16th Judicial Circuit Court, Kane County, Illinois Document Format Requirements

Jury instructions must be submitted as two typed, double-spaced 8.5x11 copies, with specific marking requirements, plus copies for each juror prior to closing arguments.

Source text: Jury Instructions. Any party submitting jury instructions shall provide the Court with two (2) copies of each instruction, typed, double-spaced on 8 ½" x 11" plain paper. One set of instructions shall be unmarked. The second set of instructions shall be marked in advance in the following manner; the party's designation and instruction number, the I.P.I. number or citation to legal authority supporting use of the instruction, and the words "Given", "Objected", "Refused", and "Withdrawn", followed by an underlined area after each such word to be checked by the Court at the time of ruling on instructions. The plaintiff shall be responsible for providing the Court prior to closing arguments with sufficient sets of copies of the instructions so that each juror will receive a copy.

Required warning in notices of hearing for certain proceedings must be in bold type.

Source text: include the following warning and notice in bold type: "NOTICE: IF YOU FAIL TO APPEAR BEFORE THE COURT AT THE TIME AND PLACE SET FORTH ABOVE, YOU MAY BE TAKEN INTO CUSTODY AND HELD IN JAIL WITHOUT FURTHER NOTICE"

Handwritten documents are only accepted from self-represented litigants, must be legible, black/blue ink, 8.5x11 white paper; only Clerk preprinted forms may be handwritten on by attorneys/litigants.

Source text: Hand written documents not in the required format as prescribed in this rule shall only be accepted for filing from self-represented litigants. Any hand written document by a self-represented litigant must be legible, written in black or blue ink, and on white paper measuring 8½ inches by 11 inches. An exception to the hand written rule is that litigants/attorneys may write on Circuit Clerk’s preprinted forms only.

Word-processed documents must use at least 12pt body font, 10pt footnotes, 8.5x11 20lb paper, 1-inch minimum margins, first page top right 2x2 blank for file stamp, include caption/case number, no margin handwriting.

Source text: All documents created by word processing programs must be formatted as follows: The size of the type in the body of the text must be no less than12 point font, and footnotes no less than 10 point font; the size of the document must be 8 ½ by 11 inches and no less than 20 pound weight; and the margins on each side of the page must each be a minimum of 1 inch; and the top right 2” x 2” corner of the first page of each pleading shall be left blank for the clerk’s file stamp. The document shall include the case caption, and case number. The case number shall be in the upper right hand corner not placed in such a position that it will be obliterated by the Clerk’s file stamp and there should be no handwriting in the margins.

Multi-page documents cannot have staples, permanent binding, or be continuous forms; each page must have case number, first page numbered 'Page 1 of ___ Pages', subsequent pages numbered consecutively.

Source text: All documents with multiple pages shall not contain staples, be permanently bound, or be a continuous form. All paper shall have the case number printed on each page. The first page shall be numbered “Page 1 of ___ Pages” and each page thereafter shall be numbered consecutively or sequentially. It is suggested that a reference be made on the original document to indicate the number of pages attached, i.e. Exhibit A (10 pages).

All documents must be typed in black ink, use suggested Times New Roman or sans serif font, minimum 1.5 line spacing; signatures/dates black ink or approved electronic format.

Source text: All documents shall be typed in black ink. Suggested font is Times New Roman or any other San Serif type. Signatures and dates shall be in black ink or in an electronic format approved by the Supreme Court. All documents shall have a minimum of 1.5 line spacing.

Exhibits must be labeled consecutively with alpha/numeric symbol on first page lower right; no duplicate attachments unless required by statute/Supreme Court Rule, use reference to prior filing instead.

Source text: Exhibits attached to pleadings, motions, and the like shall be labeled consecutively with either an alphabetical or numeric symbol on the lower right corner of the first page of each exhibit. Unless required by Statute or Supreme Court Rule, the original document filed with the Clerk of the Circuit Court shall not have attachments that are duplicates or reproductions of previously filed documents. Instead, a reference to the filing date and title of the document shall be used to replace the reproductions.

