NCJ Number
173024
Journal
Illinois Bar Journal Volume: 85 Issue: 8 Dated: August 1997 Pages: 356-363
Date Published
1997
Length
8 pages
Annotation
This article examines the Illinois administrative review law, discusses amendments to the statute, and reviews decisions that address the necessary-party-defendant issue, with attention to the changes made by the legislature, in part due to the 1990 Lockett decision, as well as the issue of who are necessary-party defendants to judicial review.
Abstract
On June 1, 1997, amendments to the Illinois Administrative Review Law became effective. These amendments were made to the review law, approved originally in 1945, which was "designed to provide a single uniform method by which the decisions of most of the administrative agencies of State government could be judicially reviewed" and to avoid "the snare of the extraordinary remedies." A plaintiff must file a complaint in court and serve summons on the defendants within 35 days of the agency decision; the defendants are the agency and all persons who were parties of record to the proceedings. What was intended to be simple became complicated in 1990. Then, confronted with the issue of who is a necessary-party defendant in Lockett v. Chicago Police Board, the Illinois Supreme Court concluded that the police superintendent (who had filed disciplinary charges against the police officer) "was a party of record to the proceedings before the board," and should have been named as a defendant. The failure to name the superintendent and to issue summons against that party was a fatal defect to the review action. The decision and subsequent legislation have resulted in confusion and ambiguity regarding who is a necessary party. Despite the best intentions, judicial precedent and legislative changes have made the "simple single review" law "a trap for the unwary." This article examines developments in the Illinois administrative review law set in motion by "Lockett" and the legislature. 98 footnotes