For bankruptcy appeals, the Court will set a briefing schedule after the record has been compiled and transmitted pursuant to Fed. R. Bank. P. 8018.

Too often litigants are unaware of the efficiencies to be gained by having their cases tried before United States Magistrate Judges.  The court strongly encourages counsel to inform their clients of this option and to discuss it with opposing counsel.  

Consent to Proceed Before Magistrate Judge

Unless the Court directs otherwise, no courtesy copies may be submitted for filing. If the Court orders a party to provide paper courtesy copies, please deliver those copies to the drop-box outside the Courtroom Deputy’s office (Room 2140).

Please be advised that the Court will hear emergency motions only in exceptional circumstances after making a preliminary determination of whether an actual emergency exists.  Emergency matters must be of such a nature that a delay in hearing them would cause serious harm to one or more of the parties. Requests to set a hearing on an emergency motion shall be made to the Courtroom Deputy, Laritza_Arcos@ilnd.uscourts.gov, with as much advance notice as possible. All reasonable efforts must be made to give actual notice to opposing counsel.

For most newly-filed civil cases, the Court will schedule an initial status hearing to take place approximately 60 days after the filing of the complaint. The parties are directed to meet and conduct a planning conference pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(f). No later than seven calendar days before the initial status hearing, the parties shall file a Joint Initial Status Report, not to exceed five (5) pages in length. The Joint Initial Status Report shall provide the information listed in the template below.

Until further notice, parties should not notice motions for presentment. Parties may request a hearing for motions that they believe cannot be decided based on written submissions alone or that would otherwise benefit from a court hearing. The request must be made in the motion itself or by joint e-mail to the courtroom deputy. For any motion the parties believe would benefit from briefing, the parties should jointly e-mail the Courtroom Deputy within 2 business days of the filing of the motion to request a briefing schedule. Please be advised that the Court may set a motion hearing or a briefing schedule for any motion without a request from the parties.

Motions for Extensions of Time

A party seeking an extension of time must contact all other parties in the case to determine whether they object to the extension. Any motion for extension of time must indicate whether it is the first or subsequent extension request, shall include the reasons for the request, any previous relief granted, and whether any other party objects to the extension.

Joint, Agreed, and Uncontested Motions

Joint, uncontested, and agreed motions should be so identified in both the title and body of the motion. If the motion is scheduled for a hearing, counsel for all parties are expected to be present regardless of whether the motion is opposed.

Other Requirements

Counsel should not respond to motions by correspondence with the Court.

The Court strongly encourages counsel to convert electronic filings created with word-processing software into .pdf documents by printing or publishing to .pdfs, rather than manually scanning paper copies into .pdfs. The former method of conversion generates searchable optical character recognition (OCR) text; the latter does not.

Unless otherwise ordered by the Court, all patent cases will be governed by the Local Patent Rules for the Northern District of Illinois.

Local Patent Rules

LPR Appendix A

LPR Appendix B

Estimated Patent Case Schedule

Parties are not required to submit proposed orders for routine motions, such as motions for extensions of time, or dispositive motions, such as motions for summary judgment. Proposed orders should not be filed directly onto the docket as stand-alone entries, even if the parties agree on the order. Instead, unless the Court has specifically directed otherwise, a party must file a motion asking the Court to enter the order. Even proposed orders such as stipulated protective orders require the Court’s approval before actually being given full effect and entered. Contemporaneously with filing a motion to enter a proposed order, the movant must e-mail the proposed order to Proposed_Order_Wood@ilnd.uscourts.gov. This will allow the Court to edit the order if necessary. The subject line of the e-mail must include the case number and name, the docket number of the corresponding motion, and the title of the order that is proposed. Attachments should be submitted to the Court in a format compatible with Word, which is a “Save As” option in most word processing software. Proposed orders should also be served on all parties.

Click here for general information regarding Pro Se Litigants. 

Individuals who make the serious decision to represent themselves are referred to by the Court as pro se litigants.  If you are a pro se litigant with a case in this district, the District Court Self-Help Assistance Program may be able to provide you with assistance regarding your case. The help desk attorney operates by appointment only. Appointments are made at the Clerk’s Office Intake Desk on the 20th floor or by calling 312-435-5691.

Use of the help desk attorney is not a substitute for having a personal attorney, however.  You should seriously consider trying to obtain professional _assets/_documents/_forms/_legal assistance.  Below are lists of organizations that may be able to offer you free or low-cost _assets/_documents/_forms/_legal assistance or a referral to an attorney if you can afford to pay for _assets/_documents/_forms/_legal services: 

Free or low-cost _assets/_documents/_forms/_legal services 

Referral Services

Please also refer to the following links for additional resources and information:

Filing a Civil Case Without An Attorney: A Guide For The Pro Se Litigant 

Local Rule 56.2 - Notice to Pro Se Litigants Opposing Summary Judgment

The following links provide information that may be useful for appointed attorneys:

Title VII and Section 1981: A Guide for Appointed Attorneys in the Northern District of Illinois 

The Americans With Disabilities Act An Age Discrimination In Employment Act: A Guide for Appointed Attorneys in the Northern District of Illinois 

Persons requesting daily copy and/or realtime feed transcripts of a trial or other evidentiary hearing that may reasonably be expected to last more than one day should contact Judge Wood's court reporter, Brenda Varney, at least five business days prior to the first day of such proceeding so that these services may be scheduled. A deposit may be required. All other transcript requests should be placed using the Court's online transcript order form, which can be found HERE.

Brenda Varney may be reached at Brenda_Varney@ilnd.uscourts.gov or 312-554-8931.