In August, PILI celebrated the fifth anniversary since taking over the day-to-day operations of Illinois Free Legal Answers, including volunteer recruitment, management, training and support. The site was first launched in Illinois in 2017 with Illinois Legal Aid Online as the original state administrator. PILI transitioned into that role in 2019. In 2023, Illinois Free Legal Answers volunteers answered 3,565 civil legal questions to help those in need. Illinois also leads the nation with the most volunteers registered on the site. Since 2019 when PILI became the state administrator, 15,843 questions have been answered on the site.
A project of the American Bar Association first launched in 2016, Free Legal Answers is a secure website where lower-income individuals can ask a volunteer lawyer for help with a civil legal issue. Currently, the site is active in 41 states. Qualified users post questions securely on the site and then volunteers log onto the site and select questions to answer. Over 330,000 civil legal questions have been answered across the country since the launch of the ABA Free Legal Answers.
Illinois Free Legal Answers provides a way for attorneys to volunteer their time in the way that best fits their schedule. They can choose where and when to log in and which questions to answer. Volunteer attorneys who provide brief advice and counsel via the website are covered by professional liability insurance maintained by the ABA.
Since becoming the state administrator, PILI has also partnered with many law firms, corporations, bar associations and law schools in Illinois to host Illinois Free Legal Answers clinics for their volunteers. PILI provides training on how to use Illinois Free Legal Answers and can also provide a CLE program with Illinois MCLE credit for volunteers. If you are interested in hosting a clinic, please email us or learn more »
Thanks to Those Who Completed the 5 for 5 Pledge
To celebrate this milestone, we invited volunteers from across the state to take our 5 for 5 Pledge and commit to answers five civil legal questions from those in need of help through Illinois Free Legal Answers. Our special thanks to those listed below who answered five questions during this time, and our thanks to all of our volunteers from across Illinois who help those in need every day!
Akwei O Acquaye
Aly Audy
Reuben A Bernick
Christine M Bewley
Billie J Constant
Mark A Drummond
Rebecca A Fabian
Anthony Frank
Laura Gastel
Sara Ghadiri
Mitch Gilfillan
Matthew Gubernikoff
David Gui
Rich Haglund
Harold B Hilborn
Douglas C Johnson
Karen L Kapela
Jennifer Kincaid
Carson M Klarck
Benjamin Levine
Steven C Lindberg
Christopher Murphy
Barbara J O’Brien
Kyle A Peterson
Natanya Pope-Sohel
Maria R Rossi
Jonah O Roth
Maxwell Sharkey
Angelica Wawrzynek
David S Yen