Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Illinois

This is a do it yourself case, correct?

1- If the defendant had not filed an appearance before arbitration, you should have filed a Motion to Default and defaulted the defendant; or

2- if the defendant had filed an appearance you should have issued a request to produce pursuant to supreme court rule 237.

If you did neither of these 2, and the defendant did not show up at arbitration, then the defendant has the right to reject the arbitration--you may argue that the court should not do so, but chances are the court will allow the attorney to file an appearance and come in after the fact.

You do however, have a chance of winning--that the 30 day rejection date has passed. That is like a statute of limitation-and the court should after having heard all the arguments at the hearing date, enter judgment in the amount of the arbitration award plus costs (if you asked for the costs at the arb hearing).

But, if judgment is entered, the insurance company will refuse to pay--since they can rely on the exclusion clause which says if the defendant does not cooperate they can deny coverage. In that case, you will be on your own to collect the judgment against the defendant personally... which in all likelihood may either take a long time and many efforts or may never happen.

I hope this helps-