CBA Record

Chicago Bar Foundation Report

The Circuit Court’s Resource Center for People Without Lawyers Turns Three They Can Help You Right Next to the Starbucks By Kelly Tautges CBF Director of Pro Bono & Court Advocacy

“I am writing this letter today to praise one of your employees…” begins a letter thanking CARPLS for excellent legal advice at the Municipal Court Advice Desk and highlighting the especially kind and supportive service received from an Illinois JusticeCorps member as part of the process. This court patron’s letter highlights the unique and important services being provided in The Circuit Court of Cook County Resource Center for People with- out Lawyers in the concourse level of the Daley Center, which indeed is right next to the Starbucks there. The Resource Center, and the critical help it provides, is now so firmly estab- lished in the court’s ecosystem that it is hard to believe it has only been open for three years. Fully operational as of April 2014, the Center is a partnership between the CBF, the Circuit Court, and two legal aid organizations: CARPLS and the Chi- cago Legal Clinic (CLC). There are three major legal advice desks in the Center—the Municipal Court Advice Desk, the Chan- cery Court Advice Desk and the Domestic Relations Advice Desk. These three desks are managed and staffed by lawyers from CARPLS and CLC. Illinois JusticeCorps plays a central role as well. JusticeCorps volunteers have helped more than 160,000 people, and attorneys at the advice desks have provided

People without lawyers receive help at the Circuit Court of Cook County Resource Center. JusticeCorps volunteers (right) check people inoutside the Center andprovide the navigational help, and help desk staff serve clients inside (above).

JusticeCorps volunteers, who mainly are undergraduate students and recent graduates, act as docents and provide other procedural and navigational assistance to people without lawyers. The CBF first launched Illinois JusticeCorps as a pilot in 2009 and continues to manage the program in Cook County. JusticeCorps later was expanded to other parts of the state as well, and the other partners in the program’s statewide operations include

advice and assistance in more than 37,000 cases since the Center opened.

JusticeCorps Volunteers Get People Where They Need to Go

One of the many advantages in the Resource Center for both court patrons and the advice desks is the presence of Illinois JusticeCorps, an innovative AmeriCorps program that is dedicated to making the courthouse more welcoming and less intimidating for people without lawyers.

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18 APRIL/MAY 2017