Program areas at Illinois Legal Aid Online
To people lying awake at night, with nowhere to turn except their mobile, ilao offers a light in the night. Over half of those we serve come from their mobile phones, and between 5pm-9am or on weekends, when traditional Legal offices are closed. Ilao partners with illinoisans facing injustices by providing 24/7 free, accessible, plain-language Legal tools and direction, including self-help guides, interactive court forms, videos, and a real-time chat service. In fy24, 2 million illinoisansapproximately 15% of the states population sought illinoislegalaid.org for guidance and help with over 600 Legal issues, such as eviction, food insecurity, domestic abuse, criminal records, divorce, child support, deportation, discrimination, and debt. Our highest volume of services relates to family law, where people without lawyers most commonly experience our complex Legal system and where they are least likely to find a Legal Aid lawyer to help.
Ilao provides other important services, including interactive apps called easy forms. Similar to turbotax r, these apps help people without lawyers create free, personalized, accurate court forms and Legal papers using a simple question-and-answer format. In fy24, 40,362 clients customized over 90,000 free Legal documents, a 12% increase from fy23.
Ilaos community engagement extends and deepens the reach of its digital tools through partnerships with public libraries, workforce agencies, domestic violence victim advocates, Legal Aid, and human services. Ilao operates community-based navigator programs in spanish-speaking and incarceration-impacted neighborhoods in elgin, aurora, west chicago, east st. louis, decatur, and champaign-urbana. Navigators are local grassroots leaders trained to educate their communities about Legal rights. In fy24, 35 navigators reached 4,283 illinoisans, a 40% increase from fy23.