Rule Text
If a case is appealed to either the Supreme Court or the Appellate Court, or the wrong district of the Appellate Court, which should have been appealed to a different court, the case shall be transferred to the proper court, and the clerk shall transmit the record on appeal and all other documents filed in the case, with the order of transfer, to the clerk of the proper court. That clerk shall file the record and other documents upon receiving them, without charging an additional filing fee, and the case shall then proceed as if it had been appealed to the proper court in the first instance. Any bond executed in such a transferred case is binding on the parties thereto with the same force and effect as if given in a case appealed directly to the court to which the case is transferred.
Amendment history: Amended December 17, 1993, effective February 1, 1994; amended June 22, 2017, eff. July 1, 2017.
Plain-English Summary (for reference only — not a substitute for the rule text above)
This summary is not the rule. The rule text controls.
If you accidentally file your appeal with the wrong court, the case will not be thrown out. Instead, it will be sent to the correct court automatically.
The court will transfer all your paperwork and records to the right place. You will not have to pay a new filing fee just because the case is being moved.
Once the correct court receives your case, everything continues as normal. Any legal agreements or bonds you already signed stay valid, just as if you had filed in the right court from the start.
Committee Notes
Paragraph (a) is former Rule 28-1(D), which belongs here rather than in the rule relating to direct appeals to the Supreme Court. Paragraph (b) is section 86 of the Civil Practice Act, which covers the same ground as former Rule 47.
(December 17, 1993) Paragraph (a) concerning collateral attack and waiver is deleted because it is an outdated vestige of practice under Illinois’ former Constitution.
This rule is expanded to permit limited, intra-district transfers when appeals are docketed in the wrong appellate court district.
