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Finding Illinois Law

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Illinois Administrative Agency Publications Online

By Tom Gaylord

There's a wealth of free agency information online for those who know where to look.

In my last column, we looked at how to find administrative decisions of Illinois state agencies online. This time, I'll show you where to find other agency and state publications.

Forms

Many agencies publish forms that enable users to file documents with them, be they petitions, applications, complaints, etc. At the state's official Web site (http://www.il.gov/), there is a quick link menu to frequently requested forms in the lower right-hand corner.

The drop down menu lets the user go directly to forms for child support (http://www.ilchildsupport.com/forms.html), human services (http://www.dhs.state.il.us/serviceProviders/dhs_dhs-forms.asp), taxes (http://www.revenue.state.il.us/taxforms/index.htm), motorists (http://www.cyberdriveillinois.
com/publications/motorist pub.html), businesses (http://business.illinois.gov/form.cfm), public health (http://www.
idph.state.il.us/ pub _home_forms.htm ), state employment (http://www.state.il.us/cms/1_employ/download.htm), medical programs (http://www.hfs.illinois.gov/medicalforms/), and a collection of additional links to agency forms (http://www.il.gov/forms.cfm) ranging from forms for museum grants to a "Request for Investigation of a Lawyer" (not that anyone would want that one of those).

In addition to these shortcuts, remember to check the relevant agency's Web site for forms not covered here. A list of agency Web sites is available at http://www.illinois.gov/government/agency.cfm.

How do I...?

Also available as a quick link on the state's home page is a collection of "how to's" explaining how to get certain things done (http://www.il.gov/how_do_i.cfm). A few dozen explanations are available, from purchasing hunting licenses or registering a business, to ordering a traffic crash report or looking up corporate and limited liability company names or ordering vital records.

Other publications

An often-overlooked resource for figuring out how Illinois works is the Illinois Handbook of Government (http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/publications/handbook/handbooktoc.html). It is available in PDF and is similar to the federally published U.S. Government Manual. It includes organization charts for Illinois government, descriptions of the different constitutional offices, and the text of the U.S. and Illinois Constitutions, among other information.

Depending on the mission of the agency, in addition to forms (discussed above) and administrative decisions (discussed in the July column), among the types of publications agencies might issue are annual reports, public hearing transcripts, program brochures or information packets, materials required to be posted at worksites, and handbooks or manuals for agency inspectors. Virtually every state agency has a link on its home page directing the user to "forms," "documents," "publications," or some similar indication of agency-published material.

In many, perhaps most, cases the agencies provide their publications in PDF format. Because it is relatively easy to find agency publications once you've found the agency's Web site, allow me to point out some representative examples from some of the more well-known agencies rather than catalog the entirety of state agency publications available online (as I attempted to do with the administrative decisions).

The Office of the Attorney General includes consumer-oriented publications that many attorneys will also find useful. These include information on credit and lending issues, crime victim assistance, franchises, scams and frauds, and identity theft (http://www.illinoisattorneygeneral.gov/consumers/consumer_publications.html). Individual programs and bureaus within the office also publish materials of a legal nature under the "Defending Your Rights" banner (http://www.illinoisattorneygeneral.gov/rights/index.html).

The Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission only has a few publications available on its site (http://www.iardc.org/pubs.html), but among them is the important Client Trust Account Handbook. Annual reports back to 2000 are also available.

The State Board of Education has publications located throughout its site (http://www.isbe.state.il.us/). Users should use the topical index along the left margin of the page to locate documents and publications on their topic of interest.

The publications available at theIllinois Education Labor Relations Board consist basically of decisions and forms. However, the site also has a frequently asked questions (FAQ) page (http://www.illinois.gov/elrb/faq.cfm) that makes it simple to answer many procedural (and some substantive) questions regarding the board and its regulations. FAQ pages are another excellent resource (where they exist) for finding out how an agency's regulations and procedures work in practice.

The Department of Employment Security hosts a wealth of materials on their site (http://www.ides.state.il.us/publications/default.asp). In addition to reports and mandatory workplace posters, there are many documents geared towards both employees (and the unemployed) and employers.

The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, like its federal counterpart, has one of the largest collections of agency-published materials online (http://www.epa.state.il.us/forms-publications.html). Many publications are sorted by media (air, land, water), and archives of various EPA newsletters are available as well.

The Department of Human Rights has material including procedural and information brochures, reports, and research data (http://www.state.il.us/dhr/Publications/dhr_publ.htm). IDHR also has an extensive collection of FAQs on a variety of topics (http://www.state.il.us/dhr/FAQ/default.htm).

The Labor Relations Board posts its annual reports and recent developments (from the Chicago-Kent College of Law Kent Conferences) since 2000 (http://www.state.il.us/ilrb/subsections/publications/index.asp). Meeting minutes for both the state and local panels are also available since the beginning of 2006 (http://www.state.il.us/ilrb/subsections/minutes/index.asp).

As it did with the availability of administrative decisions, the Illinois Pollution Control Board takes top honors in the extent of other materials archived on their site (http://www.ipcb.state.il.us/includes/SubMenu.asp). Included are annual reports back to 1971 and issues of the Environmental Register back to 1990.

Finally, in addition to having perhaps the most forms available of any agency (no surprise), the Department of Revenue also has one of the larger collections of informational publications available online (http://www.revenue.state.il.us/Publications/index.htm). Publications include annual reports, informational bulletins back to 1981, and informational pamphlets and brochures covering various aspects of different taxes.

And finally...

Although these last two columns have focused on state agencies, remember that counties and other municipalities have publications and forms available as well, including administrative materials. You can find municipal Web sites from the state's "Living in Illinois" page (http://illinoisgis.ito.state.il.us/communities/).