Worried about doing this on your own? You may be able to get free legal help.
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.
Before using this program, you must:
- Send a letter to your landlord demanding the return of your security deposit, and
- Wait 45 days after you moved out of the apartment before suing your landlord.
Note: In Evanston, you only have to wait 21 days if the rental property is covered by the landlord-tenant ordinance. This program will help you figure out if the Evanston law or another landlord-tenant law applies.
To use this program:
- You must be at least 18 years old, and
- Your rental unit must be located in Illinois.
To complete this program, you will need to know:
- The name and address of your former landlord,
- The dates you moved in and moved out of the apartment,
- The amount and date of security deposit payments you made, and
- The date you sent your demand letter to the landlord.
You will also need a receipt for the security deposit or lease showing the security deposit was paid.
This program prepares the following forms. The forms you get will depend on your answers.
- How to File & Serve a Small Claims Complaint & Small Claims Summons
- Small Claims Complaint
- Additional Reasons (Small Claims Complaint)
- Additional Defendants (Small Claims Complaint)
- Small Claims Summons
- Small Claims Order
Legal Comment
Worried about doing this on your own? You may be able to get free legal help.
Only logged-in users can post comments. Please log in or register if you want to leave a comment. We do our best to reply to each comment. We can't give legal advice in the comments, so if you have a question or need legal help, please go to Get Legal Help.