United States District Court - Northern District of Illinois

General Rules

Rules 2.10 To 2.19 Classes Of Cases, Categories And Numbering Of Cases: Calendars

Rule 2.12 Numbering Of Cases

A. General

Each case, upon the filing of the initial paper, shall be given a permanent designation which shall indicate the year in which it was filed, the class to which it belongs and the case number, as follows:

(1) The Year of Filing will be indicated by the use of the last two digits of the calendar year in which the initial paper is filed;

(2) The Class to which the case belongs will be indicated by use of the letter A, B, CR, D, M or C, to indicate, respectively, the classes of Adversary Proceedings, Bankruptcy, Criminal, Disciplinary, Magistrates, or Civil;

(3) The case number will be indicated by using the next available number taken from the appropriate case number series. There shall be eleven consecutive series, one for each class of cases other than Disciplinary in each of the two Divisions of the Court and one for Disciplinary cases. The series in the Eastern Division and the Disciplinary series will start each year with the number 1 and those in the Western Division with the number 20,001.

B. Exception to Numbering System: Criminal Cases

An indictment or information that arises out of offenses charged in one or more previously filed magistrate's complaints shall be designated by the same case number as the earliest filed complaint. Any indictment or information that supersedes an earlier filed indictment or information as defined by subsection (7) of section D of Rule 2.21 of these Rules shall be designated by the same case number as that of the superseded indictment or information.

C. Numbering Defendants in Criminals Cases

In order to identify clearly and uniquely each defendant named in a magistrate's complaint, indictment, or information, each defendant listed in the caption of the original complaint, indictment, or information shall be assigned a number such that the first listed defendant shall be defendant 1, the second, defendant 2, etc. Where pursuant to section B of this Rule an indictment or information is designated by the same case number as either an earlier filed magistrate's complaint or a superseded indictment or information, each defendant included in the later filed indictment or information who was included in the earlier filed complaint, indictment, or information shall be assigned the same defendant number as was assigned at the earlier filing. Where a defendant included in the earlier filed complaint, indictment, or information is not included in the later filed indictment or information, the number assigned to that defendant will be skipped. Where one or more defendants are included in the later filed indictment or information who were not included in the earlier filed complaint, indictment, or information, defendant numbers shall be assigned starting with the lowest number not assigned at the time of the filing of the initial complaint, indictment, or information.