STEP FORWARD - Shriver Center

By Richard P. Weishaupt, Guest Blogger 

What would a blog on ethics and legal aid discuss? While some might argue tongue in cheek that the terms are an oxymoron, most legal aid lawyers and other advocates are very concerned about being ethical in both the professional and the moral sense. This blog aims to be a practical guide to the Rules of Professional Responsibility and a forum for discussion of some of the more difficult problems that legal aid lawyers face. Too often the ethics training we experience as part of our continuing legal education requirements is geared to a practice that bears little resemblance to our day-to-day challenges. (This blog appears as a column in Clearinghouse Review: Journal of Poverty Law and Policy, published by the Shriver Center.) (more…)

By John Bouman, President

Nine years ago, Chicagoan Mark Emerson left his job with a large company that offered group health coverage to pursue the American dream and start his own business. He did not know that this would begin his ordeal of what he now calls “being charged back into the stone age” as a customer of the private health insurance market. Mark and his wife pay more in health care costs than they do on their mortgage payments and real estate taxes. Ironically, Mark and his wife are healthy people, but their health insurance costs still have escalated. Though he has reached the point where he can no longer afford his premiums, Mark is unwilling to drop coverage and face the potential nightmare of going without insurance. He feels stuck, and help is nowhere to be found. (more…)

By Sam Tuttle, Housing Staff Attorney

Increasingly, homeowners across the country are facing the loss of their homes not simply through foreclosure but because they cannot keep up with their property taxes. 

As in many states, Illinois homeowners who are delinquent in their taxes may lose possession of their homes to private parties who pay the homeowners’ delinquent taxes, rather than paying the market value. The private party, or tax purchaser, then takes ownership, irrespective of the years the homeowner may have been making payments on the home. Consequently, homeowners who owed less than $1,000 in unpaid taxes have lost their homes due to a tax delinquency, even though the equity in their homes was 30 or 40 times that.  (more…)

By Ilze Hirsh, Vice President of Communication Programs

The feasibility of loan modification, attacking foreclosure rescue fraud, report cards grading attorneys general, and the targeting of certain neighborhoods and language groups were just a few of the topics on the table during a Shriver Center-hosted conference call on the foreclosure crisis. On June 16, advocates from legal aid programs in more than half the states and from several national organizations described successes and frustrations and picked each other’s brains for new ideas during the call, which was convened by Clearinghouse Review legal editors. When the call was announced the response was immediate and overwhelming; in the end fewer than half of those who expressed interest could be accommodated. (more…)

By Margaret Stapleton, Senior Attorney

Backstory: In February, the Financial Times and then the New York Times reported on research showing that “poverty in early childhood poisons the brain” leading to lifelong impairments. Last month, the New York Times reported on the correlation between poverty and problems with education. Poverty causes families to move; thus their children change schools frequently. This disrupts not only their children’s education but also the education of all the other children in the school. This is bad news for all the children and for the schools struggling to meet federal No Child Left Behind expectations. (more…)

By John Bouman, President

A survey published in last week’s Crain’s Chicago Business documents the fact that many Chicago-area working families with income close to twice the poverty level have trouble buying food and regularly go hungry. Working hard all day does not get them what they need, especially with the escalating costs of gas, utilities, and rent. (more…)

By Marie Claire Tran, Loyola Fellow

Governors possess one of the most important yet grossly underused tools available to help people who have criminal conviction records and want to rehabilitate themselves-the power to pardon. Usually associated with political insiders, the power to pardon should be more frequently invoked to provide relief to people with criminal records for whom remedies such as expungement and sealing are not available. (more…)

By Martin Stainthorp, Communication Programs Associate

Every year millions in the United States are forced to navigate through serious civil legal disputes on their own, without the help of a lawyer. The consequences can be severe-eviction, loss of child custody, deportation, among others. But many-unable to afford an attorney or obtain free legal services, and with no right to have an attorney appointed-have no choice but to represent themselves. (more…)

By Kelly E. Slay, Asset Building Specialist

While Bank of America was making plans to finalize its pending acquisition of Countrywide Financial Corp., Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan was making a plan of her own. On Wednesday, Madigan filed a civil lawsuit alleging Countrywide’s violation of the state’s consumer protection statutes-relaxing underwriting standards, structuring loans with risky and defective features, and intentionally misleading consumers are just a few of the claims against Countrywide and its chief executive, Angelo R. Mozilo.  The Shriver Center has been actively voicing concerns over Bank of America’s acquisition of Countrywide, including writing letters to legislators and discussing with federal regulators during the 2008 National Community Reinvestment Coalition Conference in Washington, D.C. California followed the lead of several advocates and the State of Illinois by filing a similar lawsuit of its own. (more…)

By Brian Clappier, Community Investment Specialist

Tough times often bring out the best of people, but, with the latest surge of economic gloom, optimism can be difficult. Today’s cutthroat, globalized economy is undoubtedly challenging to American workers, but it has also compelled a novel partnership between employers and employees that addresses the need for new skills and knowledge. The Shriver Center supports and promotes Lifelong Learning Accounts (LiLAs) as a step to help the nation’s workforce keep pace with an evolving job market. This innovative program creates portable, universal, voluntary, employer-matched, employee-owned individual educational accounts used for training and educational purposes. (more…)