The Judicial Conference of the United States has authorized the appointment of a full-time United States magistrate judge for the United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois. The official location for the position will be Peoria, Illinois. Full-time magistrate judges are appointed to eight-year terms of office by the judges of each respective United States district court.

The duties of the position are demanding and wide-ranging, such as: 1) conducting most preliminary proceedings in criminal cases; 2) trial and disposition of misdemeanor cases; 3) conducting various pretrial matters and evidentiary proceedings on delegation from a district judge; and 4) trial and disposition of civil cases upon consent of the litigants. The basic authority of the United States magistrate judge is specified in 28 U.S.C. § 636.

To be qualified for appointment as a U.S. magistrate judge, an applicant must:

1) Be, and have been for at least five years, a member in good standing of the bar of the highest court of the state, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Territory of Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, or the Virgin Islands of the United States;

2) Have actively practiced law for at least five years. The court may consider the following substitute experience, including any combination thereof:

• Experience as a judge of a state court of record or other state judicial officer.
• Experience as a United States magistrate judge, bankruptcy judge or other federal judicial officer.
• Experience as an attorney for a federal or state agency.
• Up to two years experience as a law clerk to any judge or judicial officer, staff attorney, or pro se law clerk in a court.
• Other legal experience suitable as a substitute in the opinion of the majority of the district judges of the court;

3) Be less than 70 years of age at the time of initial appointment;

4) At the time of initial appointment, an appointee to a magistrate judge position may not be related by blood or marriage to a judge of the appointing district court within the degree of relationship specified in 28 U.S.C. § 458; and

5) Be competent to perform the duties of the office, be of good moral character, emotionally stable and mature, committed to equal justice under the law, in good health, patient, courteous, and capable of deliberation and decisiveness when required to act on his or her own reason and judgement.

A Merit Selection panel will be established and composed of attorneys and other members of the community. They will recommend to the court for consideration individuals whose character, experience, ability, and commitment to equal justice under the law fully qualify them to serve as U.S. magistrate judge. The panel will submit to the court the five best qualified applicants for such position. The district judges will make an appointment from the list provided by the panel. The candidate selected will be subject to a background investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and tax check by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The position will be available March 1, 2014. Equal employment opportunity will be given to all qualified candidates. The current annual salary of the position is $160,080.00.

Application forms may be obtained in the clerk’s offices of the district court in Peoria, Urbana, Springfield or Rock Island, IL and on the court’s website at www.ilcd.uscourts.gov/employment. Application packets should include the completed application, a cover letter, resume and three letters of recommendation. To ensure impartiality, please do not have references contact the court or members of the merit selection panel directly. Applications are to be submitted only by the applicant personally, indicating the person’s willingness to serve, if selected.

The original signed application, cover letter, resume and reference letters, along with 10 complete copies, must be received by the close of business on Wednesday, July 31, 2013 (applications by facsimile or email will not be accepted). Please send to:

Kenneth A. Wells, Clerk of Court
U. S. District Court
Magistrate Judge Application
210 U.S. Courthouse
600 E. Monroe Street
Springfield, IL 62701

All applications will be kept confidential, unless the applicant consents to disclosure, and all applications will be examined only by members of the Merit Selection Panel and the judges of the district court. The panel’s deliberations will remain confidential.