(815 ILCS 121/55)

Sec. 55. Consumer legal funding license scope.

(a) It shall be unlawful for any person or entity to operate as a consumer legal funding provider in this State except as authorized by this Act and without first having obtained a license in accordance with this Act. No person or entity may engage in any device, subterfuge, or pretense to evade the requirements of this Act. However, any company that has a license in good standing under the Consumer Installment Loan Act on the effective date of this Act shall be entitled to make consumer legal fundings under the terms of this Act upon the effective date of this Act if that company files an application for a consumer legal funding license within 60 days after the Department issues forms for the filing of that application and until the Department approves or denies the application for a funding license. Any consumer legal funding contract made by any person or entity in violation of this subsection shall be null and void and the person or entity who entered into the consumer legal funding transaction shall have no right to collect, attempt to collect, receive, or retain any principal, interest, or charges related to the consumer legal funding transaction.

(b) The provisions of this Act do not apply to a bank, savings bank, savings association, or credit union organized under the laws of this State, any other state, or under the laws of the United States.

(c) Any consumer legal funding made by a person not licensed under this Act, including a person holding an inactive license, and not exempt under this Act shall be null and void, and no person or entity shall have any right to collect, attempt to collect, receive, or retain any principal, fee, interest, or charges related to the funding.

(Source: P.A. 102-987, eff. 5-27-22.)