Posted by Authored by: John Gilmore
The Circuit Court of Cook County includes multiple divisions and sections, including the Chancery Division. Most people are familiar with traditional civil and criminal law – classes attorneys learn during their first year of law school. Some even learn about family and probate law, two essential areas of the court. However, some attorneys continue to be unfamiliar with the idea of a court of “chancery” or equity.
A Court of Chancery (or “equity”) involves remedies that are not necessarily legal in nature. Generally, a chancery court reviews requests made by parties seeking non-legal relief, including during business litigation.
Originating from English law as a court that was more fluid and adaptable than common law, the court of Chancery today can involve common claims can include partitions, injunctive relief (including temporary restraining orders, preliminary and permanent injunctions), specific performance, and declaratory judgments. Parties bring claims commonly pertaining to property law (quiet title, liens, foreclosures, document interpretation), insurance law, and business organizations (corporations, LLCs, and various types of partnerships). Chancery relief may be as simple as a judicial order that a party is entitled to a certain judgment, or as complex as enforced dissolution of a company. Chancery courts also engage in limited appellate reviews of decisions from state level agencies and/or local councils made by administrative law judges. Of course, parties who bring actions in chancery may have attached legal claims in the suit that, if separately raised, can also be addressed in a court of law like Cook County’s Law Division.
Many of these topics that a court of chancery reviews may bring back fuzzy memories of civil procedure from law school, a new language that law students needed to learn to understand the procedures of a court system. Law students may be more familiar with the term “Chancery” Court in states like Delaware, which roughly two-thirds of the Fortune 500 companies are incorporated in the state because of Delaware’s corporate-friendly tax system. The court is thus known as being a hub for corporate governance litigation in the United States. At one point, several other U.S. States had a separate chancery court system, such as New York and Michigan, before abolishing the system following judicial reforms in the 1800’s.
Here in Illinois, the chancery court system is baked into each county’s circuit court. In Cook County, the Chancery Court is incorporated as part of Cook County’s Circuit Court, but it is separate from the Law and other Divisions. The Chancery Division consists of courts of general chancery and mortgage foreclosures, for a current total of 15-16 judges. Importantly, as part of Illinois’ unified court system, the Chancery and Law Divisions can hear just about any case that makes its way into the courtroom.
While a chancery court can grant declaratory relief in an action, a party may seek a legal remedy in a court of law if needed in a follow up action using the chancery court’s decision.
The views and opinions expressed here are my own and do not represent the views or opinions of the Office of the Chief Judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois.
About the Author
John Gilmore is a judicial law clerk for the Hon. Judge Patrick T. Stanton in the Circuit Court of Cook County, General Chancery Division. He graduated from the Washington & Lee School of Law in 2024. Prior to law school, he worked as a healthcare journalist for GenomeWeb, a news site out of New York City after graduating from Dartmouth College in 2017. Contact him at john.f.gilmore.3@outlook.com
