Hit the 180-day mark on my tenant lawsuit and it's been a mess

I filed a small claims case against my old landlord back in January and I just realized we hit day 180 with no court date. The case is over a security deposit they never returned, about $1,400. I thought these things would get scheduled faster in Cook County but here we are waiting. My lawyer said the backlog is still bad from Covid delays. Has anyone else had a similar wait time for a landlord-tenant case in Chicago?

4 comments

4 Comments

bailey.jennifer3d ago

@grant155 makes a fair point about interest, but 4-5% on $1,400 is peanuts compared to the stress of waiting half a year. Call the courthouse clerk and ask for a status hearing date to push things along, that's what worked for me.

baker.christopher3d ago

1400 bucks and 180 days, sounds like the landlord's winning on interest alone.

grant1553d ago

Hang on, think about it from the other side though. That landlord is sitting on that deposit for six months, probably earning like 4-5% in a high yield savings account or whatever, which on $1400 is maybe 30 bucks total. That's not exactly winning big, especially if they have to hold it in a separate account by law. Meanwhile the tenant gets more time to scrape together cash or fix their credit, and 180 days to move out without an eviction on their record is pretty generous for a landlord who could have started the process way sooner. It's really not that sweet of a deal for the landlord when you factor in the headache of finding a new tenant and the lost rent if the unit sits empty for a month.

the_wesley3d ago

Man I read something the other day about Cook County still being like triple the normal wait time for these cases. It's honestly ridiculous you're sitting at six months for 1400 bucks.