Pro bono anywhere

With ILAO’s Virtual Advice Clinic, lawyers can provide meaningful pro bono advice from their living rooms.

A new interactive website is helping meet the critical need in Illinois for civil legal advice to lower-income communities, and providing opportunities for Illinois lawyers to complete pro bono work from home.

Many lower-income residents of Illinois find the civil legal system frightening, confusing, and nearly impossible to navigate without a lawyer. However, legal aid organizations in Illinois have trouble meeting the demand for civil legal advice. Often, residents are choosing to live with long-term legal problems like unresolved custody issues, landlord tenant disputes, and collection actions because they have no access to basic free legal advice.

In order to address this pressing need, Illinois Legal Aid Online (ILAO), the Illinois Bar Foundation, and the American Bar Association launched IL.freelegalanswers.org (Legal Answers). Now celebrating its first anniversary, Legal Answers has a growing volunteer base and has already served over 2,000 Illinois residents.

Legal Answers is part of a nationwide ABA pro bono initiative to increase access to justice through technology. Legal Answers is designed to work like a virtual walk-in legal clinic. Qualified lower income clients post their civil legal questions to an easy-to-use, secure website. Volunteer lawyers log in to the same website, select questions to answer, and provide information and basic legal advice on a one-to-one basis. Questions and answers are always private and can be answered by lawyers on an anonymous basis.

Legal Answers has proven to be mutually beneficial for both clients and volunteer lawyers who help them. After receiving legal advice specific to their case or issue, people are better equipped to resolve their issues on their own. For lawyers, Legal Answers is a convenient, low risk, and short term commitment. Because it’s virtual, lawyers can provide advice during lunch at a desk, late at night on the sofa, or on a train ride home. Limited scope representation means that it is a short term engagement without court appearances or petition/motion filing. Lawyers can remain anonymous to clients and malpractice insurance is provided.

Legal Answers’ 100+ volunteers are from all parts of Illinois and span all ages from newly licensed attorneys to retirees. The website’s largest volume of questions are in the areas of family law, housing issues, and consumer debt problems, but there are also opportunities to assist clients with questions about probate, work issues, public benefits, and personal injury. ILAO provides ongoing training and support to all its volunteers.

The Illinois site of Legal Answers is managed by ILAO. ILAO already has a popular website which puts the law within reach for everyone with a legal problem in Illinois. IllinoisLegalAid.org, with over a million visitors each year, gives people access to user-friendly online legal information and services, regardless of their location, income, and education. Legal Answers expands ILAO’s work even farther by connecting low-income clients directly to lawyers.

For more information and to learn how to volunteer, visit bit.ly/ILAOvolunteer. 