Illinois Court System, Courtroom Procedure, and Judicial Ethics
Structure of Illinois courts
The Supreme Court has seven justices - three elected from the First District (Cook County) and one each from the Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth Appellate Districts. The Appellate Court sits in five districts and hears cases in panels of three. Below it are 23 judicial circuits; the Circuit Court of Cook County is a single circuit. Circuit judges are elected; associate judges are appointed by the circuit judges.
Procedure the reporter must follow
The oath or affirmation precedes testimony, and the reporter may administer it. Voir dire, openings, direct, cross, redirect, offers of proof, and sidebars are reportable unless the judge directs otherwise. Under Illinois Supreme Court Rule 243, jurors in civil cases may submit written questions to the court, which are read into the record. Jury instructions are governed by Rule 451, with IPI numbers cited.
Ethics on the job
The Illinois Code of Judicial Conduct binds the bench; the reporter's parallel duties are accuracy, impartiality, and confidentiality. Reporters are officers of the court: no ex parte discussion of testimony, no opinions offered to jurors or counsel, no favors to either side.
Worked example
The judge says, "Let's go off the record and come to the bench." You mark (Whereupon, an off-the-record bench conference was held.) and stop. Reasoning: the conference was directed off the record, but the fact that it occurred is part of the record and may matter on appeal; you note it rather than transcribe it, and you do not characterize what was said.
Traps
Assuming "off the record" means nothing happened; numbering exhibits from memory; omitting juror questions from the record; writing "Judge" in the body where the style is THE COURT.