United States District Court

Northern District Of Illinois
Local Criminal Rules
LCrR50.2. Direct Assignments: Criminal
In each of the following instances, the assignment clerk shall assign the case to a judge in the manner specified:

(1) Criminal Contempt Cases arising out of Grand Jury proceedings.Any criminal contempt case arising out of grand jury proceedings shall be assigned to the chief judge at the time of filing. If the chief judge determines that such case should be heard by some other judge, it will be transferred to the Executive Committee with a recommendation that it be assigned by lot to some other judge.

(2) Interception of Wire and Oral Communications. All requests for authorization for interceptions of wire and oral communications or other investigatory matters arising under Chapter 119 of Title 18 of the U.S. Code shall be brought before the chief judge. Any civil suppressed cases arising out of such requests shall be assigned directly to the calendar of the chief judge.

(3) Cases Arising Out of Failure to Appear. Where an information or indictment is filed in which the principal charge is that the defendant failed to appear in a criminal proceeding in this Court, the information or indictment shall be assigned directly to the same calendar as that to which the earlier criminal proceeding is assigned.

(4) Superseding Indictments or Informations. The United States attorney will indicate on the designation sheet filed with each indictment or information whether or not it supersedes a pending indictment or information. A superseding indictment or information will be filed in the same case as the superseded indictment or information. Where it supersedes more than one indictment or information, it will be filed in the case which was first assigned to a district judge.

For the purpose of this subsection, an indictment or information supersedes an earlier filed indictment or information if at least one of the defendants in the later filed indictment or information is charged with at least one of the charges brought against the same defendant in an earlier filed indictment or information.

(5) Criminal cases where pre-indictment assignment made. Where a proceeding arising out of a criminal complaint is required to be heard by a district judge and is assigned by lot to a district judge prior to the filing of the indictment or information associated with the complaint, the indictment or information shall be assigned directly to the calendar of the judge to whom the proceeding was assigned. Where the indictment would have been assigned using a category different from the one used to assign the criminal complaint, appropriate equalization will be made.