Rock Island County Circuit Court

County: Rock Island

State: Illinois

The Illinois General Assembly placed the Rock Island County Circuit Court in the Fifth Judicial Circuit upon the county's creation in 1831. In 1839, legislators moved it to the Sixth Circuit; in 1849, they moved it to the Tenth Circuit, and in 1852 they placed it back in the Sixth Circuit. Abraham Lincoln and his partners did not regularly practice in the Rock Island Circuit Court, although they served as attorneys in four cases on appeal from Rock Island County to the Illinois Supreme Court.

An Act Dividing the State into Judicial Circuits; "An Act Supplemental to the Several Acts Regulating the Supreme and Circuit Courts of this State," 16 February 1831, Laws of Illinois (1831), 44-47; "An Act to Establish the Tenth Judicial Cricuit, and to Fix the Times of Holding Courts in the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Ninth, and Eleventh Judicial Circuits, and for Other Purposes," 1 December 1849, Laws of Illinois (1849), 12-15; "An Act Changing the Times of Holding Courts in the Sixth Judicial District," 23 June 1852, Laws of Illinois (1852), 239; For Lincoln's cases, search under Court Name, "Rock Island County Circuit Court," Martha L. Benner and Cullom Davis et al., eds., The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Complete Documentary Edition, 2d edition (Springfield: Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, 2009), http://www.lawpracticeofabrahamlincoln.org.