(a) Assignment According to Court Order. The clerk’s office must assign cases to judges
according to the court’s general orders.
(b) Assignment Sequence Is Confidential. No one in the clerk’s office may reveal to any
person, other than a judge, the sequence in which cases are assigned.
(c) Punishment for Tampering with Assignments. The court may punish a person for
contempt if the person, directly or indirectly, causes or attempts to cause a court
employee to:
(1) reveal the sequence in which cases are assigned; or
(2) assign a case inconsistent with the court’s order.
(d) Notice of Related Action. A party must file a notice of related action as soon as it
appears that the party’s case and another pending case:
(1) arise out of the same transaction or occurrence;
(2) involve the same property; or
(3) involve the validity or infringement of the same patent, trademark, or copyright.
(e) Transfer of Related Cases. When the court determines that two cases are related, the
case filed later must be transferred to the judge handling the earlier-filed case. But a
magistrate judge handling an earlier-filed case with consent under Fed. R. Civ. P. 73
must transfer the case to a district judge handling a later-filed case if the parties to the
later case have not consented to a magistrate judge handling the entire case.
(f) Reassignment of Cases.
(1) Workload. The court may reassign cases among judges if workload and the
speedy administration of justice so require.
(2) Disqualification of District Judge.
(A) Civil Cases. A civil case must be randomly reassigned to another district
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Civil Rule 40-1
judge in the district if the presiding district judge is disqualified.
(B) Criminal Cases. If a district judge presiding over a criminal case is
disqualified the case must be randomly assigned to another district judge
in the same division if there is one. If there is no other district judge in
the division, the case must be reassigned to another district judge by:
(i) the chief judge, if the chief judge is not disqualified; or
(ii) the district judge with the most seniority on the bench who is not
disqualified.
(3) Disqualification of Magistrate Judge. If a magistrate judge handling a case with
consent under Fed. R. Civ. P. 73 is disqualified, the district judge most recently
assigned to the case will reassign it to another magistrate judge within the
district.
(g) Remands for New Trials. Cases remanded for a new trial under Seventh Circuit Rule 36
must be reassigned according to subdivision (f) unless:
(1) the remand order directs otherwise; or
(2) within 14 days after the mandate for a new trial is docketed, all parties in the
case file a request that the judge previously assigned to the case retry it.
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Civil Rule 40-4
