News Tag: Access to Justice Commission

August 14, 2020

Supreme Court Rule 139: New Eviction Rule Benefits Tenants, Landlords, and Courts

Imagine being asked to go to court to defend yourself, but without knowing exactly what you are defending yourself against. This situation was all too common for many tenants in Illinois until the recent adoption of Illinois Supreme Court Rule 139. Rule 139 now requires plaintiff landlords to attach a copy of the eviction termination notice and any relevant lease provisions…

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November 30, 2018

It was 6 ½ Years Ago Today…

Granted, that is not as catchy as the Beatles’ lyrics in Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. But in access to justice circles, it was a pretty big deal.

It was June 13, 2012, to be exact, when the Illinois Supreme Court entered the order creating the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Access to Justice, and […]

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September 13, 2018

Helping Ensure It’s Substance Over Form in the Courts

Forms go along with the court process like peanut butter goes with jelly. And when it comes to access to justice, well-designed court forms can be a welcoming and helpful resource for people without lawyers, or forms can be a huge barrier when they are complicated and full of legalese.

Prior to 2012, people in Illinois […]

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August 30, 2018

Expanding Practices and Access through Limited Scope

Across the country, the civil justice system is undergoing a transformation. More and more litigants are appearing in court without lawyers, making up well over half of the civil litigants in Illinois and closer to 75% nationally. Self-representation is no longer limited to the poorest users of the court system; growing numbers of middle-class people […]

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February 8, 2017

Have Opinions about Pro Bono?

The Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Access to Justice wants to hear from you on the pro bono survey they recently sent to all Illinois lawyers. The CBF is cosponsoring the survey with the Commission, the Illinois Bar Foundation, and the Public Interest Law Initiative. This survey is part of a national effort led by […]

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January 24, 2017

Our Language Problem

If You See Something, Do Something!

As lawyers trained to worship at the altar of precedent, there are all kinds of bad habits we can pick up without even thinking about them. There of course are many legal principles we continue to follow today because they are critical underpinnings of our society that rightly have stood the test of time the rule of law and the fundamentals of our Constitution, for example. There unfortunately also is a lot of legal terminology and procedure that we continue to use today for a very different reason: because it is just the way we always have done it. And breaking out of that default pattern is one of the easiest steps we all can take right now to improve access to justice.

I got a great lesson on this early in my legal career.

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August 11, 2015

Signed into Law! Groundbreaking Veterans Legal Program Will Move Forward

Veterans and military families in Illinois will have much greater access to necessary legal help after key amendments to the Access to Justice Act were signed into law by Governor Rauner last week.

The Access to Justice Act, originally passed in 2013, created a pilot program to develop and support a much-needed hotline and network of […]

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