The Illinois Supreme Court recently announced the adoption of a new Illinois Code of Judicial Conduct that will become effective January 1, 2023. The new Illinois Code of Judicial Conduct was developed, and ultimately submitted to the Supreme Court for approval, by the Illinois Judicial Ethics Committee (IJEC), a joint committee of the Illinois Judges Association, Illinois State Bar Association, and Chicago Bar Association. The committee is chaired by Steve Pflaum, Neal Gerber Eisenberg’s Litigation practice group co-chair, who has served as a founding member of the IJEC since 1992 and has served as its chair since 2013.

The Code of Judicial Conduct contains the ethics rules governing the behavior of all state court judges in Illinois, as well as candidates for judicial office. The new Code is based on the current American Bar Association Model Code of Judicial Conduct (rev. 2010). Thirty-seven states base their Codes of Judicial Conduct on the current ABA Model Code.

Said IJEC Chair Pflaum, “While the new Illinois Code of Judicial Conduct is based on the ABA Model Code, aspects of the Illinois Code can be expected to serve as a model for adoption in other states. The IJEC has seen firsthand, through requests for ethics advice from judges, that rules that were developed just a decade ago needed updating to clarify and define limits on the ways judges interact with the public on social media. The new Code adopted by the Illinois Supreme Court is especially noteworthy for providing judges with guidance regarding how the ethics rules apply to the use of Facebook, Twitter, and other social media.”

Click here to read about the code’s adoption.

Click here to view the new Illinois Code of Judicial Conduct.