In Re Marriage of Fotsch

PRESIDING JUSTICE BUCKLEY

delivered the opinion of the court:

The present cause comes before this court as a permissive interlocutory appeal pursuant to Supreme Court Rule 308 (87 Ill. 2d R. 308), and concerns a trial judge’s authority to adjudicate a matter in part upon transcripts of prior proceedings before another judge. The underlying matter is a contested petition for a change of child custody.

The record reveals that in November 1982 the circuit court entered a judgment dissolving the nine-year marriage of John Fotsch (John) and Catherine Fotsch, now Catherine Wilson (Catherine).…