Professional background
The Illinois courts’ appellate guide, updated in June 2024, identifies Jeffrey H. Kaplan as Clerk of the Second District Appellate Court. A fuller official career biography was not located in the sources checked.
Official sources: Official biography or office record.
Source check: October 4, 2026. Career facts and public feedback are separate from the allegations and evidence discussed in the dated record.
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What the Record Establishes
- Two orders bear this office’s signature: the July 31 order barring the appellant from filing anything further, and the August 7 order that reviewed counsel at length and never mentioned that bar.
What They Have Not Produced
- The written instruction under which envelope 39386845 was refused, and the authority for it.
- Whether direct notice of the August 7 order was transmitted to the appellant, and on what date.
- Whether any order of this court examines the July 31 filing restriction on its own terms.
The Power This Office Actually Holds
The Clerk of an Illinois Appellate Court is the custodian of the court’s record and the officer through whom its orders issue. The office receives filings, dockets them, and transmits the court’s orders to the parties. Its intake function is ministerial: it receives, stamps and dockets. It does not construe orders, and it does not decide what a party may file.
- Custodian of the reviewing court’s record and docket
- Issues and transmits the court’s orders to the parties of record
- Operates the intake function through which every filing must pass
- Holds a ministerial, not adjudicative, role at intake
This page is about an office, not an accusation. The Clerk of an appellate court signs orders on behalf of the court; the signature does not mean the Clerk decided anything. What is documented here is a sequence, and the sequence is the point.
The two timestamps
A document was submitted at 11:31 a.m. on August 6. It was refused at 12:15 p.m. on August 7 with a four-word comment directing the reader to an order entered that same day. Both timestamps were generated by the court’s own systems and appear on the face of the rejection notice.
The construction problem
The order cited in the refusal is four paragraphs about the appointment of appellate counsel. The refused document was a supplement containing a declaration and requesting a special prosecutor. Getting from one to the other requires a reader to decide what the earlier order covered — and construing an order is a judicial act, while intake is ministerial. The August 13 letter to this office does not name anyone as responsible. It asks for the instruction and the authority, which are answerable in writing.
The restraint nobody has examined
The July 31 order restricted the appellant twice: file nothing, communicate by no means. The August 7 order examines the appointment of counsel at length and mentions neither restriction. That is a documented feature of the record, not a characterization of it.
The Documented Chronology
- July 23, 2026
The appeal is docketed as No. 2-26-0352.
- July 31, 2026
Order entered appointing OSAD and restricting the appellant from filing or communicating with appellee’s counsel.
- August 6, 11:31 a.m.
Envelope 39386845 is submitted — a supplement containing a declaration and a special-prosecutor request.
- August 7, 12:15 p.m.
That submission is refused with the comment “See order of 8/7.”
- August 7, 2026
The order of August 7 is entered, denying vacatur and denying counsel’s withdrawal.
- August 11, 2026
Record due dates are fixed: report of proceedings September 10, record on appeal September 24.
- August 13, 2026
A letter to this office asks for the instruction under which the refusal issued, and for the authority for it.
Still Not Produced
Each of these records exists inside a government system. Each has been requested. None has been supplied.
- The written instruction under which envelope 39386845 was refused, and the authority for it.
- Whether direct notice of the August 7 order was transmitted to the appellant, and on what date.
- Whether any order of this court examines the July 31 filing restriction on its own terms.
If any of it is produced, or if Jeffrey H. Kaplan disputes a documented fact on this page, the response will be published here in full, with its date. Read the correction standard.
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