Commercial Litigation

SmartEvidence is not intended to be a comprehensive treatise on the law of evidence. Instead, it is a quick guide, a starting point for further research, and something that can be thrown into a briefcase on the way to court. Though the best practice is to anticipate and research evidentiary issues before they arise in the courtroom, the authors hope that SmartEvidence will be useful to litigators who are faced with the need to address unexpected evidentiary issues and do not have the opportunity to research these issues before providing the court with argument in support of their positions.
As of January 1, 2011, Illinois adopted the Illinois Rules of Evidence. In most instances, the rules simply codify existing common law, but in some instances, they change the law. In the following pages, the authors reproduce the new evidentiary rules that, in the authors' opinion, are most germane to commercial litigation and, where the rule is not intended to change the common law, provide citations to prior Illinois decisions.