Kendall County sets up legal assistance website
By Steve Lord slord@stmedianetwork.com August 2, 2012 3:24PM
Updated: September 8, 2012 6:04AM
Kendall County residents with a legal question now have a place to go before putting a lawyer on the clock.
The county has begun a Web-based self-help program that will allow citizens who need legal assistance to access information online.
The Kendall County Legal Self-Help Center system provides “accurate legal information on dozens of topics including mortgage foreclosure, divorce, evictions and domestic violence,” according to Kendall court officials.
“It’s not a substitute for a lawyer,” said Judge Timothy McCann, Kendall’s chief judge. “But it is accurate legal information.”
McCann said the online site — kendall.illinoislegalaid.org — will not tell someone, for instance, if they should file to amend child support. But it will explain how to do that — what forms and documents are necessary.
McCann called the service “cool — very user friendly.” It is geared more toward civil law, but there will be some criminal law information, too.
The service is funded through an $8,000 grant from the Illinois Coalition for Equal Justice. It will be run through the public access computer at the Kendall Courthouse Law Library and through public libraries in Montgomery, Newark, Oswego, Plano and Yorkville.
McCann said Kendall officials chose to give the grant money to the libraries to establish links to the legal website, and train employees to assist people who come into the libraries to use the system.
People can access the site themselves at home by going to kendall.illinoislegalaid.org.
