Court Services

The Court requires forms to be filed for each case type listed. Please be aware that these forms do not include instructions or legal advice regarding your rights, responsibilities, and legal options.

By law, Court employees, including clerks, are not permitted to give legal advice. They have no law degree and could be prosecuted for practicing law without a license.

Clerks may look at paperwork to see that the correct blanks have been filled in or that you provided the necessary names and addresses and signed in the right location, but they cannot tell you if the content of your filing is adequate or if it will satisfy the requirements of the Court. You may consult with an attorney or research the law at the law library, which is located on the basement level of the Champaign County Court of Common Pleas.  The law library is open Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

If the clerks do not answer a question, it is not that they do not want to be helpful. Rather, they are following the Court’s policy to uphold the law which does not allow them to offer legal advice.

To ensure fairness and equal treatment, judges are not allowed by their ethics rules to receive ex parte communications.  As such, judges cannot hear matters or evidence from one side in a case without the other side being present at the time.  If you want to tell the judge about your case or if you want the judge to take certain actions in your case, you should not call or write the judge directly.  Instead, you should file a written motion or letter with the Clerk, which explains what you want the Court to do and why it is appropriate.  You must send a copy of your document to every other party involved in the case.  Otherwise, Court staff is required to notify the other parties about your communication so that they can respond to it.  The Judge then will consider your request, along with any responses from other parties.