Hot take: Most Chicago eviction notices are legally invalid and tenants don't know it.

I found out from the CARPLS legal aid site that around 60% of eviction filings in Cook County get kicked out for missing paperwork, has anyone else fought one of these and won?

3 comments

3 Comments

keith2741d ago

pat_roberts55 said "Judge threw the whole thing out because the paperwork was a mess" - but that's a rare win in a system that's stacked against tenants. Sure, 60% get kicked out initially, but most of those cases just get refiled with the right paperwork, so the tenant ends up in the same spot a month later with lawyer fees piling up. I've seen landlords learn from one mistake and come back with everything perfect the second time, and then the tenant has to start their whole defense over from zero. Fighting a technicality just buys you a little time, not a real victory, and it can make the landlord dig in harder for a judgment down the line.

fiona_kim971d ago

Call CARPLS before you do anything else, they caught a missing signature on my notice.

pat_roberts551d ago

Fought one for my neighbor a few years back. The landlord sent a 5 day notice that didn't even have the right date on it, and the eviction filing was missing the lease copy and some other court form. My neighbor almost just moved out because he thought he had no options. I found a free tenant rights clinic at the Harold Washington Library that walked us through it. Judge threw the whole thing out because the paperwork was a mess. Landlord had to start all over again from scratch, which took them another two months. Made me realize how many people probably just give up without checking the details first.