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throughout the state. Due to a technical
problem identified after the original ver-
sion of the Access to Justice Act had been
signed into law, the implementation of this
pilot program was on hold.
One of the CBA and CBF’s main advo-
cacy priorities this year was to help pass a
legislative fix for this technical problem
so the pilot program could proceed. With
the leadership of Representatives Emily
McAsey and Al Riley and Senator Kwame
Raoul, the bill to provide that technical fix,
HB 3933, passed the House and Senate by
unanimous votes and was signed into law
by Governor Rauner in August. The pilot
program will be designed, evaluated and
overseen by a special statutorily created
council that will operate under the auspices
of the Illinois Equal Justice Foundation
(IEJF). The five-year program will be
funded by a temporary $2 add-on to civil
filing fees that will sunset at the conclusion
of the pilot program in 2020.
This innovative new program already
has been touted as a potential national
model for providing critical legal services to
the men and women who have served our
country. By providing this much-needed
legal help for thousands of people in need,
the new program will make the justice
system in Illinois more fair, accessible and
efficient for all Illinoisans.
Civics Education Bill
In 2014, the Illinois Task Force on Civic
Education, established by the legislature
to study the status of civic education in
our state and make recommendations on
how to improve it, found a strong need
to strengthen civic education in Illinois.
At that time, Illinois was one of just 10
states in the country that did not require
a civics or government course to graduate
from high school.
HB 4025 grew out of these efforts, and
strengthens civics education in Illinois and
promotes greater civic learning through a
required civics course for all Illinois high
school students. The CBF made support-
ing this bill one of our advocacy priorities
this year because it will promote greater
understanding of the role and functioning
of the justice system in our democracy,
an important component of the CBF’s
broader efforts to make the legal system
more fair and accessible for people in need.
The Illinois Civic Mission Coalition played
the lead role in this legislative effort, and
the CBF was one of dozens of organiza-
tions to support the bill. The bill passed
the House and Senate with overwhelming
bipartisan support and was signed into
law by Governor Rauner last month.
Beginning in the Fall of 2016, a semester
of hands-on civics education will be part
of the required core curriculum for high
school graduation in Illinois.
These bills are just two examples of the
impact you can make both individually
and through the CBF in the policy advo-
cacy process. It is easy to get involved and
our leadership as a legal community in
advocating on these issues has never been
more important.
Representatives from the CBF, CBA, ABA and ISBA meet with Sen. Durbin and Sen. Mark Kirk to advocate on access to justice issues
at the annual ABA Day in Washington.
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SEPTEMBER 2015