Administrative Courts

There are three different statutes which create Municipal Administrative Courts. All proceedings are held in Council Chambers whose entrance is located on the North side of the Village Hall off 148th Street.

Building Code Violations

• This part of the Illinois Municipal Code specifically identifies any ordinance, building code, zoning ordinance, or any municipal ordinance that requires, after notice, the cutting of weeds, the removal of garbage and debris, the removal of inoperative motor vehicles or the abatement of nuisances from private property.

• The statute further provides for violation notices, the creation of procedures for the Administrative Court, a hearing officer and the type of evidence that apply at a hearing, as well as defenses to code violations.

M.O.V.E.S. Court

M.O.V.E.S stands for Municipal Ordinance Violation Enforcement System. The Illinois Municipal Code provides for the following:

• It defines municipal ordinances that can be adjudicated through this division of the Illinois Municipal Code as any municipal ordinance except:

• Building code violations; and Any offense under the Illinois Vehicle Code or a similar offense that is a traffic regulation governing the movement of vehicles.

• The Code requires the establishment of a Code Hearing Department within an existing code enforcement agency (police department) or the creation of an independent Village agency.

• In addition, it provides that a police officer shall institute code hearing proceedings by writing a violation notice.

• The Code further provides the procedures to conduct the hearing, the types of evidence and the qualifications of hearing officers (which must be an attorney licensed to practice law in the State of Illinois for at least three years), and administrative review.

Parking Tickets (P-Tickets) and Compliance Tickets
The Illinois Vehicle Code provides for an Administrative Court for certain types of non-moving violations (parking tickets, compliance/equipment tickets, and the impoundment of vehicles).

• The Illinois Vehicle Code provides for the administrative adjudication of “vehicular standing and parking violations and vehicle compliance violations as defined in this subsection and automatic traffic law violations as defined in Section 11-208.6”.

• In addition, Article II of the Illinois Vehicle Code provides that the administrative system can only adjudicate civil offenses up to the specified maximum.

• In addition, the statute requires a village to adopt a traffic compliance administrator, a violation notice, as well as establishing procedures for service of the violation notice, an opportunity for hearing, service of additional notices (second notice of the violation and a notice of final determination), notice of impending driver’s license suspension, final determinations of violation liability, procedures for petition to set aside the determination, procedures for non-residents, as well as a schedule of civil fines. The statute also provides that any municipality may provide by ordinance for vehicle immobilization.

• The statute also sets forth the procedures for judicial review pursuant to the Administrative Review Act.