Supreme Court Backtracks on E-mail Service
The Illinois Supreme Court moved swiftly over the Christmas Holiday to revise the rules of service of court documents/pleadings. It had previously wanted to force all lawyers and parties to get set up for service and receipt of court papers by e-mail. (see post below) But last week the Court clearly has revisited whether that was such a good idea and has now revised the revised Rule 11. Thus in this sudden about-face before the new rule was even effective, email service of documents is now just allowed, it is not mandatory . If a lawyer or party wants to get service by email, then he or she should list an email address on pleadings filed with the court. Summarized as follows: If an email address is listed on pleadings and/or email is used by the sending party themselves, then that attorney or party consents to the use of email and service by email is valid. If an email address is not listed on the filed pleadings OR the party or attorney r...