Shelby County Circuit Court

City: Shelbyville

County: Shelby

State: Illinois

The Illinois General Assembly placed Shelby County in the Second Judicial Circuit in 1829. In 1841, the General Assembly moved it to the Eighth Judicial Circuit, and in 1853 it placed it in Seventeenth Judicial Circuit. Abraham Lincoln and his partners participated in approximately thirty-five cases in the Shelby County Circuit Court.

"An Act Supplemental to the Act, Entitled 'An Act Regulating the Supreme and Circuit Courts,' Approved, January 19, 1829," 23 January 1829, Revised Laws of Illinois (1829), 48-53; "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 Dividing the State into Judicial Circuits; An Act to Establish Circuit Courts; "An Act to Establish the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, and to Fix the Time of Holding Courts in Said Circuit," 12 February 1853, General Laws of Illinois (1853), 61-62; For Lincoln's cases in Shelby County, search "Shelby County Circuit Court," under "Court Name," 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.