(Court opinion corrected 6/30/20.) Plaintiffs' counsel e-filed a personal injury and wrongful death complaint on the last day of the statute of limitations period, a Friday, within the first 2 weeks of Cook County's mandated transition from paper to electronic court files. Clerk did not notify Plaintiffs' counsel until the following Tuesday that the document was being rejected because the e-filing envelope lacked counsel's Cook County Attorney Code. Counsel immediately corrected the omission, resubmitted it, and clerk accepted and file-stamped it that day. Error was not caused by counsel's inattentiveness to e-filing procedures, but was caused by the e-filing procedure itself. Court erred in denying Plaintiffs' Rule 9(c) motion for relief, as Plaintiffs' counsel showed good cause for late filing. Remanded with directions to correct filing date nunc pro tunc. (ELLIS and COBBS, concurring.)
Illinois Appellate Court
Civil Court
Statute of Limitations