After months of working closely with us on COVID HELP Illinois, Hanna Kaufman, who is the Counsel for Innovation & Technology at the Lawyers Trust Fund of Illinois (LTF), talked to us about LTF’s state of mind and what she sees as the future of legal aid.
LTF is the largest state-level funder of civil legal aid for the low-income in Illinois. Established as a nonprofit foundation in 1983, LTF makes grants from revenue generated by the Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Accounts (IOLTA) program as well as a legal aid fee assessed on Illinois lawyers as part of the annual attorney registration process. LTF is the only IOLTA fund in the country with an Innovation & Technology Counsel to our knowledge.
COVID HELP (Housing and Economic Loss Prevention) was created by CARPLS and a consortium of other legal aid organizations, through the funding of LTF, as a tsunami of legal troubles was about to hit Illinoisans. Due to the pandemic, low-income and newly impoverished Illinois families have to face life-altering difficulties related to housing, employment, income, debt and loss of a loved one. COVID HELP is a free virtual assistance tool for people in Illinois who are facing these problems because of COVID-19. It’s help available online, all day and every day.