A proposal to raise the ceiling on small claims in Illinois will be heard by the state Supreme Court's rules committee today, and proponents say the measure would give more people access to the courts system.

The state's current small claims limit of $5,000 is at the national median, but an increase to $7,500 "would leave far fewer people stuck outside the justice system," according to HALT, a nonpartisan public interest group that wants the legal system to improve access and accountability and to reduce costs in the civil justice system.

"Many Illinois residents are currently stranded in a legal no-man's land because their routine legal problems have a dollar value above the state's ceiling on small claims, yet they cannot afford to hire an attorney for such a simple matter," said HALT senior counsel Tom Gordon. "These people are effectively shut out of the legal system."

The Supreme Court's rules committee will hold a hearing on the proposal today in Chicago, then make a recommendation to the high court. There is no timetable for action by either the committee or the court.

Small claims court, which is held twice each week in Sangamon County, is a simple way for people or businesses to sue without hiring attorneys, although hiring an attorney is allowed and recommended.

Filing and pre-trial procedures are simple compared to other types of lawsuits, but the rules of evidence and law apply in small-claims court, just like any other. The proposal to raise the limit in Illinois is offered by the Illinois State Bar Association and is an outgrowth of the 2002 "Future of the Courts" conference organized by the ISBA, said Chicago attorney Tim Eaton, who was president of the association in 2002.

"One issue at that conference was access to the courts and people who would have small claims, but couldn't afford lawyers," Eaton said. "Frankly, the definition of small claims has just changed," he said. "This would give more people the opportunity to go into a court-friendly situation."

HALT supports the increase to a $7,500 limit, but calls it only "a significant step." It urges Illinois to consider an even higher limit - $10,000 or even $15,000 or $20,000. The highest statewide cap is Tennessee's $15,000, although parts of that state have caps as high as $25,000, Gordon said.

"HALT believes that $20,000 is a reasonable and appropriate limit, considering the dollar value of typical consumer problems that could easily be resolved in small claims court," he said.

Georgia also has a small claims cap of $15,000, while Alaska and New Mexico have limits of $10,000, according to a HALT survey. Pennsylvania and South Dakota each has a limit of $8,000.

Gordon said his organization understands a $20,000 limit "is an ambitious goal that will require incremental steps to achieve."

Court administrators in several states have raised the concern that higher dollar limits will result in a dramatic increase in small claims cases, straining the court system. Gordon says that won't happen.

He cites a HALT analysis of data from small claims courts over the past 18 years that finds a jurisdictional limit increase rarely results in a larger caseload. The study indicates that in most cases, the caseloads don't change at all. The average increase in caseload was only 5.4 percent.

Illinois last raised its ceiling in 1995, to $5,000 from $2,500. But the small claims caseload decreased by 3.2 percent in the first year of the higher limit, and five years later it still was 2.1 percent lower.

Eaton doesn't think an increase to $7,500 will cause a huge caseload increase, either. "The margin between $5,000 and $7,500 isn't so much," he said. "The idea was that we ought to, in small cases, have more people handling these on their own," he said. "There is an increase in the number of pro se (where people represent themselves in civil court) cases now."

The number of small claims cases filed in Sangamon County has gone up and down over the past five years. It went up the year following an increase in the filing fee, according to circuit clerk records.

A total of 7,081 small claims cases were filed last year, up from 6,598 in 2003, but only the fourth-highest total in the past six years.

Until Aug. 1, 2001, filing fees ranged from $37 to $52, depending on the amount being sought. The new fee schedule has four levels rather than two, and amounts range from $41 to $106.

During Monday's testimony, HALT's Gordon also will outline further measures the group, which has about 3,000 members in Illinois and 50,000 nationally, thinks are needed to ensure full access to Illinois small claims courts.

They include: providing assistance with collecting judgments; authorizing small claims judges to issue court orders; expanding small claims dispute resolution programs; and making small claims courts user-friendly by adding additional hours of court operation and simplifying procedures.

In 2004, only Cook County in Illinois offered small claims mediation services to help people resolve their disputes before going before a judge, and only Adams County courts employed advisors to help people navigate the small claims system.

Eaton said part of the ISBA's proposal also suggests the high court revisit the small claims jurisdictional limit every five years and adjust it if necessary