On March 30th, the Eighteenth Judicial Circuit Pro Bono Committee co-sponsored a volunteer program at Northern Illinois University College of Law. Attorneys and law students gathered to answer legal questions on Illinois Legal Aid Online’s Legal Answers website.
Legal Answers is a secure website (IL.freelegalanswers.org) where lower income Illinois residents can ask a lawyer for help with a legal issue. Qualified users post questions about civil legal problems. Volunteer lawyers then log onto the site and select questions to answer. It’s like a virtual walk-in legal clinic.
During this program, which was co-sponsored by PILI’s Eighteenth Judicial Circuit Pro Bono Committee, an ILAO attorney provided training on how to answer questions and then law students researched and drafted answers to family and housing law questions. The attorneys then checked their work and the answers were submitted.
Nine students and three attorneys volunteered at the program and worked on answering questions. Attorneys can volunteer at any time by logging onto Free Legal Answers and picking questions to answer.
This program was also co-sponsored by the American Bar Association, DuPage County Bar Association Public Interest and Education Commission, Illinois Legal Aid Online and Northern Illinois University College of Law.
Learn more about the Eighteenth Judicial Circuit Pro Bono Committee »