3-113.Direct review of administrative orders by the appellate court.

Subsection (a) sets the deadline for this alternate review track: unless another time is provided specifically by the law authorizing the review, an action for direct review of a final agency decision by the appellate court has to be commenced by filing a petition for review within 35 days from the date a copy of the decision was served on the affected party. Where the governing act doesn't specify a method of service, the decision is deemed served either on personal delivery or on deposit in the mail, in a sealed, postage-prepaid envelope, addressed to the party's last known residence or place of business.

Subsection (b) sets what the petition must do: specify the parties seeking review, and designate the respondent and the order or part of it being reviewed. The administrative agency and every other person who was a party of record before the agency, other than the petitioner, must be made respondents, with the same default service-of-decision rules and Supreme Court summons-form rules that apply elsewhere in this Article. If the court determines during the case that a required agency or party of record wasn't made a respondent, it grants 35 days from that determination to name and serve the missing party, who can then participate to the extent the interests of justice require.

Subsection (c) notes that the changes made by the 95th General Assembly's amendatory act apply to all actions filed on or after that act's effective date. This direct-review track exists alongside, not instead of, circuit court review under Sections 3-102 through 3-112 — it applies only where the law authorizing review for the particular agency provides for this appellate route.