<P> The Illinois Appellate Court is the court of first appeal for civil and criminal cases rising in the Illinois Circuit Courts . Three Illinois Appellate Court judges hear each case and the concurrence of two is necessary to render a decision . The Illinois Appellate Court will render its opinion in writing, in the form of a published opinion or an unpublished order . As of 1935, decisions of the Illinois Appellate Court became binding authority upon lower courts in Illinois . </P> <P> The Illinois Appellate Court has 52 judges serving five districts . The majority of the judges (18 in the First District, and between seven and nine in each of the Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth Districts) are elected, with the remaining judges having been appointed by the Supreme Court of Illinois . </P>

Clerk of the appellate court first district illinois