Discovering the District: Rolling Meadows Courthouse

The Circuit Court of Cook County was created by a 1964 amendment to the Illinois Constitution which reorganized the courts in Illinois. The amendment effectively merged the often confusing and overlapping jurisdictions of Cook County’s previous 161 courts into one uniform and cohesive court of general jurisdiction.

The Circuit Court of Cook County of the State of Illinois is the largest of the 24 judicial circuits in Illinois and one of the largest unified court systems in the world. It has about 400 judges who serve the 5.2 million residents of Cook County within the City of Chicago and its 126 surrounding suburbs. More than 1 million cases are filed each year.

Located in Rolling Meadows off of Euclid Avenue, the Rolling Meadows Courthouse is in the Third Municipal District. Comprising the Third Municipal District are Arlington Heights, Barrington, Barrington Hills, Bartlett, Bensenville, Buffalo Grove, East Dundee, Elgin, Elk Grove Village, Hanover Park, Harwood Heights, Hoffman Estates, Inverness, Mount Prospect, Norridge, Palatine, Prospect Heights, Rolling Meadows, Roselle, Rosemont, Schaumburg, Schiller Park, South Barrington, Streamwood, and Wheeling.

The Third Municipal District hears cases involving:

• orders of protection

• stalking/civil no contact orders

• housing

• eviction proceedings

• small claims

• licenses

• misdemeanor criminal proceedings

• felony preliminary hearings

• ordinance and traffic enforcement

• contract cases decided by alternative dispute resolution process

• civil suits for damages up to $100,000

• mandatory arbitration (less formal proceeding with three-member panel deciding case) in suits with damages of $30,000 or less

• name changes