Illinois Statutes Chapter 735. Civil Procedure § 5/2-201. Commencement of actions--Forms of process

(a) Every action, unless otherwise expressly provided by statute, shall be commenced by the filing of a complaint. The clerk shall issue summons upon request of the plaintiff. The form and substance of the summons, and of all other process, and the issuance of alias process, and the service of copies of pleadings shall be according to rules.

(b) One or more duplicate original summonses may be issued, marked “First Duplicate,” “Second Duplicate,” etc., as the case may be, whenever it will facilitate the service of summons in any one or more counties, including the county of venue.

(c) A court's jurisdiction is not affected by a technical error in format of a summons if the summons has been issued by a clerk of the court, the person or entity to be served is identified as a defendant on the summons, and the summons is properly served. This subsection is declarative of existing law.