705 ILCS 130/15 – Fund; fee; administration

(a) In judicial circuits which include a county with a population of over 650,000 and less than 1,000,000 inhabitants, a domestic relations legal fund may be established by any such county by the passage of an ordinance by the county board.
(b) In each judicial circuit in which the county board has enacted an ordinance authorizing a domestic relations legal fund to be established, the county board shall set a fee to be collected by the clerk of the circuit court on all civil case filings of not less than $1 nor more than $8 to be paid by the plaintiff at the time of the filing of the case and by the defendant at the time of filing an appearance. The county board shall review the amount of the fee on an annual basis and shall increase the amount of the fee, not to exceed the $8 maximum, if the demand for legal representation requires additional funding.
(c) In each judicial circuit in which the county board has enacted an ordinance authorizing the domestic relations legal fund to be established, the clerk of the circuit court shall charge and collect a domestic relations legal fund fee as established by the county ordinance, such fee to be paid by the parties to the action at the time of filing the first pleading in all civil cases. Such fees shall not be charged in any proceeding commenced by or on behalf of a unit of local government.
Such fees shall be in addition to all other fees and charges of such clerks, shall be assessable as costs, and shall be remitted by such clerks monthly to the county treasurers, and shall be disbursed monthly by the county treasurer to the domestic relations legal fund established under this Section. Each such clerk shall commence such charges and collections upon receipt of written notice from the county board of the judicial circuit that a domestic relations legal fund has been established.
(d) Each domestic relations legal fund established under this Section shall be administered by the Chief Judge of the judicial circuit in which the fund is established.

(Source: P.A. 89-56, eff. 1-1-96.)