The Circuit Clerk is not required to accept any document that does not comply with Supreme Court Rules or these local rules.

Source text: The Clerk of the Circuit Court is not required to accept for filing any document that does not comply with the Supreme Court Rules or these rules.

First Notice must be in a form approved by the Chief Judge.

Source text: A First Notice describing the mediation program must be served on the defendant(s) in a residential eviction case with the summons (or alias summons) in a form approved by the Chief Judge.

Inventory items must be numbered with consecutive roman numerals starting at I, carried forward to subsequent inventories and accounts.

Source text: Consecutive item numbers, commencing with roman numeral “I” shall be assigned to each item inventoried and carried forward into each account. Numbers so assigned shall be supplemented by additional consecutive item numbers for items added in subsequent inventories and accounts.

All e-filed documents must be in PDF format; convert directly from authoring program when possible.

Source text: Documents must be submitted in PDF format. When possible, documents must be converted to PDF directly from the program creating the document, rather than from the scanned image of a paper document. Documents only available in paper format may be scanned and converted to PDF for electronic filing.

Exhibits must be labeled consecutively (alphabetical/numeric) on lower right corner of first page; duplicate attachments prohibited unless required by statute/Supreme Court Rule.

Source text: Exhibits attached to pleadings, motions, and the like shall be labeled consecutively with either an alphabetical or numeric symbol on the lower right corner of the first page of each exhibit. Unless required by Statute or Supreme Court Rule, the original document filed with the Clerk of the Circuit Court shall not have attachments that are duplicates or reproductions of previously filed documents. Instead, a reference to the filing date and title of the document shall be used to replace the reproductions.

E-filed documents must use 12pt body font, 10pt footnotes, 8.5x11 paper, 1-inch margins, and 2x2 inch blank top right corner on first page.

Source text: (1) The size of the type in the body of the text must be no less than twelve (12) point font, and footnotes no less than ten (10) point font; (2) The size of the pages must be 8-1/2 by 11 inches; (3) The margins on each side of the page must each be a minimum of one (1) inch; (4) The top right two (2) inch by two (2) inch corner of the first page of each pleading shall be left blank for the Clerk’s stamp.

E-filed documents must be unalterable (sealed PDF) and print identically to authoring program output.

Source text: Any electronically filed document must be unalterable (sealed PDF), and be able to be printed with the same contents and formats as if printed from its authoring program.

All pleadings must be filed in a form compliant with applicable statutory, local, and supreme court rules.

Source text: All pleadings shall be filed in a form consistent with the relevant statutory authority, Local Court Rules and Supreme Court Rules.

Circuit Clerk provides pre-printed/electronic forms requiring Chief Judge approval; Clerk sets form design, approval, and distribution policy.

Source text: The Circuit Clerk shall provide various pre-printed or electronic forms used in the Circuit Clerk’s Office and Courts. Contents of printed forms must be approved by the Chief Judge, or his/her designee, prior to print and distribution. All new designs, revisions and modifications to forms must be routed through the Circuit Clerk prior to final approval by the Chief Judge, or his/her designee. The appropriate Kane County Bar Association Committee may be included in the process. The Circuit Clerk shall set policy on the form design, approval process and distribution. Distribution includes hard copy, electronic format, and other technologies as they become available. Alphanumeric and/or bar codes may be used to facilitate image scanning and data entry.

Approved Clerk forms may be duplicated if they retain same verbiage, standardized heading, and matching codes.

Source text: Forms available from the Circuit Clerk’s Office, previously approved by the Chief Judge’s Office, may be duplicated provided they contain the same verbiage, standardized heading and are coded to match.

Clerk provides approved blank forms to self-represented litigants and accepts standardized forms from Illinois Supreme Court or other entities.

Source text: The Circuit Clerk shall make available to self-represented litigants blank forms in the approved format; however, shall also accept standardized forms from the Illinois Supreme Court or other entities which provide such forms.