Court rule · Illinois · Family procedure · Domestic violence
Illinois adds domestic-abuse education to recommended attorney qualifications
An October 2026 order adds a four-hour domestic-abuse education item to recommended circuit qualifications, effective July 2027.
Published November 3, 2026 · Reviewed by David Martino
The Illinois Supreme Court amended Rule 906 to add intimate-partner domestic-abuse education to the recommended qualifications that circuit courts may include for attorneys appointed in certain child-related proceedings. The order was entered October 21, 2026; the Rule 906 amendment takes effect July 1, 2027.
Each circuit must develop qualifications and educational requirements for attorneys appointed to represent children in custody and allocation cases, and guardianship cases when custody or visitation is an issue. Rule 906(c) requires licensure and good standing and introduces a list of qualifications a circuit may include as recommendations. The new item calls for four hours of approved continuing legal education in intimate-partner domestic abuse in the two years before an attorney qualifies for appointment.
Suggested training topics include coercive control, the effects on children witnessing abuse, postseparation abuse, risk management, safety and parenting plans. The order also adds a committee comment identifying possible qualified training resources. The four-hour item appears in the rule's recommended list; the amendment does not itself require every circuit to adopt that item in its plan.
The same order separately amends Rule 46 on the official record of protective-order proceedings, effective January 1, 2027. That separate amendment has a different effective date and is outside the scope of this report.