UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS

EASTERN DIVISION

STANDING ORDER REGARDING REASSIGNED CIVIL CASES

This Standing Order applies to all civil cases reassigned as of February 28, 

2020 to the calendar of District Judge John F. Kness. Unless otherwise ordered: 

(1) all previously-set status or motion hearing dates are vacated; (2) any trials or 

evidentiary hearings scheduled between March 9, 2020 and May 1, 2020 are 

continued and will be re-set by the Court at a future hearing; and (3) all other 

previously-set deadlines and schedules (other than hearing dates) shall remain in 

effect. 

This Court recognizes that the unanticipated reassignment of any case can be 

disruptive and costly to the parties and counsel. It is the Court’s intent to minimize 

this effect and ensure that reassigned cases proceed as expeditiously as possible. To 

that end, the Court requires that the parties submit a joint status report in each case. 

Counsel of record (or unrepresented, “pro se” parties) shall confer, prepare, and file a 

joint status report no later than Tuesday, March 24, 2020. If no defense counsel 

has yet filed an appearance, plaintiff’s counsel (or the plaintiff acting pro se) must 

prepare the status report. As possible, counsel and parties are welcome and 

encouraged to file the Initial Status Report before the March 24 deadline.

This status report shall contain the information requested in, and shall be

substantially in the form of, the model Initial Status Report for Reassigned Case that 

is (or will soon be) available on the public website for Judge Kness. Click HERE

Separate, party-specific versions of the Initial Status Report are not allowed, and the 

Report should not exceed seven single-spaced pages. To the extent the parties, after 

a good-faith effort to resolve their differences, are unable to agree on the content of 

specific portions of the Joint Status Report, the parties shall set forth their respective 

positions clearly and concisely within the relevant section of the joint Initial Status 

Report. Such separate statements, however, are discouraged; to the extent they are 

unavoidable, the Court directs counsel to refrain from extensive discourse.

Parties are jointly responsible for ensuring the delivery two courtesy copies of 

the Initial Status Report to the court’s drop-box outside of Room 2202.

The Court will set a date for a reassignment status conference after the parties 

have filed the joint Initial Status Report. The Court will address already-pending 

motions at that conference. 

Case: 1:20-cv-00478 Document #: 39 Filed: 03/09/20 Page 1 of 2 PageID #:99
The parties are directed not to notice or re-notice any motions, with 

the exception of emergency motions, before appearing at the reassignment 

status conference. Unless otherwise ordered, all emergency motions that may arise

before March 24, 2020 should be noticed before the emergency judge. For all 

emergency motions arising after March 24, 2020, but before the date of the 

reassignment conference, the parties are directed to contact the courtroom deputy. 

Emergency matters must be true emergencies, meaning that a delay in hearing them 

would cause serious and irreparable harm to one or more of the parties.

Date: March 9, 2020 /s/ John F. Kness 

 

John F. Kness

United States District Judge

Case: 1:20-cv-00478 Document #: 39 Filed: 03/09/20 Page 2 of 2 PageID #:100