Related Links

» ILLINOIS COURTS

Illinois Supreme Court
Official site of the Illinois courts, including information on the Supreme Court and the Illinois Appellate Courts.

Illinois Judicial Circuits
The court of "original jurisdiction" in Illinois is the circuit court. There are twenty-two circuits in the state, three of which are single county circuits (Cook, Will, and Du Page). The remaining nineteen circuits contain two to twelve counties per circuit. Not all circuits have web sites. For a map of the circuits and their counties, go here.

» FEDERAL COURTS

All Federal Courts Links
There are 94 U.S. judicial districts organized into 12 regional circuits, each of which has a United States court of appeals. In addition, there is a Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which has nationwide jurisdiction to hear appeals in specialized cases, such as those involving patent laws and cases decided by the Court of International Trade and the Court of Federal Claims. Bankruptcy court judges are appointed by the Court of Appeals for each circuit. The federal courts for Illinois are listed below:

l United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
l United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois
l United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois
l United States Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of Illinois
l United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois
l United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Illinois

Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals
The official site for the United States Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers Illinois, Wisconsin & Indiana. Includes archived opinions dating back to 1990.

Supreme Court of the United States
The official site of the Supremes.

» GOVERNMENT AND QUASI-GOVERNMENTAL OFFICES

FirstGov
"Your first click to the U.S. Government." Federal portal to many government websites, including the White House.

www.state.XX.us
Use this URL to find any state's official home page by replacing the XX with the state's two-letter postal abbreviation. (For example, Illinois is http://www.state.il.us) Try it!

Illinois Attorney General
Includes opinions from 1995 through the present.

Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission ("ARDC")
An agency of the Illinois Supreme Court, ARDC is responsible for maintaining current records of registration and discipline information for lawyers licensed to practice in Illinois, investigating allegations of misconduct by lawyers, and prosecuting cases where a lawyer's misconduct suggests a threat to the public or to the integrity of the legal profession.

Illinois Legislative Reference Bureau ("LRB")
An arm of the Illinois legislature, LRB's primary task is drafting legislation, including bills, amendments, resolutions, and conference committee reports. The vast majority of all legislation considered by the General Assembly is drafted by LRB.

Conference of State Bank Supervisors ("CSBS")
Essentially the trade association for the state regulatory agencies that supervise state-chartered banks. Much of the site requires registration and is accessible only by state regulators and their staff, but it also contains helpful information available to the general public.

National Conference of State Legislators
Essentially the trade association for state legislators. Much of the site requires registration and is accessible only by legislators and legislative staff, but it also contains helpful information available to the general public.

National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws ("NCCUSL")
Comprised of more than 300 lawyers, judges and law professors appointed by the state legislatures, this is nontheless a non-governmental body that drafts proposals for uniform and model laws, including the Uniform Commercial Code and many other statutes adopted in Illinois. (Note that states often modify NCCUSL's proposed "uniform" laws when enacting or amending them, as Illinois did when adopting Revised Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code.)

» LEGAL RESEARCH

Search Illinois Law
Search the Illinois Compiled Statutes for free through the Illinois legislature's database.

Search Other States' Laws
Just like it says. A FindLaw freebie.

Search Illinois Court Decisions
Search Illinois Supreme Court and Illinois Appellate Court decisions for the past several years. Search by docket number, case number, party names, or any other case-specific information.

Search the United States Code
Search by title and section, or by boolean connectors, or use fuzzy logic. Brought to you by the U.S. House of Representatives.

U.S. Supreme Court Resources Center
Lots of info on U.S. Supreme Court cases by oral argument dates for the past five terms (back to 1999). Includes links to lower court decisions, docket sheets, oral argument transcripts, and even Supreme Court briefs. Also provides index of cases currently granted certiori, and all U.S. Supreme Court decisions dating back to 1893. Another FindLaw freebie.

Lexis/Nexis Research by Credit Card
Obtain articles, court decisions, shepardize cases, and more - without a subscription! Search for free with easy-to-use search forms and pay only for the documents you view.

Patent and Trademark Searches
Also obtain forms and file applications online.

