Summers v. Catlin

── Summers v. Catlin ── Court: Appellate Court of Illinois Date: April 24, 2026 Category: General 2026 IL App (3d) 250194 Opinion filed April 24, 2026 ____________________________________________________________________________ IN THE APPELLATE COURT OF ILLINOIS THIRD DISTRICT 2026 PAUL SUMMERS, ) Appeal from the Circuit Court ) of the 12th Judicial Circuit, Petitioner-Appellant, ) Will County. ) v. ) Appeal No. 3-25-0194 ) Circuit No. 22-FA-357 SARA CATLIN, ) ) Honorable Respondent-Appellee. ) Raymond A. Nash, ) Judge, presiding. ____________________________________________________________________________ PRESIDING JUSTICE HETTEL delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion. Justices Holdridge and Bertani concurred in the judgment and opinion. ____________________________________________________________________________ OPINION ¶1 The circuit court issued an allocation judgment involving the petitioner, Paul Summers, and the respondent, Sara Catlin. Summers filed a notice of appeal from the judgment. Subsequently, he requested a waiver from the cost of the transcripts he claimed were needed for his appeal, as he had previously been granted a full waiver of court fees pursuant to Illinois Supreme Court Rule 298 (eff. Sept. 1, 2023). The circuit court denied Summers’s request and certified a question for this court regarding the scope of the waiver granted to Summers during the case. We granted Summers’s request for leave to appeal pursuant to Illinois Supreme Court Rule 308 (eff. Oct. 1, 2019) and now answer the certified question in the affirmative. ¶2 I. BACKGROUND ¶3 In June 2024, the circuit court issued an allocation judgment involving the parties and their minor child. Generally, the allocation judgment designated Catlin as the majority-time parent and granted Summers certain periods of parenting time. ¶4 Subsequently, Summers sought, and was granted, a full waiver of court fees pursuant to Illinois Supreme Court Rule 298 (eff. Sept. 1, 2023) because he was receiving means-based public benefits. ¶5 In January 2025, Summers filed a notice of appeal from numerous orders of the circuit court, including the June 2024 allocation judgment. He filed a request for preparation of the record on appeal but learned that the total cost of the transcripts would allegedly be $19,998.50. Accordingly, he filed a motion to request a waiver of the cost of those transcripts, citing the full fee waiver he had previously been granted. ¶6 The circuit court held a hearing on Summers’s motion and issued a written order in March 2025. The court’s order stated: “The Court denies the Petitioner’s Motion to Request Waiver of Transcripts Needed for Appeal. The Court finds that, although the Petitioner was granted a fee waiver pursuant to Supreme Court Rule 298 on September 16, 2024, that ‘fees, costs and charges’ as listed in 735 ILCS 5/5-105(a)(1) does not include a waiver of court transcript fees. The Court distinguishes the instant matter from the 2