This law firm should subscribe to the Northern Law Blog.

A law firm from Chicago was hired to appeal the property tax assessments for 71 different parcels of real estate located in Aurora Township, Kane County, Illinois. The tax appeals were due by October 4, 2013, the thirtieth day after the publication of the tax assessments. On October 4, 2013, the law firm sent its petitions to the Kane County Board via FedEx. The Board received the petitions on October 7, 2013 and rejected them as untimely.  

The petitioner appealed, arguing that the "mailbox rule" should apply. The mailbox rule, which is contained in the Statute on Statutes, 5 ILCS 70/1.25, provides that a document is deemed "filed" as of the date of mailing via United States mail, regardless of when the document is actually received. However, petitioner's argument was unsuccessful because multiple Illinois appellate courts have previously held that the mailbox rule does not apply to private carriers such as UPS or FedEx, but rather only applies to documents placed in the U.S. mail. Here is a link to the 2d District's opinion.

It's too bad that the petitioner's law firm does not subscribe to this Blog because I wrote about one of those cases more than five years ago. See Mailbox Rule Does Not Apply to UPS, Northern Law Blog (February 10, 2009). I don't know how much money was at stake in those 71 tax appeals, but I do know that a subscription to the Northern Law Blog would have been much, much cheaper than the malpractice case that will most certainly follow this decision.