Working closely with the CBA and a number of national, state and local partners, the CBF's legislative and policy advocacy is primarily focused on the federal, state, and county levels of government. A few representative examples of the impact of these efforts in recent years include:
The Illinois Equal Justice Act (30 ILCS 765/1)
State government has an integral role to play in ensuring access to justice, and the primary vehicle for the state to fulfill this responsibility is the Illinois Equal Justice Foundation (IEJF). The CBA and CBF have been a principal force in these advocacy efforts from the start, playing a lead role in passing the Illinois Equal Justice Act in 1999 and in the subsequent effort to secure funding for IEJF.
The Illinois Equal Justice Act created the IEJF, a statewide foundation that distributes funds for legal information centers, regional legal services hotlines, alternate dispute resolution centers, self help desks and legal aid providers.
The CBA and CBF are also founding partners in the Equal Justice Illinois Campaign, a broad-based effort to educate our elected officials about the importance of adequately funding IEJF.
Funding from Residual Funds in Class Action Cases (735 ILCS 5/2-807)
The Chicago Bar Foundation played the lead role in advocacy efforts that resulted in the development and passage of a new law that ensures that, to the extent practicable, residual funds in class action cases in the Illinois courts are distributed to organizations that improve access to justice for low-income Illinois residents. Examples of the successful projects that have been recently funded through residual fund distributions include a number of court-based help desks that provide advice and limited legal assistance to unrepresented litigants and several innovative court-based pro bono projects.
The College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007 (20 U.S.C. 1001 et seq)
The CBA and CBF partnered with the American Bar Association, Equal Justice Works, and a number of other organizations from around the country in a successful multi-year advocacy effort that led to passage of the College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007 (CCRAA). The CCRAA does two important things to help legal aid and public services lawyers: (1) it significantly lowers monthly student loan payments by creating an income-based repayment plan option and (2) it provides loan forgiveness for those who make longer-term commitments to these careers by canceling their remaining federal educational debt after ten years of income-based repayment. This program will make it significantly easier for newer lawyers, and particularly future law school graduates, to pursue careers in legal aid and public service.
