Mandatory arbitration hearings in Cook County are conducted by licensed Illinois attorneys who meet the basic qualifications found in Illinois Supreme Court Rule 87(b) as well as the further requirements of local Circuit Court Rule 18.4(a) for Municipal Division cases. For Law Division cases, certified arbitrators must meet the basic requirements found in Circuit Court Rule 25.16. For both programs, interested attorneys must attend a court certified training program before being eligible to hear cases. The training programs are sponsored as needed by either the court or in conjunction with local bar associations. MCLE credit is given for attendance at training classes. Please contact the Arbitration Center downtown for more information on any upcoming classes.
Resources
| Municipal District Arbitrator Resources | Law Arbitrator Resources |
|---|---|
| Municipal District Certified Arbitrator Application | Application to Be a Law Division Arbitrator |
| Arbitrator Refresher Training Materials | Law Division Mandatory Arbitration Training Materials |
| AOIC Uniform Arbitrator's Reference Manual |
How to become a Municipal Division Arbitrator
Attorneys wanting to become certified Cook County arbitrators must complete the following steps:
- Be a currently licensed, active Illinois attorney for a minimum of three years;
- Complete an Arbitrator Application and deliver it to the Cook County Mandatory Arbitration Center, 222 North LaSalle Street, 13th Floor, Chicago, Illinois 60601. Hard copies can be mailed to the Arbitration Center or emailed to cookcountyarb@illinoiscourts.gov;
- Procure an individual five-digit Cook County ID number from the Office of the Circuit Clerk at the Richard J. Daley Center, Room 801 (you cannot use your firm's five-digit number for arbitration);
- Contact the arbitration staff downtown at (312) 793-0125 for information on the "New Arbitrator Training for Municipal Division Arbitrators" to find out when you can attend the mandatory training required;
- Download and review the training materials (link to training materials, AOIC Uniform Arbitrators Reference Manual here); and
- Complete the "New Arbitrator Training" seminar in its entirety.
Once you have finished all the steps above, the court will send you an "Arbitrator Training Certificate" in the mail and will list your name on the master roll of active arbitrators in Cook County for the Municipal Division. Arbitrators are scheduled by a computer on a random and rotational basis. You can expect your first scheduled date as an arbitrator to be approximately one (1) to three (3) months after completing the training process.
Municipal Division Arbitrator FAQs
Once you complete the certification process and are placed on the current list of arbitrators for the Municipal Division, you will be scheduled by a computer to serve on a random and rotational basis. Under local Circuit Court Rule 18.4(d), notice of an arbitrator's scheduled date to serve is sent to you no later than 60 days before the scheduled date of service. Once you receive notice of a scheduled date, you will need to contact the arbitration staff by email to confirm or cancel your service for the date. The email notice you receive will give you explicit instructions on who to contact and within what timeframe. Arbitrators must affirmatively confirm their service if they want to attend, if they don’t contact the staff by the date listed in the email notice, their scheduled date of service will be cancelled, and they will be replaced with another arbitrator. Please note that arbitration staff may have to call or email to change or cancel your service due to changes made to the arbitration hearing docket by the Supervising Judge. This can happen as late as the day before your scheduled date of service. Please make sure you check both your listed telephone number and your email after 3:30 p.m. the day before your scheduled service date to confirm no changes have been made to your scheduled service.
Arbitrators are assigned on a random and rotational basis by court rule. The number of assignments you receive will depend on the number of currently active arbitrators as well as the number of cases referred to arbitration by the Supervising Judge. For example, if you are scheduled today to arbitrate, the computer won't assign you again until it has given dates to everyone else on the active arbitrator listing. Generally speaking, arbitrators can expect between four (4) and six (6) scheduled arbitration service dates per calendar year for Municipal Division service.
Municipal Division arbitration hearings are also held at each of Cook County's suburban courthouses. Active arbitrators can choose to add one suburban courthouse in addition to their service downtown District One if they would like to be scheduled for suburban hearings. Please note that suburban service is in addition to downtown, not in lieu of serving downtown.
Generally, the court schedules every arbitrator for a full day of service. However, when you confirm your arbitration service, you can ask the arbitration staff if the caseload on your date would allow you to serve for only a partial day. If the arbitration staff can accommodate this request, they will let you know because the arbitration schedule does fluctuate. Please remember that serving a partial day is dependent on the number of cases scheduled for that day as well as the times of those cases. Remember also that you will be scheduled for a whole day’s service unless arbitration staff have confirmed with you in advance otherwise because you requested a partial day or the caseload requires partial day service from arbitrators. The Supervising Judge controls our caseload and can make changes due to settlement or continuances up to the time of the hearing so it’s important for you to check your voicemail and email the day prior to your service date after 3:00 p.m. Arbitration staff will contact you by phone or email if there are any last minute changes to your scheduled service date.
