The Chicago Bar Foundation has released a new Report, Legal Aid in Cook County
A Report on Basic Trends in Need, Service and Funding.
Lots of interesting stuff, but I want particularly to highlight these stats on the percentage of legal aid cases that are brief services (and these numbers exclude the CARLPS, with its Hotline. Many of us think of brief services as the exception, but really they are the norm. We need to talk about the policy implications. This graphic is from page 19:
The Report also cites to the very useful Evaluating the Effectiveness of Services
to Self‐Represented Litigants: A Report to the Illinois Equal Justice Foundation (2009).
I would encourage folks to read this, if only for the survey questions that are used — lets start to get some standardization on these questions, so we can compare innovations!
Key Findings in Brief:
Web‐Based Services
• Many users of the web‐based assistance in court houses and libraries have
extremely low reading levels and very limited technical ability to move through
the legal services website on their own.
• IEJF pays for “navigators” who help the web users access the information. These
navigators are essential to the viability of the service.
• Current capacity of navigators is fairly adequate, but increased use of the
websites will cause stress on the system; navigators often spend about 45
minutes with each user, and this limits the number of persons they can help.
• In a survey of web users there were 271 responses to questions. The average
score for the user‐friendliness and satisfaction of the website service was 4.0 of
5.0. This score amounts to the service being “very” user friendly and satisfying.
Attorney Services
• The attorney advice is extremely helpful and on target in terms of being focused
on areas of law that have the greatest demand and being provided in a way that
meets users’ needs.
• Users of the attorney assistance appear to have a higher degree of satisfaction
with it than with the web‐based assistance.
• Attorney assistance can be limited by high demand; some persons in need are
not able to see an attorney on the day they arrive at the courthouse.
• In a survey of the users of attorney assistance there were 255 responses to
questions. The average score for the user‐friendliness and satisfaction of the
attorney service was 4.6 of 5.0. This score amounts to the service being close to
“extremely” user friendly and satisfying.
Richard Zorza's Access to Justice Blog 
http://lee.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=57&parentid=35§iontree=35,57&itemid=2224
“It’s widely acknowledged that communities of color throughout the nation suffer disproportionately from higher cancer rates,” Congresswoman Lee said
Lets borrow a page from the fight for Cancer.
$100 Million Dollars are going to support highly innovative partnerships among academic institutions, community organizations, and community-serving healthcare providers. This is a step that is well taken and is commendable!
Can DOJ or the equivalent of the National Science Foundation for Legal Services (if it exists and whoever that may be) allocate a meaningful amount of resources to support innovative partnerships to fight against the disparities in legal care for communities of color and Limited English Proficient Communities? In other words, take that to “a new level” and take steps to eliminate disparities by working in partnership with and through communities to address their chronic lack of access to the legal services delivery system including legal aid and non profits, pro bono services, and courts?
Food for thought.