December Newsletter: Reflection

Hotline Number 312-738-9200

December 2018:

Reflection

Deck The Halls With End Of Year Giving

A single parent seeks child support, a veteran obtains health benefits, an unemployed citizen keeps their home, or a senior fights credit fraud — these are only a few of the legal issues we see every day. For those who cannot afford a lawyer, fair access to the justice system seems impossible.

Our 25 years of experience as a national leader has shown that without legal help, people often make uninformed decisions that have life-changing implications. A simple attorney consultation can resolve most legal problems at very low cost, preventing minor problems from escalating into greater harms that impact families, homes, and livelihoods.

Our vision , One Justice Chicago , is to make Chicago the first city in the nation to provide anyone with a legal problem access to an attorney.

We need your increased investment to grow our operations and help more clients. Your donation matters — $.85 of every dollar raised goes directly back into client services. Help us in making our vision come true.

Make A Donation

For donation or questions, contact Tanya Pietrkowski , Director of Development

For volunteer opportunities, contact

Leslie Wallin .

Illinois To Celebrate 200 Years By Honoring Veterans

One of the most important Illinois Bicentennial projects is Honor 200. In partnership with the Department of Veteran's Affairs, they are honoring 200 Veterans across Illinois who have gone "above and beyond in serving their fellow veterans and communities."

The 200 award recipients will be recognized and included as part of the official bicentennial celebration, and they will be invited to attend –and will be saluted at– Illinois' 200th Birthday Party at Navy Pier in Chicago on December 3, 2018.

Lucas Park, a staff attorney at Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance Foundation, said it's important that Illinois is giving thanks to people who do work behind the scenes. "Most of the people I know are veterans giving back to the community in some way. There was a veteran in my unit who lost fingers. When he got out, he helped take disabled veterans to Kilimanjaro because he wanted them to understand they were still of use to the community. One of the big reasons for joining the military is service. When you get out, you try to find a way to keep serving. Helping other people allows you to help yourself."

Ed Farmer Named to the Illinois

Bicentennial Honor 200 Veterans

"I couldn't think of anyone better."

The impressive Honor 200 list includes veteran attorney Ed Farmer, who writes the informational content used by attorneys on IL-AFLAN 's hotline. He also runs a law office for veterans.

Lucas Park said Ed is extremely deserving of this honor. "I met him around 2012 when I was starting to build a series of veterans projects and went to him for advice. In 2015, I lost funding for one of my projects and Ed sat me down and said, 'here's how you get funding.' He has spent the last seven or eight years that I've known him fighting for people. I couldn't think of anyone better."

"It's a great honor," said Ed. "Some prominent veterans are getting the award as well. Alan Lynch, who is a Medal of Honor winner, and Jennifer Pritzker are receiving it. I was shocked. I was nominated by a friend of mine who sent in a packet."

Ed said while he is excited to be receiving this honor, we need to promote IL-AFLAN more.

"I would like to see the number of callers increase. I know there are veterans out there that need our help, but they just don’t know about us yet.

My plan going forward is to create a legal blog that has some self-help articles on it for vets. I want them to be able to read legal resources, VA claims, establishing a veteran-owned business, or whatever it may be."

How Veteran Ed Farmer Found His Passion

As told to CARPLS

I went into law with the purpose of helping other veterans. When I came home from Iraq, I had some injuries and struggled with my own VA claim. I went through the appeals process, and I thought, well, I’m a pretty well-educated person, and there are probably these other vets that are suffering from PTSD or a traumatic brain injury. If I’m struggling through the process, they must be too.

I knew I was going to go to law school, but I didn’t really know what I was going to do. I learned there was an area of law for veterans disability appeals, and I thought that was a perfect fit.

A lot of these guys are disabled and waiting years for the VA to come back with their claims, so once you finally win that claim for them it changes their whole life.

My favorite story is from a World War II veteran, who waited until he was 91 to apply for benefits. He felt as if he didn’t deserve it. It’s common for that generation. We helped him out, and he got a 100% disability.

CARPLS Client Story

Were They Smarter Than A Lawyer?

At our trivia event "Are You Smarter Than A Lawyer," international law firm Faegre Baker Daniels' "Ask and Answered" team won the top prize!

Our Beer Stein contest brought out host Brendan Greeley, fierce competition, and some hilarious faces.

CARPLS Supports Our Veterans Through IL-AFLAN

Some of the IL-AFLAN staff (Kenny Bahena, Amanda Kelly, Ian Turnipseed, Mary Jo Rosso, Dennis Trainor, and Steve Prout)

Save The Date

2019 Golden Gavel Celebration

May 9, 2019

5:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m.

From Our Feed

More than 100 civil liberties, human rights & privacy organizations demand end to info-sharing on asylum-seeking children Read the article.

A study argues Philadelphia could save $45 million a year by investing $3.5 million to provide legal counsel to low-income tenants facing eviction. Read the article .