CBA Record Nov-Dec 2019

CBA RECORD

EDITOR’S BRIEFCASE BY RICHARD LEE STAVINS, ACTING EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Our Unified Court System: How We Got Here M y name is Richard Stavins. I have been appointed acting editor-in-chief of this issue by more. Each court was governed by statu- tory mandates as to what kinds of cases it could hear and up to what dollar amount. Often, the dollar limit in tort was different than the dollar limit in contract.

EDITORIAL BOARD EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Justice Michael B. Hyman Illinois Appellate Court ASSOCIATE EDITOR Anne Ellis Proactive Worldwide, Inc. SUMMARY JUDGMENTS EDITOR Daniel A. Cotter Latimer LeVay Fyock LLC YLS JOURNAL EDITORS Daniel J. Berkowitz Aronberg Goldgehn Kruti Patel Charles Wintersteen & Associates Kaitlin King Hart David Carson LLP Carolyn Amadon Samuel, Son & Co. Amy Cook The Farmer Chef Alliance Nina Fain Janet Sugerman Schirn Family Trust Anthony F. Fata Cafferty Clobes Meriwether & Sprengel LLP Clifford Gately Hinshaw & Culbertson Jasmine Villaflor Hernandez Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office Lynn Semptimphelter Kopon Kopon Airdo LLC John Levin Kathryn C. Liss DePaul University College of Law Bonnie McGrath Law Office of Bonnie McGrath Clare McMahon Law Office of Clare McMahon Pamela S. Menaker Clifford Law Offices Peter V. Mierzwa Law Bulletin Media Kathleen Dillon Narko Northwestern University School of Law Adam J. Sheppard Sheppard Law Firm, PC Richard Lee Stavins Robbins, Saloman & Patt, Ltd. Caryn Suder

Justice Michael B. Hyman, the Record’s long-standing and outstanding editor, who must step away temporarily. I feel a bit like whoever succeededWil- liam Randolph Hearst as the editor and publisher of the Hearst-owned newspa- pers: it’s a tough act to follow. Having been engaged in the practice of litigation law since 1968, I thought I would reminisce on what things were like in Cook County before 1964. That was four years before I was licensed, but one need not actually have been present at the Battle of Hastings to write about it. Effective in 1964, an amendment to the Illinois Constitution of 1870 completely changed the judicial system and laid the groundwork for its current structure. Illinois lawyers are familiar with the judi- ciary’s structure today: • One unified trial court in each county, the Circuit Court, which has jurisdic- tion over all justiciable matters. • One intermediate court of review as of right, the Appellate Court of Illinois, divided into five geographic districts. • One high court, the Supreme Court of Illinois, with a nearly totally discretion- ary docket. What was it like before 1964? It was a subject matter nightmare. There was no single court of original jurisdiction. Instead, there were dozens of trial courts, each with their own jurisdictional rules. There was the Circuit Court, the Superior Court, the County Court, the Probate Court, the Criminal Court, the Municipal Court of Chicago, the Municipal Court of Evanston, the Town Court of Cicero, and

The little Municipal Court of Evanston had unlimited dollar jurisdiction, whereas the huge Municipal Court of Chicago had low dollar jurisdiction. This was solely because the state senate majority leader back then – from Evanston – pushed a bill giving his pet court such power. The Probate Court had jurisdiction over the probate of wills. The Superior Court and Circuit Court had jurisdiction over contract disputes. Sounds easy, but in an action to enforce a contract to make a will, who had jurisdiction? The Probate Court, the Superior Court, or the Circuit Court? Or perhaps the Municipal Court of Evanston? If you guessed wrong, and you won the case, your judgment was void ab initio. Below all of this were the Justice of the Peace courts. The judges in those courts (usually called J.P.s) were paid by the prevailing party. The plaintiff could essentially file suit before any J.P. that he wanted. Naturally, plaintiffs’ lawyers filed their cases before J.P.s who nearly always entered judgment for plaintiff. As a result, the defense bar sarcastically said J.P. stands for Judgment for Plaintiff. Such judgments were appealable as of right to one of the other courts, where there was a trial de novo , and where the J.P. was often reversed. So, suing in a J.P. court just added more expense to litigation and often accomplished nothing. Then there were the Masters in Chan- cery. In the chancery courts – hidden inside the Circuit Court and Superior

Loyola University Chicago Rosemary Simota Thompson Judge E. Kenneth Wright, Jr. Circuit Court of Cook County

THE CHICAGO BAR ASSOCIATION Sharon Nolan Director of Marketing

6 November/December 2019