On December 21, 2015, Associate Judge William E. Gomolinski of the Cook County Circuit Court issued a ruling holding Public Act 98-1132 unconstitutional, which modified the Illinois Code of Civil Procedure to limit the number of jurors to six instead of twelve for Illinois civil jury trials. Click here to view the Court’s ruling.

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 for cases filed on or after June 1, 2015. Opponents of the change claimed that the new law violated Article I, Section 13 of the Bill of Rights to the 1970 Illinois Constitution, which proclaimed that the right to trial by jury “as heretofore enjoyed” should remain “inviolate.”

Charged with the task by Law Division Presiding Judge James P. Flannery, Jr., Judge Gomolinski allowed consolidated briefing on numerous pending motions challenging the constitutionality of the new law over the last few months under the lead case of Kakos v. Butler, 2015 L 6691. On December 21, 2015, Judge Gomolinski heard argument from counsel and issued his 27 page ruling later that day.

According to the court’s website, the Circuit Court of Cook County of the State of Illinois is the largest judicial circuit in Illinois and one of the largest unified court systems in the world with more than 1.2 million cases filed each year.