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This program will help you prepare your documents. It will ask you questions and you will enter your answers. At the end of the program, you will get a completed set of court forms with instructions that you can save and print.
Form completion time: 10 minutes to 20 minutes
You will not be able to save your work in the middle of the program.
The button below takes you to another website to complete the guided interview. Learn more about Easy Forms.
The interview and forms are in English.
A program to help you ask the court to waive or reduce criminal court assessments or fees.
The forms work for all criminal cases, including felony and misdemeanor. They do not work in:
- Civil cases,
- Juvenile cases, or
- Traffic cases, unless you are filing in Cook County.
If you are filing in Cook County, the forms work for traffic and petty offenses in Schedules 2, 6, 9, 10, and 13 of Article 15 of the Criminal and Traffic Assessment Act.
When you are convicted of an offense in Illinois, the judge must enter a judgment requiring you to pay the costs of the prosecution. Starting on January 1, 2024, if you are convicted and incarcerated, you cannot be ordered to pay any outstanding fines, taxes, or costs related to your criminal proceeding during the first 180 days after your release from incarceration.
To use this program, you will need to know:
- Your criminal court case number and county,
- Your traffic court case number (if in Cook County),
- The public benefits that you get,
- Your income each month,
- Your income over the past 12 months,
- Your monthly expenses, and
- The value of your belongings.
This program prepares the following forms. The forms you get will depend on your answers.
- How to Ask the Judge to Waive Criminal Court Assessments
- How to Ask the Judge to Waive Criminal and/or Traffic Court Assessments in Cook County
- Application for Waiver of Criminal Court Assessments
- Application for Waiver of Criminal and/or Traffic Court Assessments For use in Cook County Only
- Addendum
- Order for Waiver of Criminal Court Assessments
- Order for Waiver of Criminal and/or Traffic Court Assessments For use in Cook County Only
Please note your assessment waiver does not need to be filed in-person, but can be e-filed, mailed, or filed through other means allowed by your local court.
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Worried about doing this on your own? You may be able to get free legal help.
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