The resources listed here are available for free on the web and offer alternatives to print and subscription databases for accessing Illinois legal materials. Any site listed here is considered trustworthy because it is published by a government entity or another established organization.
For more on evaluating the trustworthiness of freely available information on the web, see this option from the Southern Illinois University School of Law Library.
"Legislative history" refers to the documents generated as a bill passes through the legislative process on its way to becoming a statutory law. The following guides will help you to understand the process of gathering that documentation for a particular piece of Illinois legislation.
Jury instructions are the set of legal rules that jurors should follow when the jury is deciding a civil or criminal case. Many jurisdictions, including Illinois, have approved "pattern" instructions for frequently-tried cases. A party must use pattern instructions if they are provided.
Illinois Pattern Jury instructions are no longer updated in print but can be found for free via the official Illinois Courts Web site (see links below).
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. Read the manual here.
