The following procedures are designed to promote professionalism, civility and efficiency in all cases tried before this Court:
- Be on time. The Court makes every effort to commence proceedings at the scheduled time. Please arrive early in order to set up. Trials take precedence over any other business. If you have matters in other courtrooms, arrange in advance to continue them.
- Be prepared. The Court attempts to provide at least six hours of trial time each day. Have your witnesses and exhibits ready in order to make efficient use of the trial day.
- Be professional. Counsel shall treat each other and all witnesses professionally and courteously.
- Conduct all witness examinations at or near the podium unless otherwise allowed by the Court.
- Counsel shall disclose the identity of trial witnesses no less than one day before the beginning of the trial day in which counsel expect to call the witnesses.
- Before the trial begins, provide copies of exhibits to opposing counsel, to the Court, and for use by witnesses. The Court uses an integrated evidence presentation system (including, but not limited to, laptop hookups and an ELMO system) for display of exhibits during trial. Click here to view the Courtroom Technology page. Parties are responsible for obtaining training on the Court's document projection system through Alexander Zeier (NDIL Systems Department, phone: 312-435-6045) and should schedule this training no later than two weeks before the start of trial. All individual(s) responsible for showing exhibits during trial should attend this training.
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Trial exhibits will be given to the jurors during deliberation through the Court's JERS system.
Click here to view information about the JERS system.
JERS relies on particular naming conventions with respect to the file name of your exhibits. The following PDFs explain how to name your documents properly for uploading to JERS.
One week before trial you need to provide a flash drive with a sampling of your exhibits using various file extensions (pdf, jpg, avi, wmv, mpg, mp3, wma. wav) for Chambers to look at to make sure you're naming them correctly before you do all your exhibits. In addition to the materials you are providing to the Court in advance of the trial, once it is confirmed that your exhibits are correctly named, we will expect a flash drive immediately before closing arguments with only the exhibits that have been admitted during trial so we may upload them to the JERS system.
- Typically, the attorney/witness rooms across the hall from our courtroom will be available for counsel to use throughout the trial. Please contact Chambers a week before the start of trial to find out how far in advance of trial those rooms will be available for you to begin using. Due to security concerns at the courthouse, if there is any equipment/food/beverages you need to bring into the courthouse for use during trial,you will need a court order to this effect. Please use the following template(s) and provide the appropriate proposed order (depending on whether you need the loading dock or will bring your items in through the ground floor entrance) to Judge Cox's proposed order box two weeks before the start of your trial to ensure you receive the order in time.
- Counsel shall retain the originals of their own exhibits for possible appeal.
- Counsel must stand for all objections and concisely state the basis for the objection (e.g., "hearsay," "relevancy").
- Side-bars are disfavored. Counsel are directed to "front" all anticipated issues when the jury is not present.
- Witnesses (other than parties and expert witnesses) are generally excluded from proceedings except to testify. Except for parties, a witness shall not discuss the case with anyone during breaks or recesses once their testimony has begun.
- If a case has been settled, counsel shall promptly notify the courtroom deputy. Jury costs may be assessed for failure to promptly advise of a settlement.
- Counsel shall not contact any jurors after the trial, without prior permission from the Court.
- Enjoy yourself.