EdgarScan
Price Waterhouse's proprietary search engine for SEC EDGAR Filings. EdgarScan pulls filings from the SEC's servers and parses them automatically to find key financial tables and normalize financials to a common format that is comparable across companies.

U.S. Government Printing Office
Provides free electronic access to a wealth of information and documents produced by the Federal Government, including the Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Code, Congressional Record, and more.

Researching Legislative History in Illinois
Written by the Executive Director of the Illinois Legislative Reference Bureau.

Introduction to Basic Legal Citation
A primer based on the Seventeenth Edition of the "Bluebook." Don't leave home without it.

Meta-Index for United States Legal Research
A powerful search engine maintained by Georgia State Law School that links to other legal indexes on the internet.

Catalaw.com
CataLaw is the catalog of catalogs of worldwide law on the Internet. It aids legal research by arranging all indexes of law and government into a uniform, universal and unique metaindex.

Legal Information Institute
Award-winning legal reference portal from Cornell Law School. Has specific sections devoted to banking law, bankruptcy law, commercial law, consumer credit, contracts, debtor and creditor rights, landlord-tenant law, mortgages, negotiable instruments, real estate law, sales, and secured transactions. Also offers recent U.S. Supreme Court and U.S. Appellate Court banking decisions. A General Counsel favorite!

FindLaw.com
Award-winning legal resources portal. Links to primary legal sources, government resources, internet sites, publications, law school course outlines, software, mailing lists, discussion groups, and other FindLaw pages, plus offers "lawcrawler", a search engine for law-related information on the web.

llrx.com
Created for law librarians, with links to legal resources, discussion groups, news, practice tips and a bookstore. Try it, you'll like it.

law.com
General commercial website on the law and legal profession. Includes research resources, news, articles, recent court decisions, and products and services. Has a banking practice section.

Hieros Gamos
Another general commercial website on the law and legal profession. Includes research resources, news, and products and services, among other things. Has a banking practice section.

megalaw.com
Another general commercial website on the law and legal profession. Includes research resources, news, and products and services, among other things. Has a banking practice section.

» LEGAL FORMS

Illinois Legal Forms
Purchase forms online. Disclaimer: These legal forms are sold for a fee from USlegalforms.com. The Illinois Bankers Association does not control or endorse any forms purchased from either site.

Legal Forms Preparation and Filings
Purchase document preparation services from attorneys online. Disclaimer: These legal forms are sold for a fee through the legalzoom.com website. The Illinois Bankers Association does not control or endorse any forms purchased from this site.

Lexis/Nexis Automated Forms
A subscription service for both generic and state-specific legal forms. Disclaimer: These legal forms are sold for a subscription fee through the Lexis/Nexis website. The Illinois Bankers Association does not control or endorse any forms purchased from this site.

» LEGAL NEWS

CourtTV.com
From the makers of CourtTV.

CNN Law
From CNN.com. Has "breaking news."

FindLaw Legal News
From FindLaw.com.

Jurist Legal News
From the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.

Lexis Daily Opinion Service
An electronic daily advance sheet updated every 2 hours from Lexis/Nexis, covering Federal and State appellate and high court decisions nationwide. Free for cite lists and summaries; individual documents can be obtained through Lexis by Credit Card link.

The Hill
The Hill is a non-partisan, non-ideological weekly newspaper that describes the inner workings of Congress. Impress your friends.

» ATTORNEY TRADE ASSOCIATIONS

American Bar Association
Illinois Bar Association
Chicago Bar Association
DuPage County Bar Association
Kane County Bar Association
Lake County Bar Association
Sangamon County Bar Association
Will County Bar Association
Winnebago County Bar Association

» MISCELLANEOUS SITES

Illinois Supreme Court and Appellate Court Decisions by E-Mail
Subscribe to receive e-mail notifications when new opinions are posted to the Illinois Courts website.

Guide to the Illinois Open Meetings Act
From the Illinois Attorney General's Office.

Find a Lawyer
Search Martindale-Hubbell's database of over 440,000 lawyers and law firms.

Lawyer Jokes
We're still looking for banker jokes.