Below is a summary of activities of this section from July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2026. While past activity is no guarantee of future activity, it may give a idea of what to expect this year.
Section Stats
Newsletters
Issues: 4
CLE
Live Programs: 5
Discussions
Posts: 39
Legislation
Bills Reviewed: 267
Continuing Legal Education
Section members receive discounts on section-sponsored CLE programs. During the 2025–26 bar year, the Section sponsored the following programs:
- Sponsor Latest Developments in Criminal, DUI, and Traffic Laws (10/17/2025)
- Co-Sponsor Time Spent: Mastering Illinois Sentencing Credits (04/16/2026)
- Co-Sponsor License Reinstatement: Help Your Client Navigate the Illinois Secretary of State (04/30/2026)
- Co-Sponsor Arrest, Detention, Removal, and Due Process in Immigration Proceedings (05/07/2026)
- Sponsor Pre-Trial Fairness Act: A Judicial Perspective (05/19/2026)
ISBA Central Discussions
ISBA Central communities allows section members to pose questions, answer questions, and share information with fellow section members. Members of the section get free access to the section’s community. Joining any section also grants you access to the Transactional and Litigation communities. Below are the total number of discussion posts during the 2025–26 bar year.
Criminal Justice
- Community members: 1,062
- Total discussion posts: 39
Criminal - DUI - Traffic
- Community members: 3,679
- Total discussion posts: 609
Transactional
- Community members: 24,715
- Total discussion posts: 386
Litigation
- Community members: 24,710
- Total discussion posts: 706
Legislation
The Section Council reviewed 267 bills that may affect their members’ practice area. Highlights of the most recent legislative session include:
- House Bill 5199 provides that if the State files a petition seeking to deny the defendant pretrial release and a continuance on the hearing concerning the petition is requested, the court has the sole discretion to grant or deny the request for a continuance.
- Senate Bill 3020 amends the Code of Criminal Procedure and the Illinois Domestic Violence Act. The bill expands “harassment” to include conduct such as electronic tracking, electronic contact, repeated telephone calls, repeated surveillance, doxing, and the nonconsensual creation or dissemination of digitally altered or sexual images and creates a rebuttable presumption that these actions cause emotional distress. It authorizes courts to issue or extend orders of protection to prohibit such conduct, require the removal or deletion of harmful content or tracking devices, and compel proof of compliance. The bill also clarifies that victims cannot be denied protective orders solely because a respondent is incarcerated and adjusts procedures for extending existing orders.
- Senate Bill 3333 amends the Unified Code of Corrections. Provides that the rules and regulations of the Department of Corrections shall also provide that sentence credit may be provided to an inmate who was held in pretrial detention prior to his or her current commitment to the Department of Corrections and successfully completed a substance abuse program (rather than a full-time, 60-day or longer substance abuse program), county jail or detention facility work assignments, or parenting program, or re-entry planning facilitated (rather than provided) by the county department of corrections, county jail, or other provider.