Supreme Court adopts new style manual | State of Illinois Office of the Illinois Courts

The Illinois Supreme Court recently adopted a new Style Manual for the Supreme and Appellate Courts, to apply to opinions filed on or after January 1, 2025. The style manual presents several small refinements to existing practices. The longtime practice to generally follow the standards of The Bluebook, A Uniform System of Citation, continues with the Bluebook’s twenty-first edition.

Highlights of the changes include:

• Keeps pace with well-advised Bluebook updates (and departs from some)
• Allows for easier abbreviation where the meaning is unambiguous
• Demonstrates capitalization of ethnic identities and exhibits from the trial court
• Provides guidance on citation of early United States Supreme Court opinions, Illinois Supreme Court Rules forms, the Illinois Code of Judicial Conduct of 2023, and parallel citation
• Reorganizes for ease of use
• Improves guidance on demonstrating the position with majority support
• Elaborates on style for judgment lines and footnotes
• Is updated to reflect statutory changes

The new manual is available on the Illinois Courts website here.