Springfield: The elevation of Justice Lloyd A. Karmeier to become Chief Justice of the Illinois Supreme Court will be marked by an installation ceremony Monday, October 31, at the Illinois Supreme Court in Springfield. Justice Karmeier will become the 120th Chief Justice of the Illinois Supreme Court.
“I appreciate the confidence shown by the other members of the court in electing me to this position,” Chief Justice Karmeier said. “Since joining the court in 2004, I have had the privilege of serving under five different chief justices, all of whom have done an outstanding job. I will do my very best to live up to the high standard they have set.”
Noting the court’s ongoing initiatives to expand access to justice and adopt a statewide system for electronic filing, Justice Karmeier pledged to continue the court’s efforts to make the resources of the judicial branch more efficient, more effective and more readily available to all who need them.
“We have made great strides in those areas over the past several years,” Justice Karmeier observed, “and we have done so despite the state’s considerable economic difficulties. Thanks to the outstanding personnel the court has assembled in its Administrative Office and its various boards and commissions, I am confident we will be able to build on that momentum in the years to come.”
Other ongoing initiatives include pretrial detention reform, continued focus on drug and specialty courts and professionalism in the legal community.
Chief Justice Karmeier is a life-long resident of Washington County, where he attended a one-room grade school. After graduating valedictorian from Okawville Community High School, he attended the University of Illinois, where he received both his undergraduate and law degrees.
He clerked for former Illinois Supreme Court Justice House from 1964 to 1968, served as state’s attorney of Washington County from 1968 to 1972, and clerked for U.S. District Court Judge James L. Foreman from 1972 to 1973. He was engaged in the general practice of law with the firm of Hohlt, House, DeMoss & Johnson from 1964 to 1986. He was resident Circuit Judge of Washington County from 1986 to 2004, when he was elected to the Illinois Supreme Court.
Chief Justice Karmeier was retained in office for a second term as a Justice of the Supreme Court in November of 2014
