Under the Illinois speedy trial statute, 725 ILCS 5/103-5, the state has 120 days to bring you to trial if you are held in custody and 160 days from the date you file a written demand if you are on pretrial release. Those limits apply to misdemeanors and felonies alike. If the state misses the deadline and no recognized exception has paused the clock, the charges must be dismissed.
The 120-Day Rule for Defendants in Custody
If you are held in custody on a charge, the 120-day clock starts on the day you are taken into custody. You do not have to file anything to start it running.1Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Code 725 ILCS 5/103-5
There is a catch that trips up defendants who assume silence is enough. Any delay in the case is treated as agreed to by the defendant unless the defendant objects by making a written demand for trial or an oral demand on the record. Sitting quietly while the court continues the case repeatedly can forfeit the protection, because every continuance gets counted as a delay the defendant accepted.
The 120 days must also be one continuous stretch of incarceration. If you are released and later taken back into custody on the same offense, the count starts over at zero. Separate periods of jail time on the same charge cannot be added together.
The 160-Day Rule for Defendants on Pretrial Release
If you are not in custody, the clock does not start on its own. You must file a written demand for trial, and the 160 days run from the date of that filing.1Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Code 725 ILCS 5/103-5 No demand, no clock. A defendant who never files one has no statutory speedy trial protection to invoke.
If you were first held in custody and then released, you get credit toward the 160 days for any time already spent in custody after making a demand while locked up. But the demand itself does not automatically carry over. In People v. Garrett, the Illinois Supreme Court held that a demand made while in custody does not continue to run once the defendant is released; you must file a new written demand to start the 160-day period on the release side.2Justia. People v. Garrett Missing that filing is one of the easiest ways to lose the right.
Failing to appear in court also costs you the demand. If a defendant on pretrial release misses any court date, the demand is automatically waived. Getting the clock running again means filing a new demand and starting over.
What Pauses the Clock
The day count is not a straight countdown. Several categories of delay are excluded from the speedy trial calculation, and most speedy trial fights are really fights about which days count.
Delays You Cause
Any delay occasioned by the defendant tolls the clock. When the delay ends, the count picks up where it left off. Continuances requested by the defense, pretrial motions that require hearings, and motions for substitution of judge are the usual examples. Because your lawyer acts as your agent, a continuance your attorney requests is treated as defendant-caused delay even if you personally objected to it.
A special rule guards the end of the period. If a defendant-caused delay happens within the final 21 days of the deadline, the court can grant the state up to 21 additional days beyond the original period on the state’s application. The point is to stop a defendant from engineering a last-minute delay and then claiming the deadline has passed.
Fitness Proceedings
The clock is tolled during any examination for fitness to stand trial, during the fitness hearing, and during any adjudication of unfitness. A fitness examination ordered under Section 104-13 pauses the speedy trial term for the full duration of the process.
Interlocutory Appeals and Physical Incapacity
An interlocutory appeal by either side pauses the clock for as long as the appeal is pending. If the court finds you physically unable to participate in trial and grants a continuance under Section 114-4, that time is also excluded.
State Requests for More Time
The state can ask for an extension when it has been diligently pursuing material evidence but has not yet obtained it. If the court finds due diligence and reasonable grounds to believe the evidence can be secured, it can continue the case for up to 60 additional days, or up to 120 additional days when the evidence is DNA testing. These extensions require actual proof of effort, not a bare assertion that more time is needed.
Multiple Charges in the Same County
If several charges are pending against you in the same county at the same time, the state does not have to try every charge within the initial 120 or 160 days. It needs to try you on at least one of them before the original deadline runs. Once that first case ends in a verdict or guilty plea, the state gets an additional 160 days to try the remaining charges.1Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Code 725 ILCS 5/103-5 If the first trial ends without a verdict and no retrial follows within a reasonable time, that 160-day window runs from the date the first trial ended. Any remaining charges not tried within that window are dismissed and barred.
What Happens When the State Misses the Deadline
The remedy for a statutory violation is dismissal of the charges. The Illinois Supreme Court confirmed in People v. Wooddell that once the speedy trial period lapses, dismissal is required.3FindLaw. People v. Wooddell For charges that expire under the multiple-charge provision, the statute dismisses them “for want of prosecution” and bars refiling.
That bar matters. Without it, the state could drop a case the day before the deadline and refile the same charges with a fresh clock. Illinois courts have held that a voluntary dismissal cannot be used in bad faith to evade the statute. If the state drops charges primarily to reset the clock rather than for a legitimate reason, a court can treat refiled charges as still bound by the original timeline. Legitimate refilings are different: when a case is dismissed for an unrelated reason, such as a finding of no probable cause at a preliminary hearing, the speedy trial period starts fresh if the state later refiles. The question is whether the state acted in good faith.
How To Keep the Right From Slipping Away
Assert the right in writing. If you are in custody, the 120 days run on their own, but a written or on-the-record oral demand prevents the court from counting continuances as agreed-to delay. If you are on pretrial release, filing a written demand is the only way to start the 160 days. Waiting to file is functionally the same as waiving the right.
Watch every continuance. Each time your attorney requests one or files a motion that needs a hearing, those days typically fall out of the count. Sometimes that tradeoff is worth it for preparation. Sometimes it is not. If protecting the deadline matters to you, talk through each continuance with your lawyer before it is requested, and keep your own log of court dates, continuances, and who asked for them. When a speedy trial motion is argued, that record is often what decides which days count.
The Constitutional Right Is Separate
Beyond the statute, you also hold a constitutional right to a speedy trial under the Sixth Amendment and Article I, Section 8 of the Illinois Constitution.4Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Constitution – Article I The Illinois Supreme Court in People v. Ladd confirmed that defendants hold the statutory and constitutional rights independently.5Justia. People v. Ladd Constitutional claims are evaluated under the four-factor balancing test from Barker v. Wingo, which weighs the length of the delay, the reason for it, whether the defendant asserted the right, and prejudice to the defense.6Justia. Barker v. Wingo The constitutional claim usually matters most when the statutory clock was properly tolled but the overall delay has still become unreasonable.