Illinois probate filing cost: not published

Why Illinois has no statewide figure

Illinois circuit court filing fees are set locally by each county's circuit clerk (fees vary by county population class); there is no single statewide probate opening fee. Where the amount is set: Circuit clerk fee schedules under the Clerks of Courts Act (705 ILCS 105).

Illinois sets a statutory ceiling on the filing fee and lets each county board fix the actual number underneath it

705 ILCS 105/27.1b opens by displacing everything else: "Notwithstanding any other provision of law, all fees charged by the clerks of the circuit court for the services described in this Section shall be established, collected, and disbursed in accordance with this Section." Fees are payable in advance and disbursed monthly. What the section then publishes is not a price — it is a maximum.

Subsection (a) routes a civil filing into a schedule "in accordance with case categories established by the Supreme Court." Schedule 1 may "not exceed a total of $371 in a county with a population of 3,000,000 or more and not to exceed $321 in any other county." Schedule 2 may not exceed $362 in a county of 3,000,000 or more and $266 in any other county. Cook County is the only Illinois county above three million, so in practice the higher column is Cook and the lower column is everywhere else.

Underneath the ceiling the statute splits the money three ways, and only the third part is discretionary. Under Schedule 1 the clerk retains up to $55 in the larger counties and up to $45 elsewhere, "determined by the clerk with the approval of the Supreme Court, to be used for court automation, court document storage, and administrative purposes." The clerk remits up to $26 to the State Treasurer, itemised by the section as up to $10 to the Mandatory Arbitration Fund, $2 to the Access to Justice Fund, $5 to the Guardianship and Advocacy Fund and $9 to the Supreme Court Special Purposes Fund. The balance — up to $290 in the larger counties and up to $250 elsewhere — goes to the County Treasurer "as specified by ordinance or resolution passed by the county board."

That last clause is why this page does not print a single Illinois probate filing fee. The statute fixes the cap and the split; the county board fixes the amount actually charged, and it can be anywhere at or below the cap. Two Illinois estates of identical size, filed in adjacent counties on the same day, can lawfully pay different fees. The number that governs is the current fee schedule published by the circuit clerk in the county of venue.

The section also names a group that does not pay in advance at all: in a county of over 3,000,000, units of local government and school districts are billed instead, with an itemised bill due within 30 days of the fee being incurred and at least 30 days allowed to pay.

Source: 705 ILCS 105/27.1b, read from the enacting state’s own published code on 2026-09-17. Quoted wording is the statute’s; the surrounding explanation is this site’s reading of it and is not legal advice.