The Cook County Sheriff’s Office has overcharged people to serve court papers, according to a new class action lawsuit.
On April 22, attorneys with the firm of Caferty Clobes Meriwether & Sprengel, of Chicago, filed suit in Cook County Circuit Court. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of named plaintiff Guadalupe Robles, identified only as a resident of Cook County, as well as potentially a class of at least tens of thousands of others who have pressed legal claims and pursued other matters in Cook County’s courts.
The lawsuit names as defendants Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart and Cook County.
Daniel Herrera
| Cafferty Clobes Meriwether & Sprengel
According to the lawsuit, Illinois state law requires anyone filing a lawsuit anywhere in the state to use county sheriff’s offices for their first attempt at serving notice of the lawsuit to defendants. The complaint notes this also applies to divorce cases, child adoptions and other family law matters.
The law also allows county sheriffs to charge fees for the service.
However, state law caps the amount those sheriffs can charge. According to the lawsuit, the law permits Cook County to charge a fee of $35 for the first attempt at service of process.
Anyone who refuses to pay the fee, or is unable to, are prevented from exercising their rights to redress of grievance in Illinois courts, the lawsuit says.
However, while the fees are capped, the lawsuit alleges the Cook County Sheriff’s Office routinely charges litigants $60 for such service.
“The Cook County Sheriff, however, has for years ignored this statutory cap, charging litigants $60 for each attempt at Service of Process – well in excess of the statutorily-prescribed amount – and flouted the carefully calibrated balance (state lawmakers) created…,” the plaintiffs said in their lawsuit.
According to the complaint, Robles filed suit in Cook County court in 2019 over a broken arm she claims she suffered when living in a building that was under construction.
To serve two defendants in her lawsuit, Robles said she paid the sheriff’s office $120. The case was resolved in February 2022.
However, the complaint asserts the Cook County Sheriff’s Office continues to significantly overcharge litigants like Robles for process service, charging its $60 fee “by fiat,” in excess of the law.
“Every day that the Cook County Sheriff’s Office continues its unlawful practices imposes greater risk of harm, as well as actual harms, on the public, who have no choice but to pay the Sheriff’s Office fees in excess of the statutory maximum in order to seek redress against litigants located in Cook County,” the complaint said.
The plaintiffs seek to expand the action to include anyone who has paid fees to the Cook County Sheriff’s Office for process service in the past five years. The plaintiffs estimate this could easily include tens of thousands of people.
However, according to Illinois state court statistics, Cook County’s courts in the third quarter of 2021 alone logged 349,278 civil cases and 59,264 domestic relations cases.
The lawsuit asks the court to declare the Sheriff’s Office has violated the law.
Further, the plaintiffs ask the court to order the Cook County Sheriff’s Office to create a fund with enough money to repay the alleged fee overcharges, with interest, to everyone included in the plaintiffs’ class. They are also seeking attorney fees.
The plaintiffs are represented by attorneys Daniel O. Herrera and Edward A. Khatskin, of the Caferty Clobes firm.