In tax year 2025 the Cook County Board of Review closed 34,406 attorney-filed PIN-level decisions with no change under two codes that have nothing to do with value. 23,847 carried "result of no documentation submitted in addition to complaint form." 10,559 carried "failure to comply with Board of Review rules or requests and/or a failure to provide evidence supporting a decrease." That is 7.8 percent of the 440,288 decisions attorneys filed that year.
Pro se filers landed in those two codes 1.2 percent of the time: 961 of 82,754 decisions.
Neither code is a ruling on comparables or a value analysis. Both describe what was missing from the file or the filing. Building the file is the work a trained paralegal does. This article covers where the line sits between preparing and advising, what a curriculum should teach, and how to roll it out before the next window.
Quick Answer
In tax year 2025, 34,406 attorney-filed Board decisions (7.8%) ended with no change for missing documentation or rule failures, against 1.2% of pro se decisions. Paralegals can do most of the preparation that prevents those losses: records, comparables, evidence, calendars and authorization checks. They cannot advise clients or make legal judgments. Train the mechanics and the boundary together. Censum Academy is a free, self-paced version of that training.
The paperwork codes, year by year
Attorney-filed PIN-level decisions closed with no change under the two codes above:
- 2022: 31,188 of 411,292 attorney-filed decisions (7.6%). Pro se: 2.1%.
- 2023: 34,252 of 342,317 (10.0%). Pro se: 1.0%.
- 2024: 31,800 of 503,333 (6.3%). Pro se: 0.7%.
- 2025: 34,406 of 440,288 (7.8%). Pro se: 1.2%.
The list starts in 2022, the first tax year the county's dataset uses the no-documentation code in volume. Over 2023 through 2025 the attorney-filed total is 100,458. Censum's earlier article, 100,458 attorney-filed appeals died on paperwork, first reported 86,107 for the same codes from a May 2026 copy of the data, before every 2025 township had posted. The June 2026 copy adds the rest.
Most of the loss is on residential property. In 2025, 25,834 of the 34,406 were residential, 7.1 percent of attorney-filed residential decisions.
The count has stayed between 31,188 and 34,406 a year for four years, while total attorney-filed volume swung from 342,317 to 503,333. A loss that steady is a process to fix, and process is trainable.
Where attorney hours actually go
Ask a supervising attorney where the season's hours went and you hear the same list:
- Re-explaining uniformity versus market value to each new hire
- Fixing comparables that are not comparable
- Chasing missing documents after the complaint is drafted
- Correcting paperwork defects before finalization
The last two are the steps behind the paperwork codes.
The line: prepare and organize, advise and decide
A paralegal prepares and organizes. The supervising attorney advises and decides.
Rule 5.3 of the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct puts the duty on the lawyer. A lawyer with direct supervisory authority over a nonlawyer must make reasonable efforts to ensure the person's conduct "is compatible with the professional obligations of the lawyer." Partners and managers must have firm-wide measures giving reasonable assurance of the same. A trained paralegal is one of those measures.
Examples on each side:
- Prepare: pulling the property record card. Decide: whether a record error is the ground for the appeal.
- Prepare: assembling candidate comparables. Decide: which comparables go in the file and how to argue them.
- Prepare: building the township calendar. Decide: which matters to file and which to decline.
- Prepare: explaining what the Board of Review is, in general terms. Advise: telling a client whether to appeal.
When a client asks "Should I?", the trained answer is "That's a question for the attorney. Let me get you on their calendar."
Map the two codes to the paralegal's checklist
Both codes point at steps a paralegal can own, start to finish.
No documentation beyond the complaint form. The complaint went in and the evidence did not. The Board sets an evidence deadline after each township group closes. In the 2026 session it was ten days each time: Group 1 closed September 1 with evidence due September 11, Group 2 closed September 29 with evidence due October 9, and Group 3 closed November 6 with evidence due November 16. The control is a tracker that shows, for every PIN, whether evidence is uploaded, and flags any file still empty three days before its group's deadline.
Failure to comply with Board rules or requests. Two rules cause most of the avoidable trouble:
- Rule 2: the Board's Attorney Authorization Form goes in before the complaint is finalized. "Late Authorizations will not be accepted."
- Rule 9: when a property has two or more PINs, all related PINs "MUST be listed on one complaint form."
Both are checkable before the finalize click: current Board form, unaltered, signer matches the owner of record, every PIN on the complaint is on the form, and the attorney code matches.
None of this is legal judgment. All of it decides whether the attorney's argument gets read.
What a curriculum should cover
Censum Academy covers eleven topics, in this order:
- The appeal landscape and the paralegal's role
- Assessment basics
- Uniformity and equity
- Market value and the sales ratio
- Comparables
- Exemptions and Certificates of Error
- The Board of Review process and calendar
- The Property Tax Appeal Board
- Filing mechanics and evidence assembly
- The county layer
- Client handling within the unauthorized-practice boundary
The order matters. Staff who understand assessment levels and uniformity first build better comparables later. Topics 7 and 9 cover the steps behind the two paperwork codes.
Placement saves the experienced people
A short placement check sets where each person starts. Lessons then target the material just past what they have mastered. A ten-year paralegal skips the basics. A new hire starts at the beginning.
What the credential is, and is not
Finishing the course earns the "Censum Certified: Cook County Property Tax Appeals" completion credential. It is an honest record of completing the course. It is not an accredited, licensed or government-issued certification, and it does not authorize anyone to practice law.
Rolling it out before the season
- Have every support staff member take the placement check.
- Assign the modules each person needs, with a finish date before notices mail.
- Pair the course with the firm's own gates: the evidence tracker and the pre-finalization authorization check above.
- Have an attorney review a sample of each person's first files of the season.
- After decisions post, count the firm's own no-change decisions under the two codes. That is the training scorecard.
The numbers behind this article
Counts are Censum's tabulation of the Cook County Board of Review Appeal Decision History dataset (county open data, 7pny-nedm), last updated by the county on June 9, 2026. They are PIN-level decisions, not complaints. "Attorney-filed" and "pro se" use the dataset's attorney code. Code descriptions are the dataset's own. Censum is independent and not affiliated with the Board or any county office.
FAQ
What are the two paperwork codes?
"Result of no documentation submitted in addition to complaint form" and "Failure to comply with Board of Review rules or requests and/or a failure to provide evidence supporting a decrease." In tax year 2025 they closed 23,847 and 10,559 attorney-filed decisions.
Is Censum Academy free?
Yes. It is free and self-paced, with no cost to sign up.
Does completing it make someone licensed?
No. The credential records completion only.
Does it cover commercial appeals?
The course focuses on residential assessment appeals in Cook County.
Is the course legal advice?
No. It teaches mechanics and boundaries. Legal judgment stays with the supervising attorney.
Does Censum file or represent clients?
No. Censum LLC is independent property-tax intelligence and docket tooling. It is not a law firm. The attorney files and makes every legal judgment.
Sources
- Censum Academy
- Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct, Rule 5.3: Responsibilities Regarding Nonlawyer Assistance (Illinois Supreme Court)
- Cook County Board of Review Official Rules, last updated July 27, 2026; Rules 2 and 9
- Cook County Board of Review Dates and Deadlines, 2026 Session
- Censum tabulation of the Cook County Board of Review Appeal Decision History dataset (Cook County open data), accessed November 7, 2026; PIN-level decisions; dataset last updated June 9, 2026.
Next step
Have your team take the placement check before the next window opens, then put the evidence tracker and the authorization check in front of every finalize click. Start Censum Academy free
Censum LLC is independent and not affiliated with Cook County or any government agency.