(a) Participation. In order to participate in the program, a judge of the District must meet the following criteria:
(1)
The judge is a regular active judge.
(2)
The official duty station of the judge is Chicago.
(3)
The judge entered on duty a minimum of 60 months preceding the months during which the judge is to be removed from the assignment process as part of the program.
(4)
Where 2 or more judges are eligible to be removed from the assignment process under these procedures, they may agree to exchange scheduled adjustment periods for which they have been scheduled provided each of the judges is eligible to serve in the exchanged period.
(b) Order of Judges Within a Cycle. Each year the Executive Committee will enter an order directing the clerk to remove judges from the assignment process for periods of 3 months. Each such order will establish a cycle of four periods. The order of participation in each cycle will be based on the following criteria:
(1)
Judges who have not previously participated in the calendar adjustment program shall be scheduled for the first period after they have met the eligibility criteria established in section (a) above.
(2)
If two or more judges who have not previously participated are eligible for the same period, the order of their participation shall be based on seniority.
(3)
The order of judges’ names for any remaining periods in a cycle will be based
on the length of time since their last participation in the calendar adjustment
program; i.e., the judge with the longest such interval will be assigned
to the first available period.
(c) Sequence of Name Confidential. In order to permit the judges to plan to take best advantage of the opportunities offered by the program, a tentative
list for 3 years will be issued to each judge at the time a copy of the order implementing the current periods is adopted. However, because knowledge that a judge may be removed from the assignment process might be used to permit judge shopping, the sequence should not be publicized.
(d) Exchanges of Periods. If 2 or more judges tentatively scheduled for the next year agree to change periods with other eligible judges
as provided by subsection (a)(4), those involved should notify the chief judge
so that the Executive Committee order can incorporate the agreement.
(e) Emergency Judge Schedule. Where a judge’s emergency judge
period would fall in a period during which the judge is scheduled to be removed
from the assignment process under these procedures, the emergency judge
assignment will be delayed to the next emergency judge period that falls
outside of the non-assignment period.
Committee Comment. The essence of the periodic calendar
readjustment program is that a judge is taken off the assignment wheel for a
period of three months after having an aggregate of at least four years on the
assignment wheel. The program is designed to give each judge a three month
period approximately every four years where the judge can schedule matters
without the pressure of monitoring new cases and the work associated with new
cases such as petitions for preliminary injunctions.
The program only applies to
the Eastern Division. In general, it has the effect of having one fewer judge
on assignment at any point in time. Given that there are 21 judgeships
authorized for that Division plus the active senior judges, the share of new
cases of one judge divided among the remaining judges results in several
additional cases per month for each of the others. The judges have agreed that
the scheduling convenience permitted by the program outweighs the small
increase in new assignments each receives when not off the wheel.
The program was initially
adopted at the judges’ meeting of 13 April 1989. It was subsequently amended at
the judge’s meetings of 17 April 1995, June 29, 2000, and September 25, 2001.
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