At a status hearing on October 7, a schedule was set for all of the cases consolidated in Cook County Circuit Court that challenge the constitutionality of Illinois’ six-person jury law.

Before the enactment of an amendment to the Illinois Code of Civil Procedure, civil litigants in Illinois were allowed twelve jurors to decide their cases at trial. Late in 2014, the Illinois legislature changed the law with respect to the number of jurors and limited that number to six jurors. 735 ILCS 5/2-1105(b). The six-juror law went into effect on June 1. Opponents of the change claim that the new law violates Article I, Section 13 of the Bill of Rights to the Illinois Constitution, which proclaimed in 1970 that the right to trial by jury “as heretofore enjoyed” should remain “inviolate.”

In a written order entered on September 23, Judge James P. Flannery, Jr., Presiding Judge of the Law Division of the Circuit Court of Cook County, consolidated for hearing all pending and subsequent motions filed in the Circuit Court challenging the constitutionality of the recently enacted law. Judge Flannery’s order noted that there were a large number of these motions that litigants had presented to motion call judges and that the interests of justice and judicial economy would be served if one judge were to hear those motions. He assigned all of the pending (and future) motions to Judge William Gomolinski for hearing consistent with the briefing schedule Judge Gomolinski entered in the case of Ramirez v. Neurological Surgery, et al., 15 L 7110, a case in which one of the motions was filed.

On October 7, Judge Gomolinski conducted a general status hearing on the pending motions. He anticipates that oral arguments and a hearing will be held in his courtroom on December 21. Another status hearing has also been set for November 4. Litigants who wish to join in the pending motions are allowed to do so, though separate briefs will not be allowed.