Have I been legally served an alias summons?
In Illinois, an alias summons must be personally served upon you, or left with a member of your family who is 13 years of age or older. Leaving the summons in a common room does not constitute valid service. Do not go to court to protest the deficiency of your service. They want you to go to court to protest their service. At court, after you have complained about the service, they will personally hand you the complaint while you are in front of the judge. They will even tell the judge, “Judge, we are now serving the defendant.” And, yes, this would be effective service. As an aside, a $300 judgment in Illinois small claims will negatively affect your credit score. However, Illinois courts will do very little to enforce that judgment against you. Also, they will never issue an arrest warrant in small claims. Don’t even worry about that.
