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Disrupting Frivolous Defenses, Thomas D. Russell

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

Judge Milton I. Shadur was a disrupter of frivolous defenses. In 2018, Judge Shadur died at the age of ninety-three after thirty-seven years as a judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Sua sponte, Judge Shadur reviewed civil answers and disrupted the pleading of frivolous defenses. Sua Sponte Shadur--as some lawyers called him--rejected answers that departed from or ignored Rule 8 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. In 2001, Judge Shadur issued an Appendix to an order in State Farm v. Riley, 199 F.R.D. 276 (N.D. Ill. 2001). The Appendix …