7513084232_c70f27070c_zYesterday, we reviewed the originating counties for the Illinois Supreme Court’s civil and criminal dockets for the years 2005-2007. Today, we turn to the years 2008 and 2009.

The data for the civil docket in 2008 is reported below in Table 174. Cook County’s share of the civil docket fell in 2008 to 38.1% of the docket – slightly below its long-term trend level. The Court heard four civil cases each from Lake, Sangamon and Du Page counties – 9.52% of the civil docket apiece. Will (another of the large northern counties near Chicago) accounted for 7.14% of the docket. Eleven jurisdictions – St. Clair, Kane, Adams, Madison, Macon, Champaign, McLean, Peoria and Greene counties, the Illinois Commerce Commission and the Illinois Labor Relations Board – produced one case each, or 26.19% of the civil docket.

Table 174

We review the data for the criminal docket in 2008 in Table 175 below. Cook County returned to its long-term trend, accounting for 36.54% of the criminal docket. Will County accounted for five cases, or 9.62% of the criminal docket. Four cases each came from Du Page and Peoria counties, and two each from Lake, Winnebago, Champaign, McLean and Grundy counties. Ten additional jurisdictions – Kane, McHenry, Adams, Livingston, Bureau, Rock Island, Tazewell, Woodford, Greene and Kendall counties – originated one case each, accounting for the final 19.23% of the Court’s criminal docket.

Table 175

The data for the 2009 civil docket is shown in Table 176 below. The caseload from Cook County fell somewhat to 31.58% of the docket. The Court heard five civil cases from Du Page County – 13.16% of the civil docket – and four from Will County (10.53%). Three cases each arose from Lake and St. Clair counties. Eleven different jurisdictions contributed one case each to the civil docket – Winnebago, Sangamon, Williamson, Edgar, Vermilion, Cumberland, Marion, Grundy and Clinton counties, the Illinois Human Rights Commission and the Board of Elections – for a collective 28.95% of the civil docket.

Table 176

Criminal cases from Cook County were at their highest level in the five year period in 2009, both in absolute terms and as a fraction of the overall docket, with the Court hearing 28 cases, or 54.9% of the docket. Du Page and Will counties originated four cases each. The remainder of the docket was widely scattered, with fifteen different jurisdictions contributing one case each: Lake, Winnebago, Sangamon, Adams, Champaign, McLean, Kankakee, Livingston, Iroquois, Vermilion, Peoria, De Kalb, Kendall and Clark counties, and the ARDC Review Board.

Table 177

Join us back here next Tuesday as we address the geographical sources of the Court’s docket from 2010 through 2015.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Mike Linksvayer (no changes).