionality, determined that the efforts to cut pension costs violated the 1970 state constitution. The Supreme Court's decision was unanimous.