The Illinois Court of Claims is a quasi-judicial entity in the State of Illinois.

Powers

The Illinois Court of Claims has exclusive jurisdiction to hear all claims regarding any contract with the State of Illinois; torts committed by agents of the state; time unjustly served by innocent persons in Illinois prisons; torts committed by escaped inmates of state-controlled institutions; and lapsed appropriations claims. The Court of Claims administers assistance programs to compensate families of law enforcement officers, firefighters and military personnel killed in the line of duty. The court also vouchers awards to in nocent victims of violent crimes as authorized by the Crime Victims’ Compensation Act. Mark Wojcik, a professor at

University of Illinois Chicago School of Law The University of Illinois Chicago School of Law (UIC Law) is the law school of the University of Illinois Chicago, a public research university in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1899, it became affiliated with the university in 2019. The school ...

, considers the Court more accurately a part of the legislative branch than the judicial branch.

Structure

There are seven judges on the court of claims who are assisted by sixteen commissioners. The

Illinois Secretary of State The secretary of state of Illinois is one of the six elected executive state offices of the government of Illinois, and one of the 47 Secretary of State (U.S. state government), secretaries of state in the United States. The Illinois secretary of ...

serves as the ex-officio Clerk of the Court of Claims. Judges on the Court of Claims are appointed by the

Governor of Illinois The governor of Illinois is the head of government of Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its we ...

and confirmed by the

Illinois Senate The Illinois Senate is the upper chamber of the Illinois General Assembly, the legislative branch of the government of the State of Illinois in the United States. The body was created by the first state constitution adopted in 1818. Under the ...

. In 1987, state legislation increased the number of judges on the Illinois Court of Claims from five judges to seven judges.

Incumbent judges

As of the publication of the 2021-2022 edition of the Illinois Blue Book, the below seven are: * Peter J. Birnbaum, Chief Justice (appointed 2004) * Mary Patricia Burns (appointed 2009) * Joseph Gagliardo (appointed 2017) * Michael McGlynn (appointed 2015) * Robert J. Sprague (appointed 2019) * Nancy Zettler (appointed 2019) Past notable judges include

Kirk Dillard Kirk W. Dillard (born June 1, 1955) is an American politician and the current Chairman of the Regional Transportation Authority Board of Directors. Previously, he served as a Republican member of the Illinois State Senate, representing the 24th ...

Roger Sommer Roger Sommer may refer to: * Roger Sommer (aviator) * Roger Sommer (politician) Roger A. Sommer is an American politician who served as a Republican member of the Illinois Senate from 1973 to 1987. Biography Sommer was born November 6, 1943, in ...

, and

Anne M. Burke Anne Marie Burke (née McGlone; born February 3, 1944) is an American jurist who served on the Illinois Supreme Court from 2006 until 2022. She served a term as the chief justice from 2019 until 2022. Burke had previously been appointed to the Il ...

References

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External links

Court of Claims website
provided by

Illinois state courts