Commercial Banking, Collections, and Bankruptcy

(Guzzardi, D-Chicago; Halpin, D-Rock Island) creates the Consumer Contract Reciprocal Attorney’s Fees Act. If a consumer contract allows for the recovery of attorney’s fees in an action brought by a “commercial party,” the court may award reasonable attorney’s fees to the defendant if he or she prevails in the action. This bill applies to any action filed on or after Jan. 1, 2024. Exemptions include if the commercial party doesn’t request attorney’s fees in its complaint or each party to the consumer contract was represented by counsel in the negotiation of the consumer contract. Effective Jan. 1, 2024.

(Stava-Murray, D-Downers Grove; Villivalam, D-Chicago) amends the Landlord and Tenant Act to prohibit a landlord from requiring a tenant or prospective tenant to pay by electronic fund transfer to a landlord under a residential lease, renewal, or extension agreement. On or after March 1, 2024, a violation is an unlawful practice under the Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act. This Act applies to leases or agreements executed after January 1, 2024. 

(Murphy, D-Des Plaines; Collins, D-Chicago) deletes Section 15-1503(b) that requires, among other things, a copy of the notice of foreclosure to be sent by first class mail to the municipality or county within the boundary of which the residential real estate is located. Provides that the court may seal a file, upon motion of a mortgagor, of any foreclosure action filed during the “COVID-19 emergency and economic recovery period.” (From March 9, 2020, to December 31, 2021.) This Section applies to any action to foreclose a mortgage relating to: (1) residential real estate as defined in Section 15-1219; and (2) real estate improved with a dwelling structure containing dwelling units for six or fewer families living independently of each other in which the mortgagor is a natural person landlord renting the dwelling units, even if the mortgagor does not occupy any of the dwelling units as the mortgagor’s personal residence. This section doesn’t apply to mortgages enacted by the Federal National Mortgage Association, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, the Federal Housing Administration, or the Department of Veterans Affairs. If a residential eviction action filed during the COVID-19 emergency and economic recovery period is still pending after June 9, 2023, the court shall order the sealing of the court file. Effective June 9, 2023, but this section is repealed on June 1, 2025. 

(Croke, D-Chicago; Ellman, D-Naperville) creates a new article in the Probate Code authorizing the use of electronic nontestamentary estate planning documents. “Nontestamentary estate planning document” means a record relating to estate planning that is readable as text at the time of signing and is not a will or contained in a will. It applies to electronic records readable as text at the time of signing that creates, exercises, modifies, releases, or revokes estate planning documents with the exception of deeds to real estate and car titles. Passed both chambers. 
 

(Gong-Gershowitz, D-Glenview; Martwick, D-Chicago) amends the Transportation Network Providers Act (Lyft and Uber) to delete statutory language that provides that TNCs are not common carriers, contract carriers, or motor carriers on or after January 1, 2024. Passed both chambers. 

(Halpin, D-Chicago; Williams, D-Chicago) amends the Code of Civil Procedure to do two things. (1) If a defendant seeks an examination of the plaintiff during discovery, it allows the plaintiff to have an additional person to be present and video record the examination. (2) Amends the statute giving a preference for a trial setting by lowering the age of a party from 70 to 67 and includes the surviving spouse or next of kin in a wrongful death action. It requires the case to commence within one year of the motion granting the preference unless the court finds that the moving party does not have a substantial interest in the case as a whole. If any new party is added to a lawsuit after the trial setting, any party may move the court to reschedule the trial to commence up to one year after the date a new defendant appeared and answered the complaint or up to one year after the date a plaintiff was added to the lawsuit. The court shall (now, may) grant a motion for preference in setting for trial if a party or, in the case of a wrongful death action, the surviving spouse or next of kin, shows substantial physical or financial hardship or alternatively shows good cause that the interests of justice will be served by granting a preference in setting for trial within one year of the hearing on the motion. Allows any party to move for a trial continuance of up to six months for good cause shown. Applies to actions commenced or pending on or after it becomes law. Passed both chambers. 

(Syed, D-Palatine; Ram Villivalam, D-Chicago) creates the Court Record and Document Accessibility Act to harmonize the statutes with Supreme Court Rule 8. It clarifies definitions and standardizes access to court records if there are restrictions on its distribution. Passed both chambers. 

(Tarver, D-Chicago; Sims, D-Chicago) provides that "seller" does not include a beneficiary who has both (1) never occupied the residential real property and (2) never had management responsibility for the residential real property. Passed both chambers. 

(Collins, D-Chicago; Johnson, D-Waukegan) allows a person who has been convicted of a felony to act as an executor if: (1) the testator names that person as an executor and expressly acknowledges in the will that the testator is aware that the person has been convicted of a felony before the execution of the will or codicil; (2) the person is not prohibited by law from receiving a share of the testator’s estate; (3) the person was not previously convicted of financial exploitation of an elderly person or a person with a disability, financial identity theft, or a similar crime in another state or in federal court; and (4) the person is not incarcerated in a state or federal prison. Passed both chambers. 

(Guzzardi, D-Chicago; Halpin, D-Rock Island) creates the Consumer Contract Reciprocal Attorney’s Fees Act. If a consumer contract allows for the recovery of attorney’s fees in an action brought by a “commercial party,” the court may award reasonable attorney’s fees to the defendant if he or she prevails in the action. This bill applies to any action filed on or after Jan. 1, 2024. Exemptions include if the commercial party doesn’t request attorney’s fees in its complaint or each party to the consumer contract was represented by counsel in the negotiation of the consumer contract. Passed both chambers.