DePaul Law Review Volume 28 Issue 3 Spring 1979 Article 3 Stare Decisis among [Sic] the Appellate Court of Illinois Taylor Mattis Kenneth G. Yalowitz Follow this and additional works at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/law-review Recommended Citation Taylor Mattis & Kenneth G. Yalowitz, Stare Decisis among [Sic] the Appellate Court of Illinois , 28 DePaul L. Rev. 571 (1979) Available at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/law-review/vol28/iss3/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Law at Via Sapientiae. It has been accepted for inclusion in DePaul Law Review by an authorized editor of Via Sapientiae. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. STARE DECISIS AMONG [SIC] THE APPELLATE COURT OF ILLINOIS *Taylor Mattis **Kenneth G. Yalowitz What precedential impact should be accorded to decisions of the Appel- late Court of Illinois? Authors Mattis and Yalowitz examine the Illinois history of the stare decisis doctrine as it relates to Illinois appellate deci- sions. They demonstrate the inadequacy of the present Illinois approach, which requires trial courts to follow appellate court decisions of any divi- sion while those divisions remain free to adopt conflicting positions. Alter- native approaches to this question are then analyzed in detail. The authors conclude by recommending a two-pronged approach. First, all appellate court divisions should recognize decisions of coordinate divisions as bind- ing unless clearly erroneous. Second, if an appellate division decides that a decision of a coordinate division was erroneous, its contrary opinion should be regarded as having overruled the prior decision.