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Observations From a Judge on Collection Litigation, and Perhaps All Litigation
As the first to graduate college in my family, I was then graduated from the University of Illinois College of Law in 1990, when I went to work for the late United States Bankruptcy Judge Richard De Gunther in Rockford. We worked in the Western Division of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois. I learned a lot in those 2.25 years, as Rockford, which was once the second largest city in Illinois, was working to exit the rust belt and the Division was dealing with the fastest growing county in the nation—McHenry County.
After my clerkship, I engaged in private practice, generally handling commercial law and local government law. And then, fourteen or so years after graduation, I found myself appointed by the Supreme Court of Illinois as a Circuit Judge, and was then elected as such in a new judicial circuit—the Twenty-Second Judicial Circuit, where I have handled a variety of cases, and served as the Presiding Judge of the Family Division, and then as the Civil Division, and then as Chief Judge.
Since January 1, 2025, I have handled what appears to be the busiest docket in our Circuit, including arbitration (“AR”) cases, involving collections valued between $10,000 and $75,000, and Small Claims (“SC”) cases, involving collections up to $10,000.
I have found the collections bar to be extremely professional. I suspect this emanates, in part, from the litigation over the years under the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act. As well, I suspect it reflects professionals who are working to effect efficient and effective results. Rarely do I find a collection attorney who is anything but professional, patient, and thorough.
As you may know, filings in the circuit courts in Illinois have trended downward over the past decade or so. However, in our Circuit at least, in comparison to the same period in 2024, filings from January 1 through September 30, 2025, are up 40% for AR cases and 36% for SC cases. These increases are more than in any other area in McHenry County, which is the sixth largest county in the state.
Interestingly, attorneys in these cases continue to avail themselves of the allowances for remote participation, as required through Rule 45 of the Supreme Court of Illinois. With this note, I still have many attorneys personally visit my courtroom as well each day.
Perhaps due to the professionalism of those mentioned above, I am also gratified to discuss lawsuits with defendants who will often come to court, in person and through Zoom, and in perhaps 90% of those cases, readily admit the money at issue in the pending complaints is owed. Often, they simply explain they are down on their luck or the challenges of life got in the way, whether it be with employment, health issues, or family issues.
For those who have any question about liability or deny it, I expeditiously move the case toward arbitration or small claims mediation, as the case may warrant. In our Circuit, through a pilot program approved by the Supreme Court, our Arbitration Administrator has been trained and certified as a mediator at Northwestern Law, and upon my referral, will work with parties to facilitate a resolution if possible. With the relatively smaller amounts at issue, the pace is rapid, especially in consideration of the admonitions of the Supreme Court through its time standards (which require 75% of small claims cases to be resolved within six months and 98% to be resolved within a year). Our Small Claims Mediation Program has had some success but often experiences failure in follow through by litigants, and then judgments by default or trials.
The time standards dictate a quick pace, which puts pressure on the judiciary to move cases. Having noted this, my judicial philosophy has always been and will always be to take whatever time is necessary. While we need to move things along, we also all need to engage a healthy pace. Collectively, we work to maintain and support the rule of law.
In practice, I learned from a now retired attorney and client, who practiced in this neck of the woods that it is wise to work with people to understand where they are and what they need, often in terms of time. Ron Carlson would often guide a project and allow for time, hoping for success, but with admonition that if the desired result was not achieved in the time requested, a consequence would likely arrive, typically resulting in a judgment or the recording of a deed or some such thing. Similarly, time is often afforded for discovery or settlement talks, with appropriate deadlines in place to get matters resolved within the timelines.
Technology continues to amaze and challenge us. Case management software is often challenged to keep up with increases in volume, especially when my dockets have included as many as 184 cases in a morning. Then on the back end, we often need to wait for draft orders, which are otherwise due within three hours.
Remote participation through Zoom facilitates local or stand-up counsel appearing for parties, who might not be fully acquainted with a particular case, which challenges the system, especially when opposing parties are ready to act. In such circumstances, I often refer to a former partner in Rockford who mentored me as a young lawyer to never say in open court—or perhaps anywhere in the representation of a client—it is not my case. To the extent a lawyer stands up on a case, unless perhaps an emergency is involved, the lawyer should always remember it is the lawyer’s case.
Inspired and/or directed by Rule 45, I do not limit proceedings to physical participation in the courtroom, unless certain rare circumstances warrant the same. While I am even open to remote or hybrid jury trials, I have often presided over hybrid and remote bench trials. Perhaps the primary issue involves the handling of evidence. In our Circuit, documents can be filed with the clerk or deposited in a portal available through our Circuit website for cases in our Circuit.
As far as mentors go, I often think of Judge Michael Sullivan, after whom we named our courthouse. Judge Sullivan told me as a younger Judge to always include detail in an order. In other words, why is the case coming back? Exactly what is expected, as with what documentation is desired through a citation to discover assets? Also, I believe orders should reflect who participated and what was handled. While we can readily have a transcript produced, simple items can and should be included in orders to facilitate prompt review.
Outside of a properly constituted setting, cases should not be discussed by those outside the court family, so to speak. Ex parte communications are forbidden, though can be allowed for certain limited reasons involving procedure. But then, even in those situations, immediate effort should be made to tell the other side about what was discussed.
Most judges are using standing orders these days. I have worked over the years to bring that resource to our local equation, as it has been used elsewhere, especially in the federal courts. Just about all courts have websites these days, and those should be regularly checked to see if a judge might have a standing order which covers certain procedure for a courtroom.
These are observations after almost 21 years of work as a judge. Following the model of Presiding Judge Ken Wright of Cook County, I engage professionals who work in and around my courtroom on the first Monday of each month in an 8:15 a.m. setting, when we try to make the system even better. If you might like to join us, feel free to do so. Otherwise, I encourage everybody to keep working on the system as it is what we make of it.
Michael J. Chmiel is a Circuit Judge in the Twenty-Second Judicial Circuit of the State of Illinois. He is a Past Chair of what is now the Commercial Banking, Collections, and Bankruptcy Section Council of the Illinois State Bar Association and continues to serve as Editor of the Section’s newsletter.
This article was originally published in Commercial Banking, Collections, and Bankruptcy (November 2025, Vol. 69, No. 3), the newsletter of ISBA’s Commercial Banking, Collections, and Bankruptcy Section.