Arbitrators should bring the following:
- Legal pad, pen and calculator or phone (helpful when calculating damages);
- Any reference materials and your downloaded arbitrator reference manual or materials; and
- Any other necessary items/work for down time between hearings.
We have Wi-Fi so if you have a tablet or laptop available you want to bring you can connect your device to access the case management system or connect remotely to your work during downtime between hearings.
It’s important to try to arrive about 30 minutes before the start of your first hearing of the day. Arbitration staff need time to verify information they need for your service and must assign you to your hearing rooms before the time cases are set to begin. It also gives you and the staff enough time to make any changes to case assignments if there are any situations where you or another arbitrator would need to recuse yourself from an assigned case. Please note that if you arrive after a case is scheduled to begin (8:30 a.m., 10:30 a.m. or 2 p.m. downtown and 8:30 a.m., 10:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m. or 3 p.m. in the suburbs) and the case has already started, the staff will not be able to place you in your assigned room for that hearing which means you would not get paid for that case.
Municipal Division arbitrators are paid $100 for each arbitration hearing that they conduct, which includes attending the full hearing plus participating in the deliberation and signing the final award. You are working as an independent contractor for the State of Illinois when you serve as an arbitrator (you are not an employee), and there are steps that must be followed to get your payment processed. The arbitration staff will have you sign an invoice voucher on the day you serve as an arbitrator which they will verify, process and send the invoice voucher to the Office of the Comptroller in Springfield to issue the payment. The Comptroller's Office will send payment by regular mail to the address you have listed with the Office of the Circuit Clerk of Cook County and as listed on the invoice voucher you sign on your service date.
Please note that it can take the Comptroller's Office from 4-8 weeks to receive, verify, process and send your payment checks. If you have issues receiving a payment, please contact the arbitration staff at the downtown location for them to investigate for you. Additionally note that if your service date was in a suburban location, the time to process payments is a bit longer since the suburban location must first send all invoice vouchers to the downtown location, and once arbitration staff downtown receive the vouchers, they must verify, process and send the vouchers to the Office of the Comptroller in Springfield. Since there is the extra time it takes to receive the information from the suburbs, payments for service dates in the suburban locations just take a little longer.
Arbitrators must ensure that they promptly inform arbitration staff of any changes to their mailing address, phone number and email so that they receive notices to serve and payments for serving in a timely manner. The State of Illinois confirms mailing addresses with our office and with the Clerk’s Office for security to ensure the are issuing payments to the correct person before mailing checks. If there are discrepancies in information, you may be asked to verify or provide updated information or forms to the State before they issue payment. Since they do confirm with the Clerk’s Office you do need to maintain a current address on your 5-digit Cook County ID that you received from the Clerks.
You can update attorney code information by completing a form you can get in person at the Office of the Circuit Clerk in Room 801 of the Richard J. Daley Center, 50 West Washington Street, Chicago, Illinois 60602. The form can also be found on the Office of the Circuit Clerk's website at www.cookcountyclerkofcourt.org and can be submitted electronically by following the instructions as listed and providing them the requested attachments. The correct Cook County Circuit Court Form to change or update your information is number is 351-006.
How to Become a Law Division Arbitrator
Attorneys interested in becoming a certified Law Division arbitrator must complete the following steps:
- Be a currently licensed, active Illinois attorney for a minimum of seven years;
- Be proficient in commercial or personal injury law or arbitration, have commercial or personal injury experience and concentrate your practice in either commercial or personal injury law (Law Division arbitrator applicants will be able to select if they apply for hearing commercial cases, personal injury cases or both on the application depending on their experience);
- Contact the arbitration staff downtown at (312) 793-0125 for information on the "Become an Arbitrator in the Law Division Mandatory Arbitration” Program to find out how and when you can attend the required mandatory training;
- Complete the “Become an Arbitrator in the Law Division Mandatory Arbitration Program” seminar in its entirety; and
- Complete the Law Division Arbitrator Application after attending the training class and deliver it to the Cook County Mandatory Arbitration Center, 222 North LaSalle Street, 13th Floor, Chicago, Illinois 60601. Hard copies can be mailed to the Arbitration Center or emailed to cookcountyarb@illinoiscourts.gov or to kobrien@illinoiscourts.gov.
