Illinois Supreme Court Rule 218: Conference and Discovery Cutoff

Illinois Supreme Court Rule 218 requires a case management conference in every civil case, held within 35 days after the pleadings close and no later than 182 days after the complaint is filed. The judge and the parties use that conference to set a binding schedule for discovery, witness disclosures, and trial, and the resulting order controls the case from that point forward. All discovery must finish at least 60 days before the trial date the court sets.¹

When the Conference Is Held

The clock runs from the moment the case is “at issue” — when the defendant has answered or the pleadings are otherwise complete. From that point, the court has 35 days to hold the initial conference. Independent of that trigger, the conference cannot be scheduled later than 182 days after the complaint was filed, which keeps cases from drifting while a defendant stalls on an answer.¹

The requirement is not something an individual judge can waive. The only alternative is a local circuit court rule that the Illinois Supreme Court has specifically approved on petition of the circuit’s chief judge. Everywhere else, the conference happens.

Who Has to Appear

Rule 218(a) requires that the attorney who shows up be “familiar with the case and authorized to act.” That phrase does real work. Sending someone who hasn’t read the file, or who has to call a partner before agreeing to a deposition schedule, defeats the point of the conference and can draw sanctions under Rule 219.¹

Attorneys may appear in person or remotely. Rule 218 was amended in 2023 to explicitly authorize telephone and video appearances.² A self-represented party should attend personally and be ready to discuss the same topics an attorney would.

What Gets Decided at the Conference

Rule 218(a) lists ten subjects the court and parties “shall consider.” Walk in with answers on each, and ideally with a proposed case management order filled out. Many circuits post standardized forms through the clerk’s office; using one is close to mandatory in practice.

The nature, factual and legal issues, and complexity of the case.
Simplification of the issues, including stipulations to undisputed facts.
Amendments to the pleadings, including any new claims, counterclaims, or third-party defendants.
Admissions that could eliminate unnecessary proof at trial.
Discovery limitations: the number and length of depositions, written discovery, witness disclosure deadlines, and the date for completing all discovery.
Whether to hold a settlement conference and when.
The advisability of alternative dispute resolution such as mediation or arbitration.
A trial date.
Whether subsequent case management conferences are needed.
Any other matter the court considers appropriate, which the rule specifies includes electronically stored information. In cases with significant ESI, expect the judge to raise custodians, search terms, and production format.

Deposition counts, written discovery deadlines, and expert disclosure dates are where most of the real negotiation happens. Having numbers ready saves the court’s time and keeps you from agreeing on the spot to something that will hurt later.¹

The Case Management Order and the 60-Day Discovery Cutoff

At the end of the conference, the judge enters a written order under Rule 218(c) recording what the court decided and what the parties agreed to. That order controls the case going forward. Every deadline inside it — discovery completion, witness disclosures, deposition cutoffs, motion dates — is enforceable.¹

The rule requires that all witness disclosures and discovery completion dates be set so that discovery finishes no later than 60 days before the anticipated trial date. The parties can stipulate to a different timeline, but absent agreement, the 60-day buffer is mandatory. If trial is October 1, your Rule 213 expert witness answers need to be served by early August. Missing that window can get the expert barred from testifying.

Every conference ends with the next milestone on the calendar. Under Rule 218(b), the court must set either a date for a subsequent case management conference or a trial date before anyone leaves, and must tell the parties whether that next appearance will be in person or remote.

Changing the Order Later

Rule 218(c) says the order “controls the subsequent course of the action unless modified.” That is the entire textual standard for changing it. Unlike federal practice under FRCP 16, Rule 218 does not spell out a “good cause” requirement or any other explicit test.

Treat that as thin ice rather than open water. Illinois trial judges have broad docket-management discretion, and most expect a concrete reason before moving dates. A pattern of extension requests undercuts the point of Rule 218 and makes the next request — and any eventual sanctions motion — go worse.

What Happens If You Miss a Deadline

Rule 218 has no sanctions provision of its own. Enforcement runs through Rule 219(c), which applies when a party unreasonably fails to comply with a discovery or pretrial rule, including the deadlines in a Rule 218 order. The available sanctions are broad, and the judge picks what fits.³

Staying the proceedings until the party complies.
Barring the party from filing other pleadings related to the issue.
Barring the party from maintaining a particular claim, counterclaim, or defense tied to the violation.
Barring a witness from testifying on the issue connected to the noncompliance. This is where missed Rule 213 expert disclosures turn fatal: the expert can be kept off the stand entirely.
Default judgment against a defendant, or dismissal of a plaintiff’s case with or without prejudice.
Striking pleadings or parts of them.
Adding interest to a money judgment for the delay the sanctioned party caused.

The court can also order the offending party or their attorney to pay the other side’s reasonable expenses, including attorney fees. When the violation is willful, the judge can add a monetary penalty on top. Contempt is available in extreme cases.³

How Rule 218 Interacts With Rules 213 and 216

The case management order sets the timeline, but Rules 213 and 216 govern what you have to do inside it. Rule 213 covers interrogatories and the disclosure of trial witnesses, including lay witnesses, independent experts, and controlled experts. For each expert you must disclose identity, subject matter, opinions, and qualifications through interrogatory answers. The case management order fixes the deadlines, and the 60-day cutoff in Rule 218(c) pushes those deadlines earlier than parties often expect.⁴

Rule 216 handles requests to admit facts and the genuineness of documents. A party who fails to respond within 28 days has the facts deemed admitted, which can resolve issues before trial. Serving requests to admit early in the discovery window set by the case management order is one of the cleanest ways to narrow what actually has to be tried.

The practical takeaway: the deadlines in a Rule 218 order are hard walls, not targets. The 60-day discovery cutoff, the Rule 213 disclosure dates, and the Rule 216 response windows all feed into the same enforcement mechanism under Rule 219. Reading any of them loosely is where cases — and witnesses — get lost.

1
Illinois Supreme Court. Illinois Supreme Court Rule 218 – Pretrial Procedure
2
Illinois Courts. Supreme Court Rules
3
Illinois Supreme Court. Illinois Supreme Court Rule 219 – Consequences of Refusal to Comply with Rules or Order Relating to Discovery or Pretrial Conferences
4
Illinois Courts. Illinois Supreme Court Rule 213 – Written Interrogatories to Parties