Section Newsletters

Articles From Judge Eileen Marie O’Connor

Sole Proximate Cause—Whose Burden Is It Anyway? By Judge Eileen Marie O’Connor Tort Law, May 2026 Although a party may plead in the alternative and assert multiple theories of sole proximate cause, the trial court must serve as gatekeeper to ensure that this burden is met. Specifically, the court must ensure that the defendant presents competent evidence establishing that a third party, condition, or combination thereof constituted the sole—rather than a merely contributing—cause of the plaintiff’s injury. Absent such safeguards, the doctrine of sole proximate cause risks misapplication, inviting jury confusion and undermining the integrity of the verdict.
Reexamining Illinois Patterned Jury Instruction (I.P.I.) 20.01 Issues Raised by the Pleadings By Judge Eileen Marie O’Connor Tort Law, April 2024 In Galich v. Advocate Health & Hospital Corp., the appellate court held that the trial court properly instructed the jury and section 2-1303(c) of the Code of Civil Procedure is constitutional. 
Condition vs. Creation? Determining Which Jury Instructions to Use in a Negligence Case Against a Landowner By Judge Eileen Marie O’Connor Tort Law, January 2024 An overview of the development and changes to Illinois premises liability law, beginning with the adoption of the Restatement (Second) of Torts, and finishing with a discussion of the law’s practical application at trial.

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