Supreme Court to Decide if Mailbox Rule Applies to Comp Appeals

The Illinois Supreme Court last week agreed to take up the issue of whether the so-called mailbox rule – which deems the time of a document's filing to be the time of mailing – is applicable to appeals from the Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission. Earlier this year, a divided appellate court ruled that a state law requiring a proceeding for judicial review of a commission decision "be commenced within 20 days of the receipt of the notice of the decision" meant a court clerk had to actually have the petition in hand on the 20th day. Since Mark Gruszeczka's pet...