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92_HB3200
LRB9203559WHcs
1 AN ACT concerning civil procedure.
2 Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
3 represented in the General Assembly:
4 Section 5. The Code of Civil Procedure is amended by
5 changing Section 2-201 as follows:
6 (735 ILCS 5/2-201) (from Ch. 110, par. 2-201)
7 Sec. 2-201. Commencement of actions - Forms of process.
8 (a) Every action, unless otherwise expressly provided by
9 statute, shall be commenced by the filing of a complaint. The
10 clerk shall issue summons upon request of the plaintiff. The
11 form and substance of the summons, and of all other process,
12 and the issuance of alias process, and the service of copies
13 of pleadings shall be according to rules.
14 (b) One or more duplicate original summonses may be
15 issued, marked "First Duplicate," "Second Duplicate," etc.,
16 as the case may be, whenever it will facilitate the service
17 of summons in any one or more counties, including the county
18 of venue.
19 (c) Waiver of service.
20 (1) A defendant who waives service of a summons
21 does not thereby waive any objection to the venue or to
22 the jurisdiction of the court over the person of the
23 defendant.
24 (2) An individual, partner, partnership,
25 association, voluntary unincorporated association, or
26 corporation that receives notice of an action in the
27 manner provided in this subsection (c) has a duty to
28 avoid unnecessary costs of serving the summons. To avoid
29 costs, the plaintiff may notify such a defendant of the
30 commencement of the action and request that the defendant
31 waive service of a summons. The notice and request:
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1 (A) shall be in writing and shall be addressed
2 directly to the defendant, if an individual, or else
3 to an officer or managing or general agent (or other
4 agent authorized by appointment or law to receive
5 service of process) of a corporation, association,
6 or voluntary unincorporated association;
7 (B) shall be dispatched through first-class
8 mail or other reliable means;
9 (C) shall be accompanied by a copy of the
10 complaint and shall identify the court in which it
11 has been filed;
12 (D) shall inform the defendant of the
13 consequences of compliance and of a failure to
14 comply with the request;
15 (E) shall set forth the date on which request
16 is sent;
17 (F) shall allow the defendant a reasonable
18 time to return the waiver, which shall be at least
19 30 days from the date on which the request is sent,
20 or 60 days from that date if the defendant is
21 addressed outside the State of Illinois; and
22 (G) shall provide the defendant with an extra
23 copy of the notice and request, as well as a prepaid
24 means of compliance in writing.
25 If a defendant located within the United States fails to
26 comply with a request for waiver made by a plaintiff, the
27 court shall impose the costs subsequently incurred in
28 effecting service on the defendant unless good cause for
29 the failure be shown.
30 (3) A defendant that, before being served with
31 process, timely returns a waiver so requested is not
32 required to serve an answer to the complaint until 60
33 days after the date on which the request for waiver of
34 service was sent, or 90 days after that date if the
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1 defendant was addressed outside the United States.
2 (4) When the plaintiff files a waiver of service
3 with the court, the action shall proceed, except as
4 provided in paragraph (3), as if a summons and complaint
5 had been served at the time of filing the waiver, and no
6 proof of service shall be required.
7 (5) The costs to be imposed on a defendant under
8 paragraph (2) for failure to comply with a request to
9 waive service of a summons shall include the costs
10 subsequently incurred in effecting service under this
11 Part 2, together with the costs, including a reasonable
12 attorney's fee, of any motion required to collect the
13 costs of service.
14 (Source: P.A. 82-280.)