Complete the following forms:

• Complaint for Administrative Review. Check with your local clerk of court's office to see if they have a Complaint for Administrative Review form. If they do, use your local court's form. If no form exists, you can use this form. Be sure to include the following in the Complaint:
  • List all necessary parties as defendants or the case may be dismissed. Necessary parties include the director of the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) and the Board of Review, as well as all "parties of record." You should always name your employer as a defendant.
  • Describe the decision made by the IDES Board that you want the judge to review. 
  • Ask IDES to file a transcript from the other appeals. 
• Affidavit of Last Known Address. Check with your local clerk of court's office to see if they have an Affidavit of Last Known Address form. If they do, use your local court's form. If no form exists, you can use this form.
• Summons. A summons notifies the defendant that a lawsuit has been filed in court against them and that the defendant has to appear in court. The defendants typically have 35 days to file an appearance. Check with your local clerk of court's office to see if a Summons form exists for administrative review cases. If no form exists, you can use this form.

Do this at the circuit court clerk in the county where you live. This is time sensitive: Do this within 35 calendar days after the mailing date of the date the Board of Review’s decision. If the 35th day falls on a day when the court is closed (Saturdays, Sundays, and public holidays), you can file your appeal on the next day that the court is open. To be on time, you must:

• file your complaint by the 35th day, and
• the clerk must “issue” the summons by the 35th day.

If you file your case on or near the 35th day, talk to the clerk to be sure that the clerk issues the summons by the 35th day.

File the following forms with the circuit clerk’s office:

• Complaint for Administrative Review, 
• Summons, and
• Affidavit of Last Known Address.

The circuit clerk charges a fee for filing most kinds of cases. However, the Unemployment Insurance Act says that the court may not charge a fee in an appeal in an unemployment case. In most counties, the clerk’s staff knows that this is the law. If the clerk asks you to pay a filing fee, you can ask to talk to a supervisor. Tell the supervisor that 820 ILCS 405/1200 says “No fee shall be charged any claimant in any proceeding under this Act by the Director or his representatives, or by the Referees or Board of Review, or by any court or the clerks thereof except as provided herein.”

If you are filing your case at or near the 35-day deadline, and the clerk still says you must pay a filing fee even after you show the supervisor the law, the safest thing to do is to pay the fee or ask for a fee waiver, rather than miss the deadline trying to avoid paying the fee.

Now that you have filled out your court forms, file your documents online via e-filing, or in person if you qualify for an exemption from the Illinois e-filing mandate. If you do not have access to a computer or a scanner, you can use a public terminal to e-file your forms at the courthouse. See E-Filing Basics for more information.

If you file the case in person, be sure that the clerk gives you back a copy of your complaint. The clerk will stamp the complaint and the copy to show the date it was filed; the copy the clerk gives back to you should have the date stamped on it. Be sure to keep it for your records.

The court clerk will serve the summons and complaint on IDES, the Board of Review, and your employer. The clerk uses certified mail to send the summons and complaint. It is a good idea to check back with the clerk to make sure that the clerk sent the summons and complaint. The clerks’ offices are very good about doing this, but it’s still a good idea to double-check.

IDES and the other IDES/Board of Review defendants will be represented by the Illinois Attorney General. They will file an appearance, which is a document telling the court that they want to be part of the case and defend their decision. 

Under the law, IDES must file the transcript of your Administrative Law Judge hearing and all the other documents that are part of the case at the Board of Review. Those documents are considered IDES’s “answer” to the complaint. They also are called “the record.”

IDES is supposed to file the record within 30 days of the date they receive the summons, but often they are late because there are so many cases against them in the courts. The judge almost certainly will give IDES more time to prepare and file the record. 

Most employers do not file an appearance in the court case. If the employer files an appearance, you should get a copy of it in the mail.

In some counties, the clerk may also give you your first court date when you file your complaint. In other counties, you will need to set a first court date. In those counties, the judge will set a date eventually if you do not set one yourself.

In counties where the clerk gives you the court date when you file the case, how you will find out about the court date (or hearing date) and time depends on how you filed your case.

• E-filing: The website you used to electronically file may let you pick your court date (or hearing date) and time. If it does not, contact the clerk. 
• Paper filing: If you file in person at the courthouse, the clerk will let you pick or they may pick for you.

If the clerk does not give you a court date when you file the case, wait until the 30 days have passed from service of the summons for IDES and the employer to file their appearances. Then contact the clerk and ask to set a date for a status hearing with the judge.

If you set the date, you will need to serve a Notice of Hearing on IDES’s lawyer. If the employer has filed an appearance, you will also need to serve a Notice of Hearing on the employer or its lawyer. Most judges won't require a written motion to review the status of a case. On the Notice of Hearing, in the "Motion" blank (number 1), you can write something like "review status of case."

Arrive early and dress like you would for a job interview. This court date will probably be the first of a few. The first court date is usually called a “status hearing.” If the lawyer for IDES has not filed the record with the transcript from your referee hearing and the other papers that were part of what the Board of Review considered, the judge may give IDES more time and set another court date.

Once the lawyer for IDES files the record, the judge may set a “briefing schedule.” A briefing schedule is a series of due dates for different documents such as the following:

• Memorandum of Law in Support of Complaint: this is where you discuss your argument in detail and in writing.
• Response Brief: the lawyers for IDES will file a Response Brief to respond to your Memorandum.
• Reply Brief: if you want, you can file a Reply Brief to reply to the defendants’ Response Brief.

At one of the court dates, after all of the briefs have been filed, you may be required to make an oral argument. This is your opportunity to argue to the judge why the Board of Review made a mistake. The judge may also ask you questions about your argument.

Do not bring witnesses to court because the judge will not let them testify. The judge cannot hear new evidence from you or from witnesses. The judge will decide whether the Board of Review made a mistake based upon the information it had.