Page Updated: January 23, 2003

Prairie State in the News

News and Articles About Prairie State
and Legal Services

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 Rock Island Office in the News (March 3, 2006)

Prairie State has a new Executive Director (January 11, 2006)

State Farm Insurance and Prairie State Legal Services Honored for Corporate Pro Bono Project (Feb 26, 2004)

Getting Your Voice Heard (Aug 18, 2003)

State Supports Limited Legal Help (May 19, 2003)

Self-defenders Get a Friend of Court (Mar 9, 2003)

Domestic Violence Symposium March 24, PSLS co-sponsors (Mar 6, 2003)

Equal Justice Foundation Grants 2003 (Jan 9, 2003)

Access to Legal Aid Lowers Domestic Abuse (Jan 8, 2003)

Legal Services Role in the Decline in Domestic Violence (Dec 6, 2002)

Open Letter to KCBA Members (Dec 6, 2002)

Prairie State Rated as a 4-Star Charity (Nov 27, 2002)

Fund Cutbacks Shrink Legal Help for Poor (Nov. 20, 2002)

Volunteer Attorney Assists People in Need (Nov 9, 2002)

Prairie State Legal Services is There When You Need Them (Nov 2002)

Hesed House provides legal help (Oct. 14, 2002)

You Have Rights When Your Landlord Decides to Evict (Oct. 10, 2002)

Justice Kilbride Addresses 25th Anniversary Luncheon: Announces New Funding (Oct. 8, 2002)

Annual Fee to Rise $49; Legal Aid Gets Boost (Oct. 4, 2002)

Prairie State Helps Custodial Grandparents Face Hard Road (Sept. 29, 2002)

Legal Services Funds May be Cut (Sept. 8, 2002)

State Funding for Legal Aid Continued in FY 2003 (Aug. 14, 2002)

Free Legal Service on the Wane (Aug. 30, 2002)

Drop in Indigent 'Bad News' For Legal Aid Funding Here (July 30, 2002)

Franks Makes Legal Services to Disabled Possible In McHenry County (Apl. 2, 2002)

Drop in Indigent 'Bad News' For Legal Aid Funding Here

John N. Erlenborn, president of Legal Services Corp., told an audience of more than 200 legal aid attorneys and paralegals on Monday that recently released U.S. Census figures will lead to a cut of almost $1 million in federal funding for state agencies that provide legal services to the poor.

"First, the good news: There are roughly 35,000 fewer poor people in Illinois than there were in 1990, so the state's poverty population has decreased," Erlenborn said.

"Now the bad news: Illinois will lose more than $920,000 in federal funding next year." Based in Washington, D.C., the LSC is the entity that disburses federal money for legal aid and it must readjust its allocations every 10 years based on each state's poverty population.

"Only four states will suffer greater funding losses than Illinois as a result of the census reallocations," Erlenborn said during the Statewide Legal Services Advocates Conference in Chicago.

Erlenborn, who was born and raised in Illinois and served 10 terms as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from DuPage County, said he flew here from Washington just to attend the event, which is the first of such statewide conferences in 13 years. "As everyone here knows, legal services in Illinois were drastically under- funded to begin with -- serving only a fraction of those in need," he said. "That is why it is difficult to return home today with bad news -- bad news I'm afraid that none of us could have prevented.

" Last year, LSC gave Illinois almost $12 million -- or a third of the money going to the state's legal aid programs -- to fund the Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago, Rockford-based Prairie State Legal Services and the Alton-based Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance Foundation.

That figure far outstrips governmental funds that come from within Illinois. In fact, said Erlenborn, of the nation's 10 most populous states, Illinois ranks last in state funding for legal services.

Illinois legal aid agencies receive about $500,000 a year in funds allocated by the state legislature. More than $3 million is derived from revenues generated by the state's Interest on Lawyers Trust Account program, which the Illinois Supreme Court created in 1983.

In June, the Lawyers Trust Fund of Illinois, which manages the IOLTA revenues, announced its annual round of grants, but warned the 32 public interest agencies sharing the money that a slumbering economy could soon force reductions in funds.

The average interest rate paid on IOLTA accounts has been cut in half, and at many of the largest banks holding those accounts, interest rates have dropped below 1 percent. "The census cuts, combined with projected losses of millions in state IOLTA income, leave Illinois facing a funding crisis," Erlenborn said. "If left unaddressed, these revenue losses will take a dangerous toll on the ability of this state to ensure access to the justice system for the poor -- this would be a travesty."

Illinois Supreme Court Justice Thomas L. Kilbride, who started his legal career in 1981 at Prairie State's Rock Island office, said in a keynote address at the conference that he will continue to support the high court's plan to hike attorney registration fees by $42 to cover the shortfall in IOLTA interest income.

The high court proposed the plan during the spring legislative session to raise the base fees for active attorneys from $180 to $222, which would generate roughly $2.4 million for legal aid agencies.

"Don't leave your jobs -- it's going to get better," Kilbride told the legal aid attorneys. "We're in the process of working that deal out to add to the pot that the legislature has already started."

Chief Justice Moses W. Harrison II championed the proposal, and Justice Mary Ann G. McMorrow, who will succeed Harrison as chief justice, said in June that she expects to have support from the rest of the high court.

The proposal was stalled in the General Assembly, but observers have noted that the high court could raise the fees without legislative approval. After his address, Kilbride said the legislature need only approve a "vehicle for disbursing the funds."

"I think we are going to look at a lot of options," Kilbride said. "We'll face the issue [of disbursing funds] when the time comes."

When McMorrow becomes chief justice, Kilbride said he will assume her position as the Supreme Court's liaison to the Lawyers Trust Fund. He said he looks forward to getting "back in the loop" with legal aid advocates, including LTF Executive Director Ruth Ann Schmitt.

"I've been given the nod to move up to that position," Kilbride said. "I'll have the honor of working with Ruth Ann Schmitt, and I'm looking forward to that."

Shortly before Kilbride addressed the conference, Schmitt received an award in recognition of her "vision, courage and extraordinary service" in the legal aid community. "I promise that we will continue to work very hard ... to see that legal services has the funding it deserves," Schmitt said

Link to Speech by John N. Erlenborn, president of Legal Services Corp.

Copyright 2002 Prairie State Legal Services, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED