How to File Post-Judgment Documents on eFileIL

Most post-judgment filings in Illinois — including citations to discover assets, wage deduction summonses, and non-wage garnishments — must be electronically filed through eFileIL. Supreme Court Rule 9 provides exceptions and exemptions from mandatory e-filing. If you have never used the portal for enforcement filings, the process has a few traps that reject documents without explanation.

Getting Into the Right Case

You are not starting a new case. Post-judgment filings go into the existing small claims docket where your judgment was entered. On eFileIL, search for your case by number, select it, and file into the existing case envelope.

Choose the correct civil filing code for your document type. A Citation to Discover Assets, a Wage Deduction Affidavit, and a Non-Wage Garnishment Affidavit each have separate codes. Picking the wrong code can delay processing or get the filing rejected by the clerk.

The PDF Flattening Problem

This is where most pro se filers get stuck. The statewide approved forms from the Illinois Courts website are interactive PDFs — they have fillable form fields you can type into. eFileIL often rejects these interactive PDFs or strips the data from the form fields during upload, producing blank documents that the clerk accepts but that are useless when served.

The fix is flattening the PDF before upload. Flattening bakes the text you typed into the document as permanent content, removing the interactive form layer.

How to flatten a PDF (free methods):

• Print to PDF: Open the filled form, choose File → Print, and select "Save as PDF" or "Microsoft Print to PDF" as the printer. The output is a flat PDF.
• Preview on Mac: Open the filled PDF in Preview, choose File → Export as PDF. The exported file is flat.
• Online tools: Smallpdf, ILovePDF, and Sejda all offer free PDF flattening. Upload, flatten, download.

After flattening, open the new file and verify all your text survived. Then upload the flattened version to eFileIL.

Filing Fees and Service

Post-judgment filing fees vary by county and document type. You pay through eFileIL at the time of submission using a credit card or approved payment account. Under 735 ILCS 5/12-715, costs of obtaining a garnishment order are charged to the judgment debtor unless the court determines they were improperly incurred; other post-judgment fees are added only when the governing statute or court order allows them.

Service is separate from filing. After eFileIL accepts your citation or garnishment, you still need to arrange service — either through the County Sheriff or a licensed private process server, or by certified mail (return receipt requested) depending on the document type and local rules. The filed-stamped copy from eFileIL is what gets served.

Common Rejection Reasons

• Un-flattened PDFs: The most common. Flatten before upload.
• Wrong filing code: Double-check you selected the post-judgment enforcement code, not a pre-trial motion code.
• Missing attachments: Some filings require the Income and Asset Form or employer interrogatories to be uploaded as separate documents in the same envelope.
• Case mismatch: Filing into the wrong case number, or filing into a case in the wrong county's system.

The Illinois Judgment Collection Guide includes the exact eFileIL filing codes for each enforcement tool, along with document preparation checklists that prevent rejection.

See more Illinois guides →