Once you have finished all the steps above, the Arbitrator Selection Committee will review your application and resume and will let you know if you will be listed on the master roll of active arbitrators in Cook County for the Law Division. Arbitrators are scheduled by a computer on a random and rotational basis. You can expect your first scheduled date as an arbitrator to be approximately three (3) to six (6) months after completing the training process.
Law Division Arbitrator FAQs
Once you complete the certification process and are placed on the current list of arbitrators for the Law Division, you will be scheduled by a computer to serve on a random and rotational basis. Under local Circuit Court Rule 25.5, arbitration staff will send you notice of your scheduled date of service as well as information on the case you are assigned to hear as well as known attorney and law firm information. The staff will email this information to you, including all parties of record so it’s important that you not only note the date and time of the hearing but also all attorney contact information for any further communications. The email will include an attached conflicts check form that you must complete and return to the arbitration staff and all parties of record without three (3) business days to accept the case.
Failure to return the form to everyone may result in you being removed from the case and it being reassigned to another arbitrator.
Please note that arbitration staff may have to call or email to change or cancel your service due to changes made to the arbitration hearing docket by the Supervising Judge. This can happen as late as the day before your scheduled date of service. Please make sure you keep up with all email and phone communications once you accept an assigned case so that you promptly know of any changes or cancellations to your scheduled service date.
Arbitrators are assigned on a random and rotational basis. The number of assignments you receive will depend on the number of currently active arbitrators as well as the number of cases referred to arbitration by the Supervising Judge. For example, if you are scheduled today to arbitrate, the computer won't assign you again until it has given dates to everyone else on the active arbitrator listing. Generally speaking, arbitrators can expect between four (4) and six (6) scheduled arbitration service dates per calendar year for Law Division service.
Arbitrators’ disclosures on the conflicts form are just that, disclosures only. The forms are sent to the parties so that everyone can review any disclosures and discuss if the disclosures rise to the level where an arbitrator’s impartiality may be in question. Under Circuit Court Rule 25.6(c) parties can’t move to substitute an arbitrator without cause. The form gives all parties and the arbitrator a chance to discuss any disclosures and after the discussion, if there are still issues with disclosures, the arbitrator can choose to recuse themselves or the attorneys can present a motion to substitute the arbitrator for cause before the Supervising Judge of Law Division Arbitration.
Arbitrators should bring the following:
- Legal pad, pen and calculator or phone (helpful when calculating damages);
- Any reference materials and your downloaded arbitrator reference manual; and
- Any pre-hearing submissions sent in advance by the parties.
For convenience, we have Wi-Fi so you can have a tablet or laptop available so you can connect your device to access the case management system or any pre-hearing submissions.
It’s important to try to arrive about 30 minutes before the start of your hearing. Arbitration staff need time to verify information they need for your service and must assign you to your hearing rooms before the time cases are set to begin. This also gives you time to discuss any last minute questions or issues the parties may have without taking time away from the hearing.
Law Division arbitrators are paid $300 for each arbitration hearing that they conduct. You are working as an independent contractor for the State of Illinois when you serve as an arbitrator (you are not an employee), and there are steps that must be followed to get your payment processed. The arbitration staff will have you sign an invoice voucher on the day you serve as an arbitrator which they will verify, process and send the invoice voucher to the Office of the Comptroller in Springfield to issue the payment.
The Comptroller's Office will send payment by regular mail to the address you have listed with the Office of the Circuit Clerk of Cook County and as listed on the invoice voucher you sign on your service date. Please note that it can take the Comptroller's Office from 4-8 weeks to receive, verify, process and send your payment checks. If you have issues receiving a payment, please contact the arbitration staff at the downtown location for them to investigate for you.
Arbitrators must ensure that they promptly inform arbitration staff of any changes to their mailing address, phone number and email so that they receive notices to serve and payments for serving in a timely manner. The State of Illinois confirms mailing addresses with our office and with the Clerk’s Office for security to ensure they are issuing payments to the correct person before mailing checks. If there are discrepancies in information, you may be asked to verify or provide updated information or forms to the State before they issue payment.
You can update attorney information with the Clerk’s Office by completing a form you can get in person at the Office of the Circuit Clerk in Room 801 of the Richard J. Daley Center, 50 West Washington Street, Chicago, Illinois 60602. The form can also be found on the Office of the Circuit Clerk's website at www.cookcountyclerkofcourt.org and can be submitted electronically by following the instructions as listed and providing them the requested attachments. The correct Cook County Circuit Court Form to change or update your information is number is 351-006.