PSA: Landlord tenant court timelines changed after that 2023 law update

I had a case last year about a security deposit dispute in Rogers Park. Took 4 months start to finish. Friend just filed a similar case and got a hearing in 6 weeks. City council updated the eviction timeline rules in 2023. But did they speed up all housing cases or just some? Some lawyers say it's better now. Others think it just moved the bottleneck. Anyone else seeing faster court dates since those changes?

3 comments

3 Comments

ward.anna3d ago

Actually the 2023 changes mostly focused on eviction docket timelines, not security deposit or general housing cases. My experience matches your friend's - small claims housing cases moved faster because judges have more time without eviction cases clogging the calendar. That bottleneck just shifted to enforcement hearings instead.

mark_green3d ago

@ward.anna nailed it, the docket changes just moved the problem around.

walker.julia3d ago

Wait, is that actually true though? @ward.anna I had the opposite experience - my buddy filed an eviction case in Albany Park in late 2023 and it took over 5 months just to get a first hearing. The court website still shows the same old waiting periods for most housing stuff too. I've heard from a couple landlords that the 2023 changes actually made things worse because they added more paperwork requirements that slow everything down. And the judges in my area still seem to have the same backlog for security deposit cases, they just renamed the docket and called it